You can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you.
Barbara Sher
Have some time on your hands and want to learn something new ? You know how the popular saying goes – the best things in life are always free ? Technology and the concept of open learning has indeed made it possible for the single most important and best thing to be accessed free of cost – knowledge. In this post we bring to you top five websites where you can learn new things online, absolutely free!
Coursera has grown to become one of the most popular MOOC (Massive Online Open Course). It has partnerships with top universities such as University of Michigan, University of Virginia, University of California, Yale University, Stanford University and many more. You may find courses on almost every popular subject. Anyone can register and get access to the course material and assignments for free. If you want to earn a Verified Certificate, then you have to pay a nominal fee. Coursera tries to make education accessible to everyone across the globe, the only requirement is an internet connection. The biggest advantage is the freedom and flexibility to accomplish courses. The classes are in the form of pre-recorded video lectures by the course instructor, which are always available to you once you sign up, unless it is a time bound course.
Udacity is more catered towards the techie crowd who want to learn programming, web development and business development. It partners with the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter to introduce customized courses such as Android Development, Front End Web Development and others. They also have courses that tilt slightly towards the brainy audience who take interest in science and math-related topics despite their current job profile. The courses do not have deadlines, however they may have other pre-requisites like quizzes. If you have the spark they’re ready for you!
Khan Academy probably doesn’t need any introduction. Partnering with many post-secondary schools, Khan Academy offers a useable, well-organized interface. Almost everyone has heard about it. It is essentially a hub of education where you can find courses for everyone and for all ages. All the courses are available for free. Khan Academy also curates many courses from around the web, offering an impressive depth on many different subjects
Open Culture is the place you need to be if you are struggling to find the material you are looking for. The page highlights more than a thousand lectures, videos and podcasts from universities around the world. It also offers a staggering collection of about four hundred courses, online, for free, from Ivy League universities, such as Stanford, UCLA, Columbia and Oxford University. The site features a lot of material found only on private sites of universities, all in easy to browse categories. This means you can find hundreds of university courses, without having to visit and search each university’s own site. Open Culture’s list features courses from England, Australia, Wales and many state universities around the United States. A very helpful resource for finding many courses in one area of study. The courses range from science and art to math and economics.
Another great destination for more general learning is TED-Ed. (http://ed.ted.com/) From the same people who brought you the all-encompassing, motivational web series, comes a site choked with educational videos. Most include impressive animation, and all are ten minutes long or less. Don’t be surprised if you stumble across gripping videos on a wide array of subjects, such as “The Power of Simple Words” and “How Many Universes are There” and since all videos are under 10-minutes-long, you could listen to them while you’re taking a break at work as well! Remember knowledge is power. Not only is TED-Ed an excellent site for the curious, it also includes supplemental materials and quizzes on the videos. This makes the site extremely useful in formal education settings, as well as in entertaining ways to brush up on new discoveries and topics.
Happy Learning!
