You’ll need to keep learning for the rest of your life in order to keep up. You may even have to change careers multiple times over the course of your life. Unfortunately, for most people who work, dropping everything to go back to school is not a viable option. ..

The good news is that you no longer have to put your life on hold (or empty your bank account) to get a college-level education. Thanks to the open education movement and advances in eLearning, you can take free online college courses from the comfort of your home. Many of these are often free! ..

  1. Coursera: This website offers a variety of courses from top universities, including Yale, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. Many of the courses are free, but some require registration and/or payment.
  2. Udacity: This website offers a variety of courses from top universities, including UC Berkeley and Stanford. Many of the courses are free, but some require registration and/or payment.
  3. edX: This website offers a variety of courses from top universities, including Harvard University and MIT. Many of the courses are free, but some require registration and/or payment.
  4. Khan Academy: This website offers a variety of videos on math, science, history, English language arts (ELA), and more from top universities around the world. Most videos are free to watch with no ads or restrictions on how many times you can watch them.
  5. The Open University: This website offers degrees in many different subjects from around the world at no cost to students who complete an online course called OU Core modules first. After completing OU Core modules students can then choose to take one or more degree programmes at no cost to them either through OU or other providers such as Universities UK or Trinity College Dublin (TCD). 6 . Cengage Learning: Cengage Learning is a provider of online learning platforms that offer both free and paid options for students seeking higher education degrees at various levels such as associate’s degree (AA), bachelor’s degree (BSc), master’s degree (MSc), doctoral degree (PhD) as well as professional certificates in business administration (BBA), computer science (BCS), health information management (BHIM) etc.. 7 . FutureLearn: FutureLearn is an online learning platform that provides access to over 1 million courses from over 500 institutions worldwide covering subjects such as arts & humanities; business; computing; engineering; law; medicine; ..

A Note on Assessment and Accreditation

The three components of a college course are course material, assessment, and accreditation. A college course must have all three components in order to be accredited. A college can be accredited by a number of different organizations, including the National Association of Colleges and Schools (NACS), the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), or the Middle States Association for Colleges and Schools (MSA).

The three components of online courses are the course content, the assessment, and the grading. The course content is usually free. This is perfect for someone who wants to learn something new. The assessment of your knowledge is often also free. You’ll either complete a computerized exam or have your work graded.

An institution of higher education may certify an individual’s assessment and give them formal credit for knowledge gained. This can be used to get a job, gain college credit, or other formal purposes.

Many people looking to learn online don’t need accreditation, but if that’s what you’re ultimately after, this is one thing you won’t get for free. ..

MIT OpenCourseWare

MIT OpenCourseWare is a valuable resource for anyone looking to gain knowledge in a variety of subjects. The site was the first to make college-level education available online, and it continues to be a leader in this field. ..

The Creative Commons licence framework allows students and educators to read, modify and reuse learning content from one of the most elite educational institutions in the world. This allows for creativity and innovation in teaching and learning, while also protecting the intellectual property of those who create or use the content.

MIT offers a wide variety of courses, both in traditional areas such as computer science and engineering, and in more humanities-oriented subjects. This allows students to explore different fields of study without having to pay for tuition. ..

MIT OpenCourseWare is a website that offers free access to its course materials. The materials can be downloaded and used by anyone, without having to attend the class. This includes assignments with answers, as well as video recordings of lectures. ..

MIT Opencourseware is an essential resource for students interested in specific subject areas at MIT. However, if you’re looking for something a little more interactive, then we recommend checking out some of the other options on this list.

Coursera

Coursera is a platform that allows users to access content from universities such as Princeton, Duke and Stanford. It was started by two ex-Stanford professors back in 2012 and today hosts content from universities such as Princeton, Duke and Stanford.

If you’re willing to pay the fee, you can get an accredited certificate or even a degree from Coursera! However, for no money at all you can learn some of the most relevant skills in modern life here. Coursera is especially valuable for learning about hot, new in-demand skills and fields. ..

Many people choose to take free online college courses because they are convenient and put together by some of the best educators in the world. You can get a certificate of completion for some courses, such as this one. ..

It’s not accredited, but that might not matter to your employer or whomever else you want to show that you’ve put effort into learning something new.

edX

EdX is a pioneer of the MOOC revolution. Launching in 2012, the site is a joint venture by Harvard University and MIT. The site offers free online college course material from a large variety of respected institutions. ..

There are a number of great options for college-level courses in hard-hitters such as engineering and medicine. The quality of the courses is exceptional, with plenty of self-paced offerings on the menu.

The certificate can be used as evidence that you have passed an assessment and that you were the person who completed the test. Although this does not count as any sort of official accreditation, it can be included with job applications or any other relevant applications to show you’ve done the work.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a website that started out as a way for Salman Khan to help his family members understand their math homework. Today, it’s one of the best educational resources on the internet.

K12 provides an excellent way to brush up on things like high school mathematics if you want to enroll in college later in life. ..

The site is designed to help people learn about math, and it has a variety of tools to help you along the way. This makes it a great resource for people in difficult subject areas, such as mathematics.

Udemy

Udemy is a website that allows anyone to create and sell courses. It was founded in 2009 and has since become one of the most popular online learning platforms. The key innovation of Udemy is that it makes it easy for anyone with something to teach to create a course. This makes Udemy a great place for experts who want to share their knowledge with others, as well as for those who want to learn new things without having to spend a lot of money. ..

Many of the courses on Udemy do charge a fee, but there are also hundreds of excellent free online college courses on the platform. Often, instructors will make their introductory courses free, only charging money for intermediate and advanced levels. This means that you can freely learn the fundamentals of various subjects. ..

Retired professionals or faculty in the field can offer these courses, which are generally not meant to be the equivalent of college course modules. This is a good way to gain skills and knowledge from a field directly in a less formal way.

Udemy is a website that offers online courses. It has stricter curation standards than the likes of edX or Coursera, so you’ll always have to approach any courses offered on the site with a critical eye. Udemy also thinks that Udemy has one of the most user-friendly, polished mobile apps of any online education site today. It’s well worth a visit!

Udacity

Udacity offers a variety of courses, including business, engineering, and computer science. Courses can be taken online or in person. The company has partnerships with top universities, including Stanford and MIT. Udacity also offers a variety of resources, such as video lectures and course materials.

There are plenty of excellent free online college courses on Udacity, but if you’re willing to pay you can enroll for Udacity’s innovative “nanodegree” programs, which are built up from various smaller courses and come with a formal accreditation, so you can use them to apply for jobs and other formal purposes.

The courses at Udacity are not self-paced, and you need to enroll and start along with everyone else. However, there is an extensive archive of past free courses to audit. The knowledge is there for the taking!

Open Education by Blackboard

Blackboard is a leading LMS provider and their Open Education site provides a platform for institutions to offer free courses. It’s a pretty barebones site, but using it proves to be just as simple.

To find courses that match your interests, browse the course catalog using various filters. This includes searching by institution, subject area and language of instruction. ..

Blackboard is a great platform for learning, but it can be a little slow. There are plenty of free courses available, and you can take as many as you want without spending a penny. ..

OpenLearn

OpenLearn is the Open University’s best-known Open Learning Resource project. It’s also one of the oldest open learning resources on the web, dating back to 1999. Long before the MOOC revolution, driven by sites such as Coursera or edX. OpenLearn offers a wide range of courses and resources for students, from basic learning tools to more advanced materials. ..

If you’re looking for a way to save money on your education, OpenLearn is the perfect resource. The catalogue of free online college courses on offer is extensive, and themarked in terms of their length and difficulty level make it easy to find what you’re looking for.

Since these are open courses from various sources, the level of polish varies, but it’s a very user-friendly site to use and an essential learning resource.

Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative

Carnegie Mellon offers a variety of open learning courses that are free to students. ..

You don’t even have to sign up for an account to access course content. Although, of course, you can’t save any progress, settings or work if you don’t.

FutureLearn

Futurelearn is a website that was created to focus onMOOCs, rather than adapting existing college courses. Futurelearn has been making MOOCs as a speciality.

The Open University’s courses are some of the best in the business. They’re produced with high quality and design, and are fully compatible with other Open University courses.

FutureLearn is a commercialized platform that charges an annual subscription fee for access to paid courses. However, they have lumped all of their free courses together into one catalogue. We want to see free courses and FutureLearn should be open to offering them as well.

Get Your Learn On!

The internet started life thanks to the support of academia, so it’s only right that it can provide free education to millions of people all over the world today. ..

With these ten sites, you have access to a wealth of human knowledge, along with user communities and often access to expert educators. So if you’re feeling lazy or uninterested in learning, it’s time to up-skill yourself! The time is now!