TeamMaybe you finished college and still want to learn more, and that’s great because we should never stop learning more and educating ourselves. Perhaps you instead didn’t go to college, but you wish that you have, and now, in a way, you can. Maybe you can’t literally go to college, but you can get a college education without having to pay for tuition. There are many learning resources and great websites for college courses online that you can take for free and get a certification for an affordable fee. Just imagine having a certificate from Stanford or Harvard in your resume! Even if you don’t get the certificate you’ll still get precious knowledge on pretty much anything that interests you, so check out these great websites for college courses online and expand your knowledge.
1. Coursera
Many universities offer their courses on online learning platforms such as Coursera. You’ll be able to take courses for free, but you will need to pay a fee if you want to receive a certificate or accreditation. This is where you’ll find courses from universities like Columbia, but also courses made by companies such as Amazon, Google, and Intel.
2. edX
EdX is among the largest online course providers if not the largest one in the world, with more than 14 million users from around the world. This is where you can find free courses from major universities, and you can learn about medicine, science, history, education, and more. You’ll also find computer programming courses that are free to take, but you will need to pay for degrees and certificates. edX was originally founded by MIT and Harvard University, but now you can find courses from many other prestigious universities such as Caltech and Boston University.
3. Harvard Online
Did you ever dream about going to Harvard? You can take their courses on this University’s online portal. Not all courses are free, but you’ll find courses about data science, religious studies, app development, and game development for free. Harvard Online certainly deserves its rightful place on the list of great websites for college classes online, and it’s a great idea to purchase a course for your loved one as a gift.
4. Stanford Online
Maybe you fantasized about going to Stanford instead, and you can on this University’s website – Stanford Online. You will need to pay tuition to get certified, but you’ll find free open learning courses. Here you’ll find courses from Stanford Business School, Stanford School of Medicine, and many more. This is one of the great websites for college classes online if you’re interested in CME (Continuing Medical Education) credits, and you can earn them by completing certain free courses.
5. MIT OpenCourseWare
Want to learn from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) professors instead? Anything is possible these days since you can follow and download archived courses through the platform OpenCourseWare. You’ll gain access to actual courses that MIT offered. You’ll have to buy textbooks so that you could follow the curricula though. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to get a certification or accreditation since the courses in question are archived courses. Still, you don’t need a paper to prove the valuable knowledge that you’ll gain – you’ll use it anyway!
6. OEDb.org
OEDb (The Open Education Database) isn’t a college, but it’s a good website to search for free college courses. Basically, it’s like a search engine for courses online. Use the search field to find courses or search them by category, and you’ll find many of them including those from Tufts University, Utah State University, and Kyoto University.
7. FutureLearn
You can find a lot of courses from organizations and universities on FutureLearn, one of the great websites for college classes online. Once again, you’ll be able to take classes for free while the certification requires paying a fee. This website also offers courses which purpose is improving life skills, so you’ll find courses that help you improve your job interview skills, budgeting skills, critical thinking, and online research skills. So, this is one of the best websites for taking classes online whether you’re looking to expand your academic knowledge or gain useful everyday skills.
8. Carnegie Mellon OpenLearning
Find free courses from Carnegie Mellon University on this website. It also provides materials for instructors who’d like to teach these courses. You’ll see short courses for independent learners on topics such as psychology, biology, computer science, and more. There aren’t as many open courses as on other websites, but there’s still plenty to choose from.
9. Class Central
This is another search engine for free college courses that is pretty easy to use. Use it to find courses from universities and those from Coursera and EdX. You can even use a filter for Ivy League institutions specifically, and the best thing about this website is that it lets you find courses without jumping from one platform or a provider to another.
10. OpenLearn
You can easily access classes from The Open University, which has a goal to offer free learning to everyone who looks for it. You’ll be able to choose from different knowledge and skill levels, so it doesn’t matter if you’re an expert or a beginner. When you complete a course, you’ll receive a document to use in your resume called a statement of participation. This won’t help you get university credits, but it still serves as evidence that you’ve completed a course successfully.
Choose any of these great websites for college courses online and get your dream job or gain valuable knowledge on topics that interest you!
