I’m a big believer in constant improvement. If you’re not improving you are declining. If you’re not using your brain, you’re losing your brain. The more you use your brain the more you learn, the more you understand, and the more you understand that you don’t understand. So in the spirit of sharing, here are ten of the sites maybe hundreds of free sites available. These are either free, or they have free options. And I have personally used at least 80% of them. Some of them have phone Apps, so you can take the learning with you wherever you are.
1. Khan Academy – I want to say this was the first popular originator of easy access to education. The instructors make any topic easy, and they break down these topics in bite size pieces. You can learn mathematics, finance, science, entrepreneurship, Computer programming and so much more. I particularly enjoyed their hour of code.
2. Coursera.org – different schools put some of their best courses online. You can take courses from Stanford, Harvard, MIT etc. Are you interested in Statistics, or Computer programming, or Finance? Whatever you can dream of, it’s there. I enjoyed their CS50 (Harvard Intro to Programming)
3. EdX.org – It’s similar to Coursera with different schools and different courses. But I would say it is more geared toward sciences and engineering. They also have specialization tracks – which is probably one of the best parts, because sometimes you may not know what to take next. 4. Lagunita – This is exclusively from Stanford. Some of the courses on Lagunita are also available on Coursera, but Lagunita may have the most updated version.
5. Iversity – This has so many different courses in so many different languages. So if English is not your first language, or you’re not very comfortable with English, then Iversity is a good way to go.
6. FutureLearn – I have never used this one, but it seems essentially the same as the above. So many options, so many schools and professors providing their services for free. Are you interested in Calculus or are you interested in Soils? They are all there.
7. Skillshare – is from individuals like you and I. Some courses are better than others. But it can be really rewarding, because the professors are often times more easily accessible.
8. Novoed – It provides the platform for learning, and in that regard is similar to Coursera. But there are courses about all sorts of interesting things like Philanthropy, Business etc.
9. Acumen Courses– Acumen is a humanitarian organization, and they sponsor courses that help with social causes and various humanitarian concerns- statistics, presentation, story telling – all with a twist for social organizations.
10. YouTube – Yes you can just search on YouTube for anything thing you want to learn. Some videos are more interesting than others, but you have more control over the size of your video – so if you’re concerned about internet bandwidth issues, then you can use the 144p or 240p options Bonus
11. MIT Open courseware – This is for the engineers and the smarty-pants. Are you interested in Aeronautics, Architecture, psychology? Whatever it is, it’s there I would add Lynda.com, because I have enjoyed several courses from them. But yes it costs money. However there are discount plans for students, or if your school participates in a free program with them, then you can have the courses for free.
Then if you’re interested in coding, there are SEVERAL websites. Two I can recommend are codeschool and codeacademy. Do you have others you would recommend? Sue Clark via Compfight