The Best Websites for Free Online Courses, Certificates, Degrees, and Educational Resources

How To Geek has presented the 14 websites below as “the best websites for free online courses, certificates, degrees, and educational resources.” Please check them out:

(1)   MIT OpenCourseWare offers free lecture notes, exams, and videos from classes at MIT. OpenCourseWare (OCW) was proposed by the MIT faculty in 2000.  They have been publishing educational materials from their courses freely and openly on the Internet since the first proof-of-concept site in 2002, containing 50 courses. By November 2007, MIT had published almost the entire curriculum, over 1,800 courses in 33 academic disciplines. No registration is required to take advantage of these educational materials.

(2)   The OpenCourseWare (OCW) Consortium is a no cost and openly licensed digital publication for high quality college and university‐level educational materials that is organized in course form. These courses often include  planning materials and evaluation tools and are accessible to anyone, anytime online

(3)   EdX is a joint, not-for-profit partnership between The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. This program offers MIT and Harvard classes online for free to millions of people around the world. Founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012, EdX is an online learning destination and MOOC provider, offering high quality courses from the world’s best universities and institutions to students everywhere.

(4)   The Open Yale Courses website provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The lectures are recorded in the classrooms and are available in video, audio, and text transcript formats. You are not required to register for online classes. However, you will NOT receive course credit, a degree, or a certificate.

(5)   The Open University (OU) provides high-quality university education online to anyone. Nearly all of the undergraduate courses they offer do not require prior qualifications or experience.  The OU has developed their own style of distance learning called “supported open learning.” That means  the student can work wherever you chose and plan your studies around your other commitments. You will receive support from a tutor or online forum and have contact with other students in your own region or online. You also have access to student advisors and study facilities in your own region.

(6)   FreeEdNet is a collection of various courses, tutorials, and learning materials available on the web, including some that people at FreeEdNet are developing themselves. The courses are free and, normally, there is no sign-up. Simply find a course you are interested in studying and begin.  FreeEdNet is not intended to replace your formal education at a reputable, degree-granting school. Use FreeEdNet to review material you previously learned in school, prepare for a job, school placement exams, extend your vocational skills, or even learn more theoretical information about your work, hobby, or special interest.

(7)   ALISON (Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online) provides high-quality, engaging, interactive multimedia courseware for certification and standards-based learning. This education is  free to the individual learner. You can learn anywhere using their interactive, self-paced multimedia.  Nominal fees are charged for the use of the ALISON Manager.This service allows teachers, trainers, tutors, and HR managers to easily and effectively oversee, manage, and report  the online learning of groups of students. However, if you are an individual learner, you do not need to create a group or become a member of a group. Simply begin your study by clicking on a course of your choice.

(8)   The Online Education Database (OEDB) has compiled 200 online courses from big universities, such as MIT, Yale, and Tufts. You can take classes from these universities without having to submit an application or pay any tuition.

(9)   Annenberg Learner provides free multimedia resources to help teachers increase their expertise in their fields and assist them in improving their teaching methods. Sharpening and advancing excellent teaching skills  in American schools. The professional development of K-12 teachers is supported through the distribution of educational video programs with coordinated web and print materials

(10)  University of the People is a tuition-free, non-profit institution that provides online education to individuals all over the world. The University does not charge you to take classes, any reading and other study materials, or for annual enrollment.  In order to remain sustainable, the University of the People does charge small processing fees for application and examination.

(11)           The webcast.berkeley is a central campus service offered by UC Berkeley for recording and publishing course and campus events for students at UC Berkeley and learners around the globe. Since 2001, webcast.berkeley has now made over 16,000 hours of content available on the site for UC Berkeley students and for students around the globe.

(12)           Open Culture is a website that focuses on educational media collected from other sites. The user may download free courses from universities in MP3 format, as well as language lessons in podcast format. There are a  variety of other podcasts that cover subjects such as technology, travel, music, science, and more. You can also find audiobooks, movies, and eBooks on the site.

(13)           GCFLearnFree provides free, quality, innovative online learning, in over 750 different lessons, for anyone who wants to improve their technology, literacy, and math skills. You can learn what you want, when you want. View one tutorial or complete a whole class.

(14)           Google Code University has gathered a large collection of educational materials to help you learn how to program computers.  Whether you want to learn how to program in C++, Java, or Python, or program your website using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. There are also course contents contributed by other industries and academic institutions to help teach subjects such as Android programming and Web programming worldwide. You can find tutorials and introductions, courses on advanced or specialized topics, recorded video lectures, and courses with problem sets and exercises at GCU

Additional Support For Your Study from How-To-Geek

How-To-Geek has some awesome apps and resources to help you get textbooks, software you might need, online tools, and even how to start a blog to help fill your portfolio. If you’re attending college in person, they have some tips on how to email your professor and get a quick response . Whether you’re taking free classes online or attending college, you can keep track of your homework assignments using their online service, called Soshiku.

Posted by Dr. Nat Tuivavalagi