Free and low-cost courses online we’ve tried, tested and now shortlisted.
Ignite a new passion, supplement school or university study, or ramp up for work or a new career.
GENERAL TECH SUBSCRIPTION
General / MOOCs
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Coursera
https://www.coursera.org
A huge variety of courses covering most areas you’d expect to find in any large university.
All are free to audit. A small fee is required to earn a verified certificate.
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edX
https://www.edx.org
At a glance, edX looks like a STEM-heavy MOOC provider, but if you open up the list of
courses by subject, you’ll find music, the humanities, law and business on offer for free.
Like Coursera, all courses are free to audit or pay a small fee for a course certificate.
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Udacity
https://www.udacity.com
Tech-focused plus a handful of non-tech courses that are still within the STEM world.
Many are free, but they also offer affordable “nanodegree” programs.
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FutureLearn
https://www.futurelearn.com
A growing collection of MOOCs from universities around the world. Like Coursera and edX,
courses run for 3-6 weeks on average.
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The Open University (UK)
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses
They count over 800 courses to choose from in almost any topic you can think of.
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Khan Academy
https://www.khanacademy.org
Loads of subjects aimed at high school students, but also a number of humanities, tech and economics courses. All free.
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Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative
http://oli.cmu.edu/learn-with-oli/see-our-free-open-courses/
Around 30 introductory courses in their entirety across various disciplines are offered here all for free.
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Open Yale Courses
http://oyc.yale.edu
There are around 40 courses on offer across numerous disciplines, mainly introductory, but all free.
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Berkeley Webcast
http://webcast.berkeley.edu
A backlog of course videos are permanently available through to Spring 2015 after which new content
will be published on edX exclusively. There are hundreds of courses on subjects that don’t change much
or at all over the course of a few years (unlike tech, for example), so it’s still a valuable resource to consider.
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MIT Open Courseware
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by-department
Loads of courses listed, unfortunately, not all complete. It is, however, a great place to look
for reputable sources or books for essays or if you’re perusing a subject area and want to know
what might be involved.
GENERAL TECH SUBSCRIPTION
Tech / coding / development
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Microsoft Virtual Academy
https://mva.microsoft.com
Hundreds of free video courses covering both Microsoft and non-Microsoft tech at all levels of
proficiency, taught by experts and optionally supplemented by free software a few clicks away.
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Code Academy
https://www.codecademy.com
Free courses to help get you started in popular scripting languages in a hands-on online environment.
GENERAL TECH SUBSCRIPTION
Paid / subscription
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Udemy
https://www.udemy.com
Tens of thousands of courses in any subject or topic you can imagine, for free or for a
small fee per course. The problem with Udemy is courses aren’t always taught by qualified
instructors or institutions, which makes finding a course worth doing a lesson in itself.
GENERAL TECH SUBSCRIPTION