Learning something online these days is all the rage, and not just because it’s an easy way to kill a few spare hours. Online courses allow you to learn a new skill, on your own time, and without the traditional tuition costs that come with upgrading your education. In fact, free online courses from Udemy and Coursera let you improve in a certain area with no investment — well, except your time. And since the courses range from one hour to over 20 hours to complete, you can decide just how much time you want to put in.
Looking to explore other options than the ones below? Sites like Udacity or edX have thousands of other lessons you can peruse.
Coding Courses
Learning to code isn’t just important if you want to be a programmer or designer. Being able to speak a coding language will help you advance in your career because you’ll be better able to translate your ideas into stunning HTML, JavaScript, and CSS reality. Whether you’re ready to start designing your own website, looking to learn the basics, or advance your existing knowledge, these free coding courses are there to help.
- Machine Learning: Stanford offers this introduction to machine learning, which has influenced the development of self-driving cars, practical speech recognition, effective web search, and more.
- Learn to Program: The Fundamentals: Get up close and personal with Python programming in this introductory course.
- Algorithms, Part I: Algorithms and data structures and Java implementations, oh my!
- Become an Android Developer from Scratch: Want to build your own apps? Here’s where to start.
- Learn Ruby on Rails from Scratch: Learn the coding program behind sites like Twitter, Groupon, and Shopify.
- A How-to Guide in HTML: Learn the Basics of HTML with this free online course. You will get the chance to create your very own web page, with guidance along the way.
- Introduction to Game Development with Unity: Dive into Unity, the powerful and user-friendly game engine. You’ll familiarize yourself with the Unity interface as you learn to add and manipulate objects, control camera angles, and more.
Business and Marketing Courses
Thinking of starting your own business or taking on a new role in a growing company? You’re going to have to learn a lot in a hurry, so get a head start with a free online course. Essential skills in the modern entrepreneur’s toolbox include social media marketing, crowdfunding, and even drop shipping, all of which you can investigate through the following courses.
- Management of Fashion and Luxury Companies: Fashion is part art and part business, and this course will ensure you’re able to tackle the latter by offering strategic brand management advice for luxury and fashion companies.
- Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills: Asking for a raise, haggling over the price of a used car, deciding what to make for dinner — being able to negotiate will help you in many aspects of your life.
- Effective Small Business Marketing: Learn the keys to growing your customer base through optimal marketing strategies and network building.
- Sales and Marketing for Online Businesses: A guide to building an online business, driving traffic, and increasing sales.
- 7 Scientifically Proven Steps to Increase Your Influence: Improve your charisma and increase your impact on the people you meet.
- 5-Step Crowdfunding Master Class – Kickstarter PR: Learn how to create an attractive and engaging crowdfunding campaign for your next project.
- How To Start Dropshipping With Shopify and Aliexpress: Start your own ecommerce business, set up shop, and start shipping products — without ever having to handle any inventory.
Photography and Design
A great image can speak a thousand words, and that doesn’t just apply to photographs. For creatives of all kinds, learning more about your craft can elevate your art and help you create more meaningful and powerful images. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Give any of these courses a try and see what inspiration comes to you.
- Seeing Through Photographs: Available from MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art, and featuring images from its collection, this course explores the history and technologies that go into photography and how they inform our understanding of art.
- Web Design for Web Developers: Learn the basics of web design in just one hour with this educational course.
- Photoshop for Web Design Beginners: A Photoshop course for wannabe web designers looking to build a clean and simple web page.
- Photography Fundamentals: Learn and understand aperture, shutter, ISO, and all the basics.
- PowerPoint Slide Design: Learn the ins and outs of PowerPoint while creating five engaging presentations to include in your next meeting.
- Outstanding Composition: How to Blow Away Your Audience: Master different composition techniques and learn what makes a good photograph (and what makes a bad one).
- Learn Landscape Photography: Use your understanding of aperture, depth of field, composition, and more to capture beautiful landscape shots.
Productivity
Productivity is a skill that you’ll cherish for the rest of your life. Being a productive person lets you tackle tough tasks more confidently and gives you more time to enjoy the things in life you really want to spend your time on. From reading and writing more efficiently to learning how to focus, these courses have you covered.
- Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects: Turns out that learning itself is a skill you can master.
- Secret Sauce of Great Writing: Whether you’re mastering marketing copy, PR writing, or your personal blog, this lesson will help you take your editorial skills to the next level.
- 10 Free Blogging Tools That Will Make You a Better Blogger: Get eyes on your blog by mastering these 10 tools that can help you with ideation, headlines, graphics, and more.
- Concentration and Focus — The Principles of Deep Work: Study and apply Dr. Cal Newport’s “Deep Work” system to improve your schedule and work habits.
- A Mini Course on Better Reading: Make sure the time you spend reading is also time spent absorbing new information. This course promises to help you read books faster than you ever have before.
Health and Self-Improvement
Health and wellness are about more than just diet and exercise. They’re about feeling empowered mentally, emotionally and physically. No matter what aspect of your life you want to improve, these lessons will help you take steps toward a more fulfilling existence.
- Minimalism: Simplify Your Life: Minimalism has been embraced as a lifestyle because it promises to help you live simply and peacefully. Learn how to reduce your possessions with this simple, straightforward course.
- The Science of Well-Being: Brought to you by the minds at Yale, this course investigates what the science of psychology says about happiness (and how we can use that information to become happier people).
- Free Weight Loss Course — Weight Loss Made Simple: Learn to harness your body’s natural processes to lose weight without the frustration.
- Home Health & Herbal Remedies — Essential Favorites: Master some time-tested, old-school home remedies and make grandma proud.
- Learn to Swim — The Basics of Freestyle Swimming: Swimming is one of the best workouts, and this course will teach you effective and safe freestyle techniques.
- How to Build Confidence in Your Abilities: Defeat nagging self-doubt and cultivate an open, positive, and success-oriented mindset.
- Learn Social Psychology Fundamentals: Study the fundamentals of human psychology to better understand your own mindset and decision-making processes, as well as those of others.
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Updated on January 1, 2019: Revised the introduction and category introductions, added new coding, business, productivity, health and self-improvement, and photography courses.
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