In the past few years, online learning has drastically evolved. Did you ever try online learning? Don't you think that online education is much cheaper, more effective, and offers more options than traditional education? As of today, there are tons of online learning platforms that offer all kinds of courses. The trick is to find the one that suits your educational needs. To help you get started, here are the top 8 online learning platforms, whether you are looking for college courses or you want to learn new skills or to earn a degree.
1. Coursera
Coursera is a world-wide online learning platform founded in 2012 that offers massive open online courses (MOOC), specializations, degrees and MasterTrack certificates. Coursera cooperates with over 200 top universities like Yale, Michigan, Stanford, Duke, and leading companies like Google, IBM, Intel. There are many free popular courses in this platform that are fully accessible without payment and in a variety of subjects such as machine learning, data science, engineering, computer science, humanities, business, and others.
2. Udemy
Udemy is an online learning and teaching marketplace with over 100,000 video courses and 50 million students. You can take courses in anything from programming languages like Python, and Java to personal development classics like design, photography, management and marketing. Udemy is a great platform where you can master new skills, advance careers, and explore new hobbies.
3. Khan Academy
Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organization created by Salman Khan, with the mission to provide a totally free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Courses are in the form of videos, ranging from all subjects covered in school and for all grades from kindergarten up through high school. It also provides online courses for preparing for standardized tests, including the SAT, MCAT and LSAT. Since 2015, Khan Academy has even become the official SAT practicing website.
4. LinkedIn Learning
In 2015, LinkedIn acquired one of the oldest e-learning sites Lynda.com and transferred all contents to LinkedIn Learning. With over thousands of courses on topics for all levels, from beginners to advanced, like software programming, business, project management, web development, and digital marketing, it's an excellent platform for professionals looking to keep their skills up-to-date. LinkedIn Learning also offers certifications that you can add to your LinkedIn profile, showing your expertise and improving your online resume.
5. Codecademy
Codecademy is an online professional interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 14 different programming languages including HTML & CSS, Python, JavaScript, Java, SQL, Bash/Shell, Ruby, C++, C#, PHP, GO, Swift, Kotlin. The site also offers a paid " Codecademy Pro" option that gives users access to personalized learning plans, quizzes, and realistic projects. If you are on a budget looking to develop the basic skills of programming language, Codecademy is a great place for free online coding classes.
6. Udacity
Udacity is famous for its Nagodegree programs. A Nanodegree is an online certification that you can earn in 6-12 months. Each Nanodegree consists of a series of courses on topics like Artificial Intelligence, Coding, Robotics, Mobile Programming, and Data Science. Udacity is not an accredited university, but the skills they teach are relevant and in-demand that employers are actively seeking. However, compared to other online learning platforms, Udacity is steep on pricing. The average cost for a program is about $200/month.
7. Open edX
Open edX is founded by Harvard and MIT and continues to be governed by colleges and universities. It's the only leading MOOC provider of college-level online courses that is both nonprofit and open source. As of July 2020, edX has around 33 million students taking more than 3000 courses online. The courses consist of weekly learning sequences. Each course is composed of short videos and interactive learning exercises. You can audit the verified course (no cost) or work toward an edX Verified Certificate (fees vary by course).
8. Skillshare
Skillshare is one of the most popular online learning communities for people who want to learn from educational videos. It has a massive collection of courses that are mainly divided into three categories: Create (Animation, Creative Writing, Fine Art, Film, Music, UI design, and more), Build (Business, Analytics, Freelance, Leadership, Marketing), and Thrive (lifestyle, Productivity). As the slogan says (Explore your creativity), Skillshare is committed to helping students to expand creativity and apply new skills in life.
OK. These are all the online learning platforms that I share with you today. To conclude, If you want to take college courses, you can go to Coursera, Open edX; If you want to learn skills of IT technology, you can try Udemy, Codecademy, Udacity; If you are to discover new things and widen your horizon, you can consider LinkedIn Learning and Skillshare.
Bonus Tips:
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Michelle loves technology & reading very much. She seeks the methods to enjoy eBooks and audiobooks more freely and wants to share everything new she has got with you.