In recent years, the availability of internet to the common man has been revolutionized. With the great internet, comes great opportunities(And also an addiction for social media). Almost, any youngster is having a high-speed internet on his phone or having access to their school/college wifi. To make a good use of it, here is a small list of online learning platforms where one can learn almost any subject he/she can think of. The courses offered online are also referred to as MOOCs(Massive Open Online Course).
-
Edx.org
Started in 2012 by Harvard university and MIT, EdX is one of the biggest online education providers today. The main thing to notice about EdX is that it’s a “nonprofit organization”, which means that all the courses offered are free of cost. Student or professional of any age can access any course they like. However, one might need to pay a negligible donation (50$ to 150$) to obtain an authorized certificate for some courses.
Key Facts:
- More than 70 world class universities and organizations are offering courses on EdX
- MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Kyoto University, IIT Bombay and IIM Bangalore are just some of the universities offering courses
- Microsoft partnered with EdX in 2015 and have been offering courses.
- Courses are offered across all the genres varying from economics, ancient history and ranging up to robotics and programming languages.
- Offers certificate programs, MicroMasters programs, and X series(2 to 7 courses under single subject) programs.
-
Udacity.com
Backed by industry giants like Google, Facebook, AT & T, and salesforce, this platform was launched in 2011. It is a commercial learning platform hence most of the advanced level courses are offered on a payable basis. Udacity even has various hiring partners with each course offered and students even get placed directly after finishing the course. Flipkart, PayTM, daily hunt and Haptik are some of the hiring partners in India.
Key Facts:
- Courses are mainly focused on programming languages, machine learning, app development and data analytics.
- In partnership with Google and other organizations, it offers Nanodegree programs starting at rupees 9800/month, which even offers a guaranteed job or full refund to the student.
- Over 1.6 million active users mainly from the US, followed by India and Britain.
- Some of the beginner level courses are open for all without any cost.
-
Khan Academy
Another nonprofit organization offering MOOCs for free to anyone and everywhere. Started in 2006 by Salman Khan, Khan Academy offers courses ranging from Kindergarten topics and going up to university level advanced subjects. All the videos are hosted on YouTube while the site of Khan Academy serves as a wrapper and provides supplemental material for the course.
Key Facts:
- Operates solely on the funding provided by individuals and philanthropic organizations.
- Official partner of SAT exam. Also offers preparatory courses for GMAT, MCAT, and NCLEX-RN.
- No course completion or authorized certificate is provided.
- Hosts over 20,000 closed captioned course based videos.
-
Coursera
Started in 2012 in the USA, a course is a commercial learning platform. However, most of the course videos and tests are open for registered users. One might need to pay fees to get an authorized certificate and to get his/her coursework evaluated.
Key Facts:
- up to 25000$ for a 1-3 year online degree.
- Some of the partnered universities are Stanford, Princeton, Arizona State University, Georgia Tech and much more.
- Courses offered in the field of language learning, social sciences, business, physical science, computer science, personal development and much more.
- Over 150 partnered universities and organizations offering in total 2058 courses.
-
Iversity.org
Iversity is a Europe based nonprofit organization in the field of MOOCs. All the courses are open for all and free to learn. Official course completion certification is available at a nominal fee. Courses are mainly offered in English and German languages, however, other languages are also available including French, Italian, Spanish and Chinese.
Key Facts
- Iversity has more than 7.5 lacs active users and received over 5 million euros in funding within a year of launch.
- Some of the partnered universities are RWTH Aachen, University of Buckingham, European University Institute and the University of Mainz.
- Individual lecturers and professors design their own courses with help from Iversity.
- First European platform offering MOOCs, some programs are even eligible for ECTS-credit points.
Apart from these, there are many more players working in the field of online education. You can check out Udemy.com, Microsoft Virtual Academy, General assembly, and Code.org. There is no better way to use your spare time and learn new skills than doing online courses. It’s free, easily accessible and career enhancing.