7 Best Platforms Offering Free Courses

Nowadays, people have lots of opportunities to fill their knowledge gaps or even obtain a degree online. They do not even have to enroll in a university or college.Some online platforms offer nano degrees based on materials provided by the world’s leading universities. Others focus on providing courses to prepare narrow-field specialists and improve their knowledge of specifics and details.

In any case, the very chance to study online has revolutionized education, making it affordable and accessible for many. This trend was even reinforced by the willingness of employers to accept online issued certifications and diplomas. In other words, online courses if not substituted, then complemented formal degrees. This opened a way to successful job search and professional development for many people.

If you are interested in learning something new or want to solidify your knowledge of a certain subject, feel free to visit the educational free platforms for online courses listed below. All of them are reputable websites that offer a wide range of high-quality free courses.

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Coursera

Coursera is a well-known educational platform with millions of courses provided by the world’s best educational institutions. Many of them are available to students for free. The topics are diverse, ranging from Psychology to Languages and Nutrition.

However, you may not find what you are looking for in this list. Nevertheless, you can still attend paid courses free of charge if getting a certification is not essential to you. You’ll have access to the same materials as others; however, you won’t get a file to prove it.

It’s worth mentioning that during the pandemic, Coursera made all of its courses free for students. It was a great gesture to support education in difficult times.

Udemy

Udemy is also an educational platform dedicated to improving lives by making knowledge accessible. It has a Free Courses Center where you can look for subjects you need. Its base of free courses is so diverse that you can definitely find something to meet your requirements.

At the same time, many online courses are offered at a discounted price. For example, you can get high-quality knowledge for as little as $12. All ratings and customer reviews, as well as course contents, are available for your review so that you can easily decide whether a course is worthy of your time.

FutureLearn

FutureLearn offers lots of free courses supplied by top European universities. You can easily search for them as they are grouped based on the features they offer. For example, you can attend short and flexible online courses, expertTracks, or even microprograms with academic accreditation.

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FuruteLearn is also famous for its online degrees and language courses. Should you need to improve your knowledge in a certain field and gain a degree to prove it, FutureLearn can help you do it online. The same applies if you want to learn one of a few European languages available on the platform.

EdX

EdX was created by Harvard and MIT to provide online university-level courses and make learning more accessible to a larger share of the world’s population. EdX offers free online courses prepared in cooperation with the Ivy League universities and other reputable institutions.

The platform collects user data and studies how people use the platform. This helps in understanding current educational trends and adjusting programs to meet the needs. EdX is available in 14 languages in 196 countries worldwide.

Udacity

Udacity has also hopped on the trend of providing online courses for free. Recognizing the importance of online education and inequality in access to formal education, the platform made a giant leap in raising people’s awareness over the most critical issues.

For example, it launched free tech courses, helping people learn not only how they can use their devices but also how they can apply existing technologies to make a difference. It partnered with Google to create courses in Web Development, Virtual Reality, Mobile App Development, Programming, and other fields.

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Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a non-profit organization and educational platform for people of different ages. You can find free courses on any school subject translated into 30 languages. Middle school and high school students can also find lots of materials and useful information in different fields of knowledge available for free.

Khan Academy is great if your goal is to fulfill your knowledge or make up for the gap you have. This platform does not issue any relevant certification or diploma to prove course completion. However, this is one of the most easy-to-use and affordable knowledge bases for students to effectively learn online.

Codecademy

Those interested in learning to code and program for free should pay their attention to Codecademy. Students keen on IT can attend free courses on Web Development, Data Science, Python, JavaScript, and so on to learn the essentials. As soon as this part is completed, they can move further and focus on the field that interests them the most.

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This resource offers courses that teach essential skills behind coding. This is the best platform to gain basic knowledge as well as advance already obtained IT skills. Thanks to hands-on assignments and real-life examples, learning at Codecademy never gets boring.

Final Words

These are the most well-known online education platforms offering free courses. They are universal, as they offer materials on different subjects and topics.

However, there are other websites and initiatives such as TEDEd and YouTube Learn@Home that offer a chance to obtain new knowledge on different topics to a diverse population of people. Some of the platforms focus on one specific field such as music or education for children.