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Free online learning platforms for students and independent learners. Including personal development, programming, Accounting and entrepreneurship studies.
Looking to acquire new skills or to upgrade your skills for on demand job opportunities?
Not enough time or money to learn so many skills or you’re just a lifelong learner?
There are many online platforms (OCW) where you can gain access to tons of free practical educational materials.
Some of these courses are provided by leading colleges and universities so you can learn at home.
Others classes are offered by leading instructors on Open Course Ware platforms.
One of the highlights of the OCW movement is free studies in Entrepreneurship.
MIT entrepreneurship courses are some of the most sought after by independent learners.
These are courses you can complete on your free time from home.
Examples of the universities offering online OpenCourseWare include; Harvard, University of Toronto, MIT and Stanford university.
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What are the free trending OCW classes?
The OCW platforms offer free classes on nearly every college subject. These however are some of the more trendy courses taken by independent learners.
- Science
- Accounting
- Web Design
- Computational thinking
- Mathematics
- Economics
- Finance
- Programming with Python
- Algebra
- Personal Development
- Education
- Entrepreneurship – starting a business
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Who is using free OpenCourseWare to learn online?
The users of free OCW are generally looking to learn more about a subject, want to change career or just to improve their skill sets.
Generally, these free OCW do not offer credits or a certificate. Some do offer credits when you use the paid online classes.
According to MIT’s site statistics here is the breakdown of online learners.
- 43% are students – Students use OCW to enhance personal knowledge and to complement other course of studies. The free OCW classes are used as tools to help them pass difficult subjects.
- 42% are self-learners – Independent learners mainly use OCW to explore areas of studies outside their core competencies.
- 9% are educators – Teachers and other educators use the OCW as supplement to other courses and to improve personal knowledge.
MIT Free OpenCourseWare courses
MIT has large libraries of OCW in the fields of business, psychology, engineering and architecture.
It’s debatable whether or not this material will make you an expert. However, students and teachers use them as supplement to their studies.
MIT offers over 2,000 free courses on its OCW platform over the internet.
Two unique resources in the MIT Open Course Ware are courses for High School and online textbooks.
University of Toronto OpenCourseWare
The University of Toronto free open courses includes Psychology, Programming, Language learning, Social Sciences, Personal Development and Arts and Science.
The format for these free lessons are on a Massive Online Open Courses at Coursera and edX. You can register at these platforms for free to learn online from the University of Toronto open courses.
Harvard University free online courses
Harvard Open Course Ware on edX is one of the most popular free online learning platform. Game development, Python and JavaScript programing are among the most trending classes.
On edX you have the option to take most Harvard online classes for free or paid if you want credits awarded.
Some of the learning categories include mathematics, computer science, education and teaching, business and arts.
University of Michigan free online learning
Michigan university offer its free online learning on the coursera platform. There are free courses in Finance, Statistics, programing, Computers and other subjects.
If you scroll down on the coursera platform and click on a class of interest, you’ll see if it’s offered for free at UM.
Stanford University open course ware
Stanford offers free courses taught by its instructors and industry leaders in various subjects. Health and Science, Engineering, Education and other topics are provided at no cost to you online.
Yale University open courses
Yale encourages learning thru the coursera platform and offer free online courses in video format. Law, Psychology, Finance, Music are some of the topics provided at no cost to you.
Khan Academy Open Course Ware
Khan Academy is popular for its free lessons for elementary and High School subjects. However, this platform also offers more advanced topics at no cost for independent learners.
If you’re looking to learn or to upgrade your knowledge in business topics, Khan has some free OCW for you.
Free online courses offered by Khan Academy include topics in Finance, Accounting, Physics, Biology and Chemistry.
Final Thoughts
These are 7 online resources for at home learning. Independent learners can expand their skills for free using some of these platforms.
Students and life long learners looking to complement their main subjects can access these lessons on videos and thru downloadable formats.
The goal of these universities and platforms is to offer learning at no cost with convenience.
Most of these OpenCourseWare don’t offer certificates or degrees. They are however very valuable as supplemental materials for skills enhancement.
7 Best Open CourseWare for Free Online Learning At Home
- MIT
- University of Toronto
- Harvard University
- University of Michigan
- Standford University
- Yale Unversity
- Khan Academy
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