Free Online Courses and How to Find Them on the Web

Most people know the value of a college degree. Studies have traditionally shown that college-educated people tend to earn more money over the entire arc of their career. However, a college education can be prohibitively expensive.

Does this mean that college is an unattainable dream for people who can't afford it? With the advent of free classes and programs on the Web, absolutely not. In this article, we're going to take a look at five fantastic (free!) sources for taking all sorts of great college classes on the Web, anything from computer statistics to Web development and much, much more.

Note: While many colleges and universities offer a wide variety of free courses online in the form of podcasts, lectures, tutorials and online classes, most of these courses are not accredited or part of an actual accredited degree. However, that does not mean they are not valuable or will not add value to your overall education and/or resume.


1. MIT

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was one of the first in the realm of venerated institutions to offer free courses online to anyone who wants to take them. These are all real courses that have been offered at MIT, and there are over 2100 different classes from which to choose from.

Classes are available on anything from Architecture to Science, and include free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT. No registration is required.


2. edX

edX is a collaboration between MIT and Harvard that offers classes from MIT, Harvard, and Berkeley online for free. In addition to a whole host of classes offered to students all over the world, edX also tracks how students learn online, keeping on top of research that could impact further class offering.

This particular institution does award "certificates of mastery" to students who complete certain courses on a higher level; these certificates are free at the time of this writing, but plans are in place to charge for them in the future.


3. Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a collection of videos on subjects ranging from computer science to test preparation. More than 3400 videos for K-12 and up students are available. In addition to this vast library of videos, free assessments and exams are available so students can make sure they are retaining what they are learning about.

Everything here is self-paced, meaning you can go as fast or as slow as you need to, with customized badges and a proprietary points system to show off your progress. Parents and teachers can also participate, since Khan Academy offers the ability to see what their students are doing via real-time report cards. This website has grown into one of the most popular learning destinations on the Web and is well worth a visit for anyone who is looking to learn something new.


4. Berkeley

Berkeley Webcasts is Berkeley's online hub for audio and video classes streamed all over the globe. Search for a specific class or topic, or, use the search menu to look at information by semester or department.


5. Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins, one of the world's premier medical learning institutions, offers a wide variety of public health courses and materials. Students can look up classes by course offering title, topics, collections, or images.

There are several different ways that courses are presented: with audio, with case studies, core courses for the Hopkins Master of Public Health, and several more. For anyone looking to advance their healthcare career without sacrificing quality, this is the first place to look.


6. Coursera

Coursera is an online collaboration between several of the top-tiered universities in the world, with offerings from a wide variety of programs, anything from Humanities to Biology to Computer Science. Online courses include classes from Duke University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Princeton, Stanford, the University of Edinburgh, and Vanderbilt. For those of you interested in computer science or technology-related offerings, there are classes offered in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Vision), Computer Science (Systems, Security, and Networking), Information Technology and Design, Programming and Software Engineering, and Computer Science Theory.

Classes include online lectures, multimedia, free textbooks, and links to other free resources, like online code testers. Registration is free, and you will earn a signed certificate for each class you complete (must complete all assignments and other coursework).


7. Code Academy

CodeAcademy aims to make learning how to code fun, and they do this by making all of their courses game-based in nature. The site offers “tracks”, which are series of courses grouped around a particular topic or language. Course offerings include JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Python, Ruby, and JQuery. Registration is free, and once you get going in a class, you start to earn points and badges as a way to keep you motivated.

No certificate or credits are offered here, however, the interactive classes make complicated concepts seem not as intimidating.

CodeAcademy also runs CodeYear, a year-long collaborative effort to get as many people learning how to code (one lesson per week) as possible. More than 400,000 people have signed up at the time of this writing.


8. Google University

Learning how to code from the team behind the most popular search engine in the world? Seems like a pretty good deal. Course content at Google Code includes information on Computer Science, Programming Languages, Web Programming, Web Security, even Google APIs and Tools.

Google Code University is free and does not require registration; classes are offered via recorded video lectures, talks, problem sets, exercises, documents, and slides. Computer programming language courses are mostly introductory in nature, and include languages such as Python, C++, Go, and JavaScript. No certificates or credits are awarded with the completion of these classes.