Looking for the best places to find free college courses? Wondering how these courses benefit lifelong learners, students, professionals, job seekers, entrepreneurs, parents, caregivers, and retirees in their pursuit of education and skill development?
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Investing your free time in professional development is far better than waiting on social media and other stuff. As it will allow you to be more qualified, knowledgeable, and skilled. There are a lot of skilled and expert programs that allow you to learn something new or grab the qualification.
However, most of these programs are paid and you need to spend some amount of money to enroll in these programs and earn the certificate of completion as well. However, some of the educational institutions and colleges offer free online courses for all the students.
Curious about best places to find free college courses and how to access them without any cost? You might find it challenging to locate these programs. However, this article will guide you to the best platforms and websites where you can discover the ‘Best Places To Find Free College Courses’.
If you’re eager to explore professional development opportunities without the burden of cost, check out these ‘Best Places to Find Free College Courses,’ including options like free online coding courses with certificates.
What are the best places to find free college courses?
The courses and programs allow you to become more qualified and skilled. However, the main issue with most of the courses is their hybrid mode. To attend the courses you need to enroll in any university or educational institution and have to take the classes in hybrid mode.
This approach keeps you limited. As it will be difficult for someone to attend the course in another city. That is why the limited approach of hybrid courses keeps most of the applicants away from relevant skills. As a solution, you can take online courses.
Some of the universities and colleges used to arrange the college courses in online mode. Here, you will get the online courses and programs on your device and attain the skills. The educational institutions use several video streaming platforms to share live and recorded classes.
However, there is a need for platforms that list these courses and represent them in a display form to the students. Several platforms over the internet provide free college courses in a listed manner. But most of them are scams and offer courses that are already closed.
So, we have researched over the internet and found out the best places to find free college courses to enhance your skills and overall development. These platforms are genuine with all authentic courses. Some of the best places to find free college courses are mentioned below, let’s have a look:
List of 6 Best places to find free college courses
1. MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is well known for its contribution to the field of technology and advanced science. The institute offers several online college courses in genuinely designed platforms known as MIT OpenCourseWare. All these courses are available in the archived form and can be downloaded by the applicant.
One of the biggest benefits of enrolling in the courses offered by the MIT is that they are free and open to all. The free online college courses are designed similarly to the real courses offered by MIT for years in the classrooms.
The courses are free for all, but the applicants need to buy the books and other study materials themselves. Another downfall of the platform is that it doesn’t offer certification and accreditation after completing the courses. The platform is recommended only for those who want to enhance their skills and knowledge instead of qualifications.
2. Coursera
Coursera is an open platform for all colleges, universities, and other educational institutions to display their free online college courses for all. The platform is free and can be accessed easily by anyone. All the codes listed on Coursera are free, however, to get the certification you need to pay certain fees. The user-friendly design of the website allows you to search and finalize the repaired online college course.
Some of the most renowned universities in the world including Duke, Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, and many more offer their online courses for the students. Other than the colleges and educational institutions some of the companies like Google, Amazon, and Intel also list their free online courses for skills development on Coursera. Else, those who want to get the certification after the completion of the course have two options to do so.
The first option is to pay the fees of certification for a particular course whereas the other option is to buy the subscription. The subscription plans of Coursera allow you to grab the certification of each course you have accomplished. All the courses are available for free in the form of video lectures, tutorials, notes, quizzes, assessments, and many more.
3. FutureLearn
Like all other best places to find free college courses, FutureLearn also offers plenty of courses and online programs from different universities and educational institutions. However, you need to pay a certain fee to get the certificate of completion of the course. One of the biggest features of the platform is the wide variety of categories and different fields covered with relevant courses and online programs. Some of the categories listed are budgeting skills, online research skills, critical thinking, and job interview skills.
For college courses, you can also get tutorials for your subjects including science, mathematics, technology, legal, and many more. The courses are free and open to all, but to get the certificate you need to complete some requirements like taking the assessments, quizzes, and test series and pay the required amount of certification fee.
4. Harvard Online
Hayward is one of the most renowned universities in the world with a listing among the top universities. They have a platform known as Harvard Online where you can find plenty of courses and online programs. Most of the college courses offered by Harvard University are paid and you need to pay a certain amount of fees.
On the other than a few of these courses are free and open for all. Not all the categories of course are free, only a few categories are free. These are religious studies, game development, app development, and data science.
The courses offered by the hardware are based on adequate research by expert professionals and faculty. Free courses do not mean that the course content is not valuable, the free courses are once available in paid but they are listed as free as time passes. The filter option helps you to get the most relevant course you are looking for.
The course contains various types of study material including video tutorials, lectures, notes, assessments, and quizzes as well. The certification from Harvard University holds significant value and can be attached to your LinkedIn profile, CV, portfolio, and other places to help you get more employment opportunities.
5. Class Central
One of the best platforms for searching the online college courses of multiple categories. Whether you are looking for something religious or technical. Class Central is a one-stop solution for you. The user-friendly interface of the platform is similar to that of the Google search engine and offers more accurate results. The website lists its courses from different sources including EdX, Coursera, and Google.
Even colleges, universities, and other educational institutions can also list their courses and online programs on the Class Central website. The filter option of the course allows you to find accurate results of your search.
6. EdX
With a user base of around 14 million, EdX has become the top of the best places to find free college courses. It is the biggest open platform to find and list online courses and programs. The platform was established by the collaboration of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) but soon got the engagement of some other prestigious educational institutions including Boston University, Caltech, and plenty of other universities.
Whether you want online courses relating to science, education, history, medicine, or technology EdX offers all other courses along with the certification. Moreover, the platform also offers graduation degrees from prestigious universities but to achieve the degree there is a need to pay the tuition fee and other charges. The degree achieved online from the platform holds a similar value as the traditional degree.
All the courses and online programs listed on the website are framed by professionals and expert faculties. The additional study materials and attachments allow you to gain more knowledge and skills relating to the topic. At last, the assessment and quizzes aid you in checking the preparation. Some courses are free and a certificate is also offered for free whereas you need to pay both for the course and the certificate in some cases.
FAQs
1. How to find free online college courses?
Finding free online courses can be very difficult for you if you use Google and other traditional ways. You can look for free online courses from some platforms including Coursera, edX, and FutureLearn. These platforms are open and any college or university can list their online courses both free and paid there.
You can visit their official website and use the search box to look for the available free online courses of your interest. The paid courses offer more perks and benefits after enrolling whereas most of the courses are free to access, but to get the certificate of completion you may need to pay the required fees.
2. Does Harvard offer free certificates?
Yes, all the world-renowned educational institutions including the major popular Harward and Stanford University also offer several online courses to the students. These courses are available in both free and paid versions.
When it comes to the free online courses, these are open to all and can be accessed for free but to get the certificate of completion you may need to pay the required fees which may range between $20 to $100 in some courses. You are likely to find online courses of all categories including science, psychology, arts, and any skills, or personality development.
3. Is Coursera free for all?
Coursera is one of the most popular platforms for online courses and programs. Anyone in the world can access the platform and enroll in any of the courses. Usually, all the courses listed on the Coursera are free and open to all individuals. These courses include most of the demanding topics and categories.
For example finance, laws, science, mathematics, psychology, nursing, skills, and many more. The top universities and educational institutions across the world list their free course on Coursera for free, but to get the certificate of completion the applicants need to pay the required fees. But the course content is free for all.
4. Are online courses respected?
Whether the online courses are respected or not depends upon various factors. These include the types of courses, the institution that offers the course, the value of certification, the tenure of the course, and many more.
The course which is offered by any renowned university or educational institution holds significant value. Whereas, the course is highly respectful when it aids the applicants in a relevant skill. For example, the course that allows one to learn graphic design with a certificate of completion has good scope and respect in various places.
5. Can we pursue the graduation courses online?
Yes, some various universities and colleges offer the facility to pursue online courses to accomplish graduation but the students need to pay the required tuition fees and other expenses to the college before attending the online classes.
The online graduation degrees are available in both accelerated and regular modes. However, for the technical degrees, the students need to visit the campus for exams, practical’s, and practicum requirements. Once they achieve the required credits and academic scores the students can get valid degrees which open the gateway to hundreds of employment opportunities.
Conclusion
It is way better to invest your free time in improving your professional qualifications and learning something new than spending it on water stuff. All the above-mentioned platforms offer free-of-cost online courses from renowned universities and educational institutions. You can register for these courses at no charge.
The above-mentioned platforms are easy to use and have a user-friendly interface. Whether you are looking for a cooking course or any course related to your processing, they are step-by-step destinations for you.
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