Our brain may not be our largest organ—that distinction belongs to our skin—but it is one of our most vital. Many of us have not been in school for quite some time and have found other ways to continue to sharpen our minds, but what would you do if you could access a plethora of courses across a wide variety of interests—some of them free—in the safety of your home and at the convenience of your own time?
While you’re filling personal time in new ways during this pandemic, try out one of the following course options! Many courses are available through top universities, and some come with accreditations and certificates if you’re looking to further your professional standing and are not yet retired.
Coursera
Coursera collaborates with over 200 universities and companies to provide one of the largest course catalogs available online. Whether you want to take a free course or get a full-fledged degree online, Coursera likely has what you are looking for.
Their freebie courses are no joke, either! You can take The Science of Well-Being course from Yale University, learn about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies from Princeton University, or even learn beginner Chinese from Peking University.
Udemy
Udemy has put together an impressive list of courses and certificate programs ranging from professional & personal development to arts & crafts to photography, music and so much more. Courses on Udemy range in pricing from as low as $9.99.
Udemy is also looking for instructors. If you have a particular knack or knowledge you would like to pass on, you can also inquire about teaching. While Coursera is more focused on industry and university partnerships, Udemy focuses on partnerships with individual instructors, essentially building out their own digital institution of higher learning.
Udacity
Udacity is focused on career and certificate training, mostly in technology and such as data science, programming and artificial intelligence. If you’re looking to build skills and possibly start a new career or part-time job in retirement, Udacity is a great place to start. These are full courses and programs that typically require five–ten hours/week.
Free Courses from the Top Universities
Amazingly, there are also many top universities offering free, accredited courses online on their own. The following list are some universities offering free courses:
- Harvard University currently offers 80 free courses from a variety of areas of study. You can learn to code or explore the history of navigation.
- Stanford University currently offers free courses in health & medicine, education, engineering and arts & humanities.
- Georgia Tech offers free courses in business, computing, engineering, management and more.
- École Polytechnique in France offers 29 free online courses—10 of which are in English.
- The University of Hong Kong offers a large variety of free courses from sciences & technology to the humanities & the arts. You can complete a variety of courses from studying dinosaur ecosystems to learning about Hong Kong cinema through a global lens.
- University College London currently offers 122 open enrollment online courses, many of which are free.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology started MITOpenCourseware to provide great STEM courses accessible for anyone with the ability to access the internet.
- CalArts offers several free courses for open learning that include poetry, graphic & web design, music theory and more.
The knowledge is always out there for us to find, so keep your mind sharp, go forth and soak it in! Think of your brain like a fine wine; if you treat it right, it will get better with age.
