Undoubtedly, COVID-19 (the “coronavirus”) is going to have a lot of negative effects on many people. Not only is there the obvious one: illness, there is also the worry of collapsing economies, failing businesses and stagnated career growth.
However, in our optimistic opinion, we don’t feel that this pandemic should stop you from growing yourself… and there are plenty of ways you can do this while in the comfort of your own home. Don’t just binge on Netflix all day… instead take this opportunity to improve your skillset and make yourself a more valuable member of the workforce in the long-term.
The 10 Best Online Learning Course Platforms
One cost effective (and safe) way to develop yourself and your skills during this tricky time is to enroll onto some online learning courses.
These can be found on websites that provide users with access to digital classes and workshops that help them grow and develop their skills in particular areas. With the online learning market booming in recent years, and with it being estimated to be worth $325 billion by 2025, it has completely changed the way we learn.
Online courses empower millions of people from all over the world to build business, get an education or enhance their skills. They limit inhibiting factors, such a distance to an education facility or childcare. And, in your current case, it can’t be stopped by coronavirus.
It is really important for you to participate in these workshops as they help you to build up your CV and they give you something to do during this tricky and tough time. Below are our favorite 10 online learning platforms for you to use over the next few weeks and months.
1. Masterclass.com
Masterclass.com is an American online education platform, where you learn from the best by accessing tutorials and lectures recorded by experts in various fields.
Each master class includes video lessons, exercises, workbooks and interview sessions with the lecturer. A typical class is about two to five hours in total, containing about 10-25 video lessons that are roughly about 10 minutes long each.
We like Masterclass.com because it covers a broad range of topics, that are suitable for lots of people. From writing to sports, cooking to film and TV, music and entertainment to business, photography or fashion… Masterclass.com really does have you back covered.
In terms of cost, you can get unlimited classes for A$23.33 a month (billed annually) … bargain!
2. Udemy
Udemy is aimed at professional adults and students. As of 2020, the platform has more than 50 million students and 57,000 instructors. There are more that 150,000 courses available on the website and over 65 different languages are covered.
Udemy offers courses that are mainly focused on improving job related skills. Their top course categories include: development, business, design, IT and software, marketing, personal development, photography or music
You can sign up for as little as A$12.99p/m, but this does change dependent on the courses you decided to participate in.
3. Coursera
Founded by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, Coursera provides massive open online courses, specializations and degrees to a wide range of people.
This program is great because it covers a wide range of subject areas, including engineering, data science, machine learning, mathematics, business, computer science, digital marketing, humanities, medicine, biology and social sciences.
Courses last approximately four to ten weeks – with one to two hours of lectures a week. Each course provides quizzes, weekly exercises, peer graded assignments and sometimes even final projects or exams
As of 2017, Courser even began to offer a full master’s degree from the University of Illinois… pretty impressive!
You can join for free but you do have to pay for certain courses when you get on there. The price of this will vary dependent on the course you decide to pick.
4. Skillshare
Skillshare is another American online learning community for people who want to learn from educational videos.
Skillshare is great because a majority of the courses focus on interaction, rather than lecturing. Instead of watching videos, the goal is normally to complete small projects which you get feedback on.
Due to the creative nature of Skillshare, the courses typically cover things such as creative arts, design and entrepreneurship, lifestyle and technology.
You can start Skillshare for free and once a member some things remain free, whereas others can be purchased.
5. CreativeLive
CreativeLive broadcasts live classes to an international audience. The main focus of the site is on writing, photography and business.
Since 2010, the site has over two billion minutes of courses that have been watched by millions of students, with the average number of students tuned into each live broadcast often ranging from 20,000 to 60,000.
It uses a ‘freemium’ pricing model, which means that all classes are free to stream whilst they are live, But, in prior aired classes only some segments are free to watch and others can be purchased.
6. Alison
Alison is a free online education platform that focuses only on the development of workplace-based skills.
With 11 million registered learners, 2 million graduates and 1,000 courses available for free access, Alison is getting increasingly popular. Alison free courses focus on things such as technology, language, science, health, humanities, business, maths, marketing and lifestyle
The tool is, as mentioned, free for the basics, which is great considering your income might be unstable at the moment. However, you can upgrade to premium fop £7.99p/m which gives you access to more advance tools. You also have to pay for diploma’s and certificates.
7. edX
edX is a massive open online course provider. The site hosts online university-level courses in a range of disciplines (this is in case corona last years… or you really want some serious self-advancement).
edX focuses on computer science, language, data science, business & management, engineering and humanities.
The site is non-profit and due to this most courses are free, but there are some additional extras to pay if you want some more advanced content!
8. LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn learning offers video courses taught by industry experts in the field. The course mainly covers things such as software development, creative things or business skills. After completing each course, you get certificates to prove you’ve done it.
They are offering your first month for free. After this, you have to pay $39.99 a month. This gives you unlimited access to the courses and the expert instructors.
9. Udacity
Udacity programs provide learners with focused coursework that was developed with leading partners in the industry (e.g., google and amazon), who apparently hire many of the courses graduates.
Udacity focuses on vocational courses for professionals in the tech industry. They provide flexible learning programs that cover things such as data science, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cloud computing, business and programs.
Most of the courses are free. However, some are not and the price varies dependent on the course.
10. Codecademy
If you’re a bit more computer savvy, then Codecademy is an online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 12 different programming languages, such as HTML & CSS, Python or JAVA.
Codecademy has been around for seven years and has had over 45 million learners. When you participate in codecademy, you get instant feedback and get to put your new skills into practice straightaway.
Codecademy offers a basic free level but for more advance versions you will have to pay A$19.99pm.
Wrapping it up
So there you have it, 10 of the best online resources that we can use to develop ourselves while in quarantine. Sure you can still do a little TV binge-watching too, but our suggestion is to mix in a little personal development and skill-building into your daily routine. This way the post-COVID version of yourself is an even higher-value member of the workforce than the pre-COVID version.
PS – We’ve also recently written about ways to earn income from home during COVID-19. Why not learn some new skills (per above) and then apply those skills in one of the marketplaces we discuss here. Or even take this time to prepare for an entirely new career altogether?
Let us know if you decide to sign up for any of these great learning platforms… and please stay safe!
