Online courses provide widely recognized certificates which help students to enhance their knowledge as well as to boost employability. Few of the courses are listed below.
Coursera has partnered with leading universities in the U.S. and around the world to provide online courses covering dozens of different subjects. Recently, they’ve introduced “specializations”—10 different course pathways that will lead to an official certification from an associated university.
Coursera has a wide diversity of subjects available to choose from; everything from data science to musical theory. As Coursera prides itself on being accessible to everyone, many of the courses are either free or very cheap to take, with only the official certification at the end having a higher cost involved.
A veteran in the online education space, Lynda.com offers a subscription-based video tutorial library. Think of it as an education-based Netflix. A great option for people who are visual learners. A Lynda.com membership provides access to more than 80,000 videos on a broad range of different subjects.
With an average of 800 new courses added to their repertoire every month, Udemy is a bit more expensive than its competitors. Costs vary broadly, ranging from $10 to $500 for different courses; the most popular Udemy courses in business and technology tend to be upwards of $100. However, you can read the reviews of former students before signing up to any of the courses, so you can make a more informed decision.
Udacity is a platform with a strong focus on technology, with a small but well-crafted selection of courses. If you’re looking to break into data science, Udacity’s data science program has an impressive roster of teachers from companies like Salesforce and Facebook.
Khan Academy is a non-profit online platform providing a completely free library of educational “micro-lectures.” Focusing on more traditional academic subjects, Khan Academy provides a mix of video and text-based materials in math, science, economics, humanities, and a bit of computer programming. Since Khan Academy is free for anyone to use, it’s a great to way to get a taste for a subject before moving onto a more advanced course elsewhere.
Previously backed by the White House, Codecademy is dedicated to teaching people how to code—and it’s available for free. While other online coding courses are a “learn at your own pace” environment, Codecademy motivates learners to keep a fast pace using supportive groups and a gamified points system.
The school offers courses on a number of languages-including PHP, Phython and Ruby-and students are often already building and deploying projects by the time they finish their course.
Skillshare is a community marketplace for new skills. With a broad range of different subjects to choose from, Skillshare offers an online catalog of video-based courses, as well as in-person workshops in cities like San Francisco and New York.