Top websites for online learning

Top websites for online learning

As little as five years ago, it was believed that nothing could ever replace or be as good as education in a four-walled classroom. What can beat face-to-face learning, social interaction, and bonding with your peers? Well, not much, but online training comes very close.

The benefits of studying and taking courses online far outweigh the drawbacks. Online education gives you the freedom to learn whatever you want, whenever you want. You can learn at your own pace, and the cost is much, much lower. Online courses also look impressive on a resume, as well as the fact that you can do it from the comfort of your own home.

We have cultivated a list of websites that can give you a look at the different kinds of platforms there are, as well as the various schools of knowledge and thought that you could take up.

Coursera.org is a free online educational platform with a wide variety of topics. It works by employing students and teachers who record video lectures, gives feedback on assignments, and participate in discussion forums to further help their students. Coursera collaborates with high ranking universities and schools, offering in-depth courses, at the end of which an E-Certificate is given to students.

Khanacademy.org is a website that offers a detailed explanation of topics; it is taught interactively and engagingly, making use of animated, recorded lectures where the teachers go through every problem step-by-step. Khan Academy is the most useful tool for students of hard sciences, such as mathematics, chemistry, and physics. The videos are highly detailed, and students from colleges, universities, and sometimes even teachers themselves make use of it.

edX.com is a website for which the foundation is solid. Funded by schools like Harvard, MIT, and UC Berkeley, edX is built on the idea that learning should be available for everyone regardless of cost, location, and access. They offer courses from all educational backgrounds, with courses such as Arts, Data Sciences, and Microbiology.

Code Academy has saved the lives and grades of many students all over the world. The leading website dedicated just to coding, Code Academy, teaches computer science at a different level. There are live sessions that you can practice as you watch, and one course naturally leads to the next in the series that should be learned, so nothing is worrying you other than just learning the material.   

One benefit of online education is that everyone wants to be part of it. Many of the highest-ranking Ivy League universities, which many of us can only dream of attending, have created open learning spaces online. You can take a course, get a certificate, and add it to your resume.

There are schools such as Harvard Extension School, Open Learning Initiative by Carnegie Mellon University, MIT Open Course Wave, Class Central by UC Berkeley, Open Yale Courses, and many more.   

So far, on this list, the majority of websites teach mainstream degree courses, such as hard and soft sciences. Yet there is an entire field of arts, humanities, and social sciences that needs to be taught. Masterclass is an online platform that is like no other. Famous creatives, such as the top actors, musicians, directors, composers, writers, etc. record videos on Masterclass and teach the ins and outs of their fields. Getting access to this content is $180 a year, but considering the experience and achievements of the people showing that content, it’s worth it.