There are countless reasons for furthering your education, too many to count really.
Perhaps you want to get a leg up on the competition or add a new skill set to your professional wheelhouse. Maybe you’re just trying to learn Photoshop so you can set up an Instagram influencer account for your dog. Whatever your reasons, we have curated a list with our top five online-education resources. Now go out there and hit the virtual books!
Coursera
Coursera partners with top universities and educational organizations throughout the world to offer some of the best interdisciplinary course curriculum online. Each course features prerecorded videos, projects and quizzes to help you internalize information. Connected to each course are forums to help you connect with thousands of other curious minds to discuss the material to master concepts and debate ideas. It’s best for students and people of all ages looking to broaden their education with free online courses from more than 100 top universities in the world.
edX
edXwas founded by Harvard University and MIT in 2012 to offer high-quality online courses from more than 130 global partners consisting of leading universities, nonprofits and educational institutions from throughout the world. From computer science, engineering, electronics, biology, marketing to languages, if you want to learn about it, chances are you can learn about it on this freely available open-source platform.
Udemy
Udemy is one of the largest online-learning marketplaces in the world. With a library of more than 65,000 courses, Udemy has been able to deliver low-cost, high-quality online courses to the masses. Instructors who are experts in their field teach each course. Several big-name companies, including Lyft, PayPal, MetLife and Volkswagen have used Udemy’s curated collection of business and technical courses to retrain and further the education of their employees. Udemy is best for professionals looking to expand their knowledge in a specific area or keep up to date with the ever-changing technical landscape.
Lynda
Lynda provides courses in areas such as business and professional development, web design and development, mobile-app development, marketing and sales, design and photography, among several more topics. Lynda is supported by a subscription-based business model that allows you to access courses and tutorials for a low monthly fee. It offers a 30-day free trial, which includes access to all 6,812 courses available, all of which can be accessed virtually anywhere with offline learning.
Skillshare
Skillshare is a subscription-based site offering more than 21,000 classes, courses, projects and workshops. The course subjects vary from the micro (Getting Started with Email Marketing, Learn with MailChimp) to the macro (Going Freelance: Building and Branding Your Own Success). The company also offers a premium version of its site, with introductory rates starting at 99 cents for two months of unlimited classes with absolutely no commitments. Skillshare is best for improving your professional skill set or adding a new skill set to your professional wheelhouse, pursuing a passion project and learning the skills you need to start that side hustle.
Today's Woman to Watch is the co-founder and current co-chair of Coursera board, Daphne Koller! Coursera is an education platform that partners with top universities and organizations worldwide to offer courses online for anyone to take for free! To learn more, click here!