Best Free Learning Websites

Khan Academy is a non-profit whose missions is "to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere." Khan Academy is free for both learners and teachers, and offers lessons for students from kindergarten through early college, with topic including math, grammar, science, history, AP® exams, SAT® and more. Khan Academy's founding partners include, among others, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Ann & Jon Doerr and Reed Hastings.

Sample Free Courses: Algebra, Geometry, Statistics & Probability

Founded by Harvard and MIT, edX is a global non-profit that seeks to remove three barriers of traditional education: cost, location and access. edX has more than 20 million learners and 2,400 courses from a majority of the top-ranked universities in the world. The courses can be accessed from anywhere, anytime, various experts worldwide prepare the contents.

Open edX is the open source platform behind edX, and it's open to educators and technologists who want to develop new educational tools. In addition to free courses, edX also offers courses for a fee.

Sample Free Courses: The Architectural Imagination (Harvard), Financial Analysis for Decision Making (Babson), Omnichannel Strategy & Management (Dartmouth)

Coursera is a leading e-learning platform that has quality learning courses to offer. It's one of the best e-Learning websites, and a variety of content is available on Coursera that helps so many people achieve what they desire professionally. 

Coursera has more than 35 million learners, 150 university partners, 2,700 courses, 250 specializations and four degrees. In addition to free courses, Coursera offers courses generally ranging from $29 - $99. Specializations and degrees are priced higher.

Course instructors include experts from the world's top colleges and universities, and courses include recorded video lectures, community discussion forums and both graded and peer-reviewed coursework. You can also receive a course certificate for each course you complete.

Sample Free Courses: Machine Learning (Stanford), The Science of Well-Being (Yale), Successful Negotiation (University of Michigan)

Udemy offers free courses which are similar to other e-learning websites. But it also allows its users to customize courses as per their needs and requirements. Udemy partners with educational institutions as well to provide top-notch quality content to its users.

Udemy, a global education marketplace, has 30 million students, 100,000 courses in 50 languages, 42,000 instructors and 22 million minutes of video instruction. Unlike other online education platforms driven by content from colleges and universities, Udemy allows content creators to curate their own courses and teach them online.

With time the variety of content on Udemy's free learning website is expanding rapidly, which is great for its users. It offers both free and as well as paid courses on its learning platform.

Sample Free Courses: Introduction to Python Programming, HTML5 and CSS3 Fundamentals, How to use SMART goals

TED-Ed is TED's award-winning youth and education arm whose mission is to share and spread ideas from teachers and students. TED-Ed has a global network of more than 250,000 teachers that serves millions of teachers and students around the world every week. TED-Ed includes innovative content such as original animated videos and a platform for teachers to create interactive lessons.

Sample Free Courses: The Mysterious Science of Pain, How Do Self-Driving Cars See, What Causes Turbulence

LinkedIn Learning is an educational outgrowth of the highly popular, professional networking platform. As you might suspect, this platform is focused on development of professional skills, with a catalog that is expansive at over 16,000 offerings. The plan is simplified, with only a single tier, but it can be subscribed to either annually or monthly. We also like the interactive basis of this platform, which focuses on demonstration of the skills obtained, with online quizzes and exercise files available. 

Sample Free Courses: Communication skills, Project Management foundations

While some platforms have courses by the thousands, MasterClass offers less, in numbers, with just over a hundred courses on offer. However, what it lacks in breadth of subject matter, it more than makes up for with its list of educators that easily qualify as Hollywood A-listers and the like. 

Another standout feature is that the content is high quality, with each course having trailers that could be shown in a movie theater to help students decide if the course is worth pursuing. While there are fewer courses on offer, also realize that each one is a comprehensive look at the subject, being broken up into around 20 segments, each averaging about 10 minutes in length.

Sample Free Courses: cooking classes, art classes

Codeacademy is an interactive platform that teaches you how to code in multiple different programming languages. Most free courses can be completed in less than 11 hours. Codeacademy has helped train more than 45 million learners in topics such as web development, programming, computer science and data science. Codeacademy alums work at Google, Facebook, IBM and Bloomberg, among other top companies. Codeacademy also offers a premium plan for a monthly fee.

Sample Free Courses: multiple programming languages

Skillshare is an online learning platform and community for creative people who want to learn illustration, design, photography, writing, technology, entrepreneurship, and more. Skillshare is a website where you can learn any number of skills by watching video lecture series, which helps you make good on that goal.

Skillshare—compared to other expensive online learning platforms—is absolutely worth it for beginners and experts looking for an at-your-own-pace learning experience. A Skillshare account gives you unlimited access to a wide variety of online classes. Skillshare offers the perfect balance of specific skill development and aspirational learnings to help students thrive in the real world.

Sample Free Courses: ecommerce course, music theory, video editing

Pluralsight is an elearning platform providing high quality online learning for technology related topics like IT, Data, Information & Cyber Security and much more. All of Pluralsight’s courses are self paced allowing you to learn in your own pace, it offers the most updated courses in technical training.

Pluralsight is not only for individuals, it is also designed to help businesses. Its courses have been designed and created by Pluralsight who have collaborated with top industry partners like Adobe and Microsoft.

Sample Free Courses: multiple programming languages