BEST ONLINE SITES TO LEARN

Kathmandu, as well as most other parts of Nepal are now in lock down again. We are all stuck at home with almost nothing to do. Even if you work from home or have online classes, it is quite evident that we have a lot of free time on our hands. Instead of being lethargic and wasting this time, we can focus our energy on learning something new and being productive. If this is your mindset and you are looking to learn, we have compiled below a list of free learning sites.

Coursera

Coursera is currently the most used online learning platform in the world. It has over 200 partners and offers a total of 4744 courses. The courses included are of top universities like Stanford, Rice, Princeton, Harvard, Oxford and so on. Almost all courses are free but if you can pay, you will get a formal certificate of course completion too.

The lessons are amazing, and the platform works well in connecting you with the lecturers and peers. From physics to mindfulness, you can learn anything here. Coursera is best suited for you if you are looking to take university level courses on different topics for absolutely no charge.

Khan Academy

Khan academy is best known for its partnership with college board through which it offers official sat practice. (If you are planning on studying abroad, check out our article here ) Besides SAT too, Khan academy provides a wide range of high school and middle school courses.

Khan academy is very user friendly and hooks a user in a way that they actually want to learn. This model has helped thousands of students worldwide to succeed in school. It provides incredible depth and explanation to topics being taught in secondary school hence providing a comprehensive learning experience.

Sample Courses: Algebra, Geometry, Statistics & Probability, SAT

Ted-Ed

Ted-Ed is also a general learning website full of motivational speeches, info on societal issues and so on. The videos are skillfully designed to hook learners and every topic is explained in detail.

Ted-Ed is more of an everyday use learning site. You don’t learn any specific thing but can get elementary knowledge on a variety of things. Ted-Ed is used to teachers worldwide to better deliver their courses to their students. Due to its simple and engaging nature, Ted-Ed is a highly preferred website for classroom learning too.

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

BBC podcasts

Podcasts can be a great way to learn too. Especially if you move around a lot, tuning into a podcast on your way to work or cooking or whatever can help you continue learning new things.

BBC podcasts offers a wide variety of podcasts on many topics. They include but are not limited to finance, sports, news, business, social issues and so on. BBC podcast isnt a specific learning website per se but it can still be a great resource to know about more things.

Sample podcasts: “13 minutes to the moon”, “Dust, oceans and if a phone can tell whether you’re drunk”

edX

edX was first founded by US two best universities Harvard and MIT. It is much like coursera in that it brings together courses from universities worldwide. It offers almost as many courses as coursera but comparatively less courses are free.

Again, edX is for people who want to take university level courses form the comfort of their homes without a fee. It is an open source platform for educators willing to put in their courses. Hence you can find a wider variety of course options.

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

Udemy

Udemy is much like edX and coursera with one fundamental difference. The courses aren’t necessarily from universities or verified educators. It is open source for any content creator to put in their content.

Udemy can thus be very useful in learning miscellaneous skills and knowledge. Since any one can upload a course, there are over 100,000 courses in basically everything you can think of.

Sample courses: Introduction to Python Programming

These are our picks for the best free online learning sites. You can pick one or two of these and start learning right away, nothing is stopping you!