5 Top Online Learning platforms That Offer Free Courses

There is no restriction to formal education any more. There are a ton of learning platforms online. You can now go to University right where you are on your device and be a life-long learner.

Whether you want to learn a completely new skill, acquire a completely different degree, or top up your knowledge on a subject, there is no limit to the number of free online courses that can give you a great head-start. In fact, there are so many choices that it can be difficult to figure out the right platform for your chosen endeavor.

So whether you are a career person, an independent business owner aka entrepreneur, a job seeker, student or even freelance; these five websites are the best platforms you cannot afford to ignore if you’re keen on acquiring the relevant skills of the 21st century.

Coursera

Coursera has partnered with leading universities (some Ivy League schools) around the world to provide online courses covering a wide range of subjects; everything from data science to family life.

There are over 2,500 paid and unpaid courses in over 182 fields. Coursera also has mobile apps to enable you learn at your own pace. They offer you a certificate at the completion of your chosen course. If you are looking to take courses from top universities around the world, you might want to check out Coursera.

Udemy

It is such an incredibly popular and valuable resource. You can search through over 55,000 courses in different fields including marketing, entrepreneurship, accounting and finance, sciences etc.

You can also download the app for quick lessons and study sessions when you are on the go. Udemy courses are not all free, but they start from as low as $10 (about 3,500 naira).

If you are an expert looking to create and launch a course of your own, you can also become an instructor with Udemy and take advantage of their massive user base to attract students.

Lynda

If you know LinkedIn, you should know Lynda (as the latter is owned by LinkedIn). It is a popular learning platform for professionals looking to acquire new skills in the field of creativity, marketing, business, finance and technology.

Courses fall under categories like animation, music, business, design, development, marketing communications, photography and many more.

When you sign up with Lynda, you get a 30-day free trial and then you will be charged a fee afterwards for basic or premium membership. If you ever want to deactivate your membership and then come back later, Lynda has a “reactivate” feature that restores all your account information including your course history and progress. Lovely isn’t it?

edX

Very similar to Coursera, edX offers access to higher education from over 90 of the world’s leading educational institutions including Harvard, MIT, Berkley, the University of Maryland, and others. It is founded and governed by colleges and universities. You are guaranteed to receive official credentials from the institution signed by the instructor to verify your achievements.

Codecademy

Previously backed by the White House, Codecademy is dedicated to teaching people how to code. Coding is something more people are really beginning to get involved in – and it is available for free.

While most online coding courses offer a “learn at your own pace” environment, Codecademy motivates learners to keep a fast pace using supportive groups and a game points system (brilliant right?).

It is an online freemium interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 12 different programming languages. These include Python, Java, Ruby, SQL, and Sass, as well as markup languages – HTML and CSS.

Students are often already building and deploying projects by the time they finish their course. It featured as no 1 on our list of places to learn coding here, check this out too.

Looking to learn anything new or improve on your current skill-set? These few sites are among the top established online learning environments that you can choose from to upgrade your skills and knowledge in these times and also encourage your employees (if you are a business owner) to do same. They would eventually profit your business and life in general.

The world is moving at a very fast pace and we all need to keep up pace with rapid changes. You’ve got to put in the hours. Would you?

Inspired by FirstGem.