The internet may appear to be an endless cycle of distractions, however, amid the noise, there exists a wealth of resources designed not just to engage but also to enlighten, offering structured learning from the world’s leading institutions—all without the price tag of a traditional education. Here are some of the best ones:
For All Ages
YouTube Education – Perhaps the best start to making online learning fun and engaging is with YouTube Education. It’s exactly the same user experience as YouTube but only with educational content.
Khan Academy – Offers a vast range of free courses in many subjects, including math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. It’s great for learners of all ages.
TED-Ed – Features educational videos on a wide range of topics, from art and science to personal development. These engaging videos come with supplemental materials to deepen the learning experience.
Duolingo – A popular language-learning platform that is completely free. It offers courses in 30+ languages, including Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, and Korean.
More Advanced
edX – Offers free online courses from prestigious universities like Harvard and MIT. You can audit courses for free or opt to pay for a verified certificate.
MIT OpenCourseWare – Features a large collection of free course materials from a wide range of MIT’s courses, allowing you to learn at your own pace.
Open Yale Courses – Provides free access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University.
Codecademy – Offers free coding classes in 12 different programming languages including Python, Java, Go, JavaScript, Ruby, SQL, C++, C#, Swift, and Sass, as well as markup languages HTML and CSS.
Academic Earth – Offers an extensive collection of free online college courses from the world’s top universities.
For The Archives
Internet Archive – Also known as the Internet Archive, is a digital library offering free access to a massive collection of digitised materials, including websites, books, music, software, and movies.
Project Gutenberg – A treasure trove of over 60,000 free ebooks, focusing on older literary works for which copyrights have expired.
Google Scholar – A simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources.
Wikipedia – Although typically seen as an unreliable source for academic research, Wikipedia is still one of the best starting points when approaching new topics, as high quality sources are listed, and a network of volunteers write, update, and curate its content, ensuring a democratic approach to information.
So next time you’re online, why not turn that browsing time into learning time? It’s a simple switch that can really pay off, transforming the internet from a source of distraction into a source of inspiration.
Looking for more engaging, educational content for your kids? Check out The Educational Podcast for Kids.
