With a third of the global population on Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, many are taking advantage of the availability of e-learning services to sharpen their skills.
And since not much economic activities are being carried out except for essential ones, people should be being encouraged to use this time to self-study and learn new skills.
The e-learning sites is widely adopted by the education sector and with this lockdown, it is becoming more useful and popular at this time. And the internet services serve as a platform for people who seek education in any form like master’s degree programs, computer science, K-12, study programs etc.
Here are eight outstanding free websites to access academic courses.
Coursera
This American online learning platform founded by Stanford professors, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller offers massive open online courses, specialization and degrees. Founded in 2012, it has more than 35 million learners, 150 university partners, 2,700 courses, 250 specializations and four degrees. In addition to free courses, Coursera offers courses generally ranging from $29 – $99. Specializations and degrees are priced higher.
The course instructors include experts from the world’s top colleges and universities, and courses include recorded video lectures, community discussion forums and both graded and peer-reviewed coursework. You can also receive a course certificate for each course you complete.
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Stanford Online
Stanford online, an education initiative at Stanford University, offers free online courses, professional certificates, advanced degrees and executive education. It offers courses from Stanford’s undergraduate and graduate schools, including Stanford Law School, Stanford Business School and Stanford Medical School, among others.
edX
This is massive open online course provider hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no charge. It also conducts research into learning based on how people use its platform. You can access 2500 free online courses from 140 leading institutions worldwide, gain new skills and earn a certificate of completion.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed has a global network of more than 250,000 teachers that serves millions of teachers and students around the world every week. This
award-winning youth and education arm whose mission is to share and spread ideas from teachers and students includes innovative content such as original animated videos and a platform for teachers to create interactive lessons.
Harvard Extension
This online website provides free courses from Harvard, one of the top universities in the world that allows you to search for courses according to a professional certificate making it an easier option if your goal is to have a certificate
Open Culture online courses
Open Culture’s listing of free online education courses highlights 1,000 lectures, videos and podcasts from universities around the world. Its list features courses from England, Australia, Wales and many state universities around the United States
The site features a lot of material found only on universities private sites, 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.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy partners with many post-secondary schools offering a useable, well organized interface. Also curating many courses from around the web, it offers impressive depth on many different subjects. Among the more well-known educational sites, Khan Academy is also incredibly useable, which may make it easier to keep learning goals.
Open Yale Courses
Just like Harvard Extension and Stanford online, it offers courses only from Yale. While the site is similarly limited to topics taught at the school, Open Yale Courses offers a lot of videos of actual campus lectures. The availability of videos makes the site a great option if you’re looking for quality courses, but learn better by watching than by reading.
