Learn new skills online with these free classes
No more pencils, no more books. Today, it’s keyboards, monitors and a mouse. Thanks to the internet, you can learn new skills online — even if you’re low on tuition and lack academic resources.
Most Ivy League universities now offer online courses, but users may no longer need to enroll in those Ivy League schools to receive the same course content and level of education. There are a few online classes and platforms that will give the same experience for far less money, and sometimes even for free.
Scroll down for five online courses that help you hone or learn new skills. You can both learn new skills online and brag about receiving an ivy league level education.
Udemy
Udemy is an online training platform that offers tens of thousands of courses on a plethora of different subjects. Since early 2019, it’s been recorded that around 30 million people have participated in the courses Udemy offers.
In return, they have received accolades from outlets such as Forbes and Mashable. What makes them even more unique is how they allow any user to act as both student and instructor. They are truly making learning a two-way street. Their additional features include:
- Focus on IT courses such as AI, self-driving cars and related technologies.
- Varied catalog of self-paced online courses (most of which are free of charge).
- Allow professionals to share or sell their skills and expertise through courses.
- Costs less than $20 to participate.
- Complimentary certificates of completion.
Coursera is a great way to learn new skills online
This is an accredited online education platform that works by teaming up with some of the top universities and organizations in the world. Coursera provides a wide range of courses in their catalog that are geared towards aspiring computer scientists, designers, software engineers, art historians and much more.
In fact, Coursera currently offers the largest and most diverse collection of online courses, as well as:
- Features a wide range of courses taken directly from top Ivy League universities like Stanford, Princeton and Yale.
- Audit courses are free of charge.
- Enroll in either self-paced or timed courses ranging between four and twelve weeks.
- Classes are available in multiple languages such as English, Chinese and Dutch.
Codecademy
Codecademy is a well-known online learning platform that is hosted via the cloud. It makes learning code and web design not only easy, but also enjoyable for users through a variety of different courses and practices.
First developed by a pair of Columbia University students in 2011, Codecademy offers code instruction to beginners for free. They offer a “pro” option as well, which allows more focused lessons and tutorials for users with live tutoring. Other incentives include:
- Costs $20 to participate.
- Access live technical support from pro developers.
- Personalize your learning path with tailored courses and skills.
- Project challenges to each unit so you can apply the skills that you’ve learned to specific tasks.
Skillshare is one of the most popular ways to learn new skills online
Skillshare is an established online learning community suited for creators. The platform makes tens of thousands of courses available to users on a monthly or annual subscription basis. With close to 30,000 courses to choose from, Skillshare covers almost any subject you can think of including:
- Technical
- Creative
- Writing
- Business & Entrepreneurship
- Finance & Accounting
- Programming
On top of that, Skillshare offers a one-month free trial. So, users can sign up and take a few courses to see what they think before committing any more time and money.
Academic Earth
Similar to Coursera, Academic Earth offers an extensive collection of online courses from prestigious universities like Harvard, Yale, Stanford and MIT.
The goal for this platform has been to deliver top-quality education and opportunities to users around the world. Dubbed the “Hulu of education,” Academic Earth acts like a giant search engine for scholarly videos — all of which come from some of the best universities in the country.
Additionally, there are over 60 courses and 2,000 total lectures to choose from. So, there is truly something for everyone.
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