10 Best Platforms for Free Online Courses

Online courses are the best way to enhance your competency and skills. The economy of world is based on knowledge. There is no better way than to enhance you skills and knowledge in rise in competitive job market. Also, if you are considering to apply for college/grad school, then to compete with excellent candidates around the globe and to stand out in front of evaluation committee, you must prove that you’re skillful and capable of taking onto a research career. Online courses and MOOCs are the best methods to help you win you dream scholarship. While staying at home during the Corona virus pandemic, you can spend you time through the online courses and can enhance your skills whether you are a student or a professional. If you wish to join graduate school, then there is no better way to enhance your competency than online course. We have compiled a list of 10 best platforms for online courses.

Without further adieu, here is a complete list of the best and free platforms to learning something online:

1. EdX

EdX stands for Education-X and is meant to be a virtual university for all sorts of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It much more than a single university and hundreds of universities have joined the platform since the inception of EdX in 2013. It was launched by MIT and Harvard and later many more universities joined. It offers hundreds of courses in almost all the imaginable disciplines ranging from biotechnology, machine learning to space science.

Courses on EdX can be completed at your own pace and a certificate can be earned at the end of the course after paying the fee. However, you can audit the course for free where all the online lectures and resources are made available free of cost. Only the certificate won’t be issued to the auditing participants. EdX is one of the best platforms for online courses and you must visit and join to learn what you are passionate about.

Besides providing one of the best platforms of online courses, EdX has also launched their course creation and management system openly. The platform is called OpenEdx and is available for developers and course creates to host it and create their customized MOOC academy. Many universities and companies have started using OpenEdX to host their online courses to complement the on-campus taught courses.

2. Coursera

Coursera was launched in 2009 and took the MOOCs with storm. It has grown into a huge platform for all kind of learns and have made it really easy for anyone with an internet connection to learn all the stuff they want. Another great feature of Coursera is that it heavily funds needy students and offer course completion certificates freely. All you have to do is to apply for financial aid when you enroll in a course. You’ll receive a coupon code to receive the certificate when you complete the course.

3. Udacity

Udacity is focused on computer science and information technology education. It started as a platform for online courses that would complement or even replace on-campus college courses but then it morphed into a skill-based MOOC platform. Now Udacity is on of the most prevailing platform for IT and computer science online education. Almost all of the courses are free to audit. However, you can pay for a certificate to pass and earn an official course completion certificate from Udacity.

Although not the best with respect to its cost, but the nano-degree course series of Udacity platform are really small degrees that can make master of a skill in by taking a series of courses.

4. MIT Open Courseware

MIT being one of the best technology institutes in the world decided to put all of it’s courses on an online platform called MIT Open Courseware. This is somewhat different from other MOOC platforms in a sense that there are no online teaching or self-paced course completion. Instead, all the material regarding a course can be downloaded offline at once and then one can go through his/her topics of choice.

Some courses also included video lectures recorded during an on-campus version of the same course. So, MIT Open Courseware is of the best platforms for online courses that it not only provides all the course material included assignments, lecture notes, course books, exams but also provided the virtual experience of a course as it was taught in the MIT.

5. Udemy

If you want low cost or even free courses on any topic you think about, then Udemy is the best place to find such a course. Udemy’s setting is a bit casual and like Skillshare it offers courses made by masses. People can signup as a tutor and make their video course for learners. Udemy teachers offer diverse skills ranging from academic courses to different software to social skills.

6. Khan Academy

Khan Academy was started by Salman Khan (an MIT graduate hailing from Bangladesh) back in 2008 as a non profit organization. It started when Sal Khan started teaching mathematics to someone from his family over online lectures. He then developed the platform and made it available through web 2.0 interface. Since then, millions have students have learned some basic science and mathematics concepts at Khan Academy.

Khan Academy offers short byte-sized video in organized courses to teach about various concepts. Since its humble start, Khan Academy has come a long way and is one of the best online learning platform that offers STEM education of every level.

7. Stanford Online Learning Platform

Stanford Online offers learning opportunities via free online courses, online degrees, grad and professional certificates, e-learning, and open courses. Stanford is undoubtedly one of the best universities in the worlds. This fact is vividly depicted in the high quality of courses available at Stanford Online. Courses are fairly advanced and provide deep insight into the subject matter. If you are looking for some tough material and want to challenge yourself on a skill then Stanford Online is crated for you.

8. Open Learn

Open Learn is one of the oldest online learning platforms launched in 1999. Open Learn has a plethora of courses on any topic you can imagine. It is based on courses by Open University and thus all the courses are available free. So, cost-wise it is one of the best platforms for online courses. Courses available on Open Learn are marked with respect to their difficulty level and the level of advancement. This makes it easier for students to choose a course of interest and intellectual of the participant.

9. Skillshare

Skillshare is website made for masses to share their skills through online interactive sessions with the course subscribers. Anyone can offer their skills to be shared online. Regarding course contents, Skillshare offers some unique skills by world renowned artists and experts on diverse topics. Instead of a typical lecture slides bases approach, Skillshare courses focus on the real interaction between learns and teachers. If you want to learn unique non-academic skills and want to impress your friends and family through newly learned skill then just join Skillshare and learn something new.

10. Teachable

Teachable is market place for creating and selling online courses. Anyone with a advanced-level skill can make an account on the Teachable platform and publish courses. In essence, Teachable is complete Learning Management System (LMS) which enables creators to create courses of masses. Creator can build their branded academy in which they all the courses created by them. Course participants subscribe to a specific academy and can take all of its courses.

I hope you’d love this list of 10 best and free online MOOC platforms. Which one is your favorite? Tell us in the comments below.

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