Attend Free Courses Online while Travelling

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Sometimes, long-term travel can start to feel like an endless vacation. And sure, that’s generally a nice feeling, but on occasion, it lacks a certain sense of accomplishment. After all, an education outside of real-life experiences is often put on hold, and some skills are simply better learnt in a chair than while hiking through the mountain tops – accounting, for example. So, just in case you want to take your travelling experience to the next level and up your CV a bit while you’re at it, attending free courses online is the way to go. There are several sites out there on the World Wide Web that offer a huge variety of online courses completely free of charge – perfect for the budget traveller! I’ve compiled a list of the best places to find free courses online, along with some recommended courses that are on offer right now. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Coursera.org

Definitely, my go-to site for fee courses online is coursera.org. This amazing website works with universities such as Stanford, UC San Diego, Duke University, Penn University, University of Michigan and more. The courses offered range in topics from data science, statistics, data engineering, and Java programming to more creative fields like photography and creative writing. Most courses come with a charge but do have the option of getting the course for free in return for not getting any diploma or other recognition at the end of the course (which, to be honest, is still a pretty good deal!).

EdX.org

Another great site to find free courses online is edx.org. Edx also works with major universities, such as Berkeley, Harvard, University of Queensland and the University of British Colombiainfo-icon. There are options of courses that allow you to earn a (signed) certificate and even courses that will earn you academic credit without an application or transcript. Some of these do come with a small fee though, so to keep it completely free opt for courses that don’t include these advanced options.

Lynda.com

The number one place for free courses online about topics such as photography, web development, design and marketing is definitely Lynda.com. This website works closely together with LinkedIn, so in case you want to be on top of your online CV game, Lynda.com is the place to go. Some popular courses include Photoshop tutorials that dive into image editing, retouching and colour correcting, WordPress classes, and “how to use Excel”-type courses. You can sign up for a free trial, but if you want unlimited access to all 5,992 courses you can sign up for a premium account.

Oedb.org

On oedb.org there is an “open” section, which holds the over 1,000 free courses offered – definitely a good place to find some free courses online, I’d say! This is another one of those websites that proudly works together with top-rated universities such as Capella University, Southern New Hampshire University and Walden University. They offer an incredibly varied field of courses, from “A Beginner's Guide to Dreamweaver” to “Academic Strategies for the Business Professional”. Other subjects related to health & medical, education, engineering, computer science, liberal arts, business and mathematics – whatever floats your boat, it’s on offer at oedb.org.

Openculture.com

If you’re looking for slightly shorter content, openculture.com is the place for you to find free courses online. The content is often pretty bite-sized, making it easy to opt for 30 minutes of study instead of watching another episode of your favourite TV show. Openculture.com offers anything from videos about Eastern art and archaeology, advanced political economy and environmental justice and human rights, to literature courses and explanations of major philosopher’s musings. Connected universities include Oxford University, University of Georgiainfo-icon, UC Berkely and John Prescott.

Harvard’s Open Learning Initiative

If you want to get real fancy, you could go to Harvard’s open learning initiative (part of their website) to find free courses online. Well, almost completely free, that is. There are 800 for-credit courses on offer at very reasonable tuition rates, along with a couple of courses that are completely free of charge. Topics you could study include abstract algebra, American poetry, computer science and world literature. And just in case you want some background-knowledge before you decide to volunteer at that far-away school, consider the course Saving Schools: History, Politics and Policy in US Education.

As you can see, the sky is the limit when it comes to finding free courses online. So whether you only have a few minutes a day to spare or want to dedicate a couple of days per week to your new-found studies, the right course is out there for you. Topics are really varied and most of the time it won’t cost you a single penny, so go ahead and tickle your brain while upping that résumé of yours!

What course are you going to follow?