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Free Online Classes for College Students: Top 5 Options!  

Updated: June 19, 2024 | Published: March 24, 2019

Updated: June 19, 2024

Published: March 24, 2019

Beginner’s Guide to Free Online College Classes (3)

Online learning is becoming increasingly popular, especially among students. You can get access to incredible resources, as well as interact with other learners through social media. However, many people are hesitant to take online courses because they’re worried about being scammed or wasting their time on subpar courses.  

With the wealth of available options, it can be hard to discern which ones provide valuable information. Let’s take a closer look at the five top options for free online classes for college students.  

Coursera 

Coursera is a free online course platform that offers over 2,000 classes from top universities. It has more than 30 million users and partners with more than 100 universities worldwide to provide unique, high-quality courses on various topics. You can earn transferable academic certificates when you complete these courses (approximately 3-5 hours per week). 

Coursera offers various classes in various subjects, including Business and Management, Computer Science and Data Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Health and Life Sciences. 

Open Culture 

Open Culture is a nonprofit website that posts free online classes and college courses from universities worldwide. They also have a wide selection of books, videos, and articles on philosophy, poetry, music, science, and more. If you’re looking for a class about an academic topic that isn’t offered at your school or university but is something that interests you, Open Culture may have it. 

Open Culture is a nonprofit organization. They strive to make educational resources available for free to anyone with an Internet connection. Along with their educational material, Open Culture also has a blog where they post articles on various topics, including education, books, and film. There’s no shortage of quality content for avid learners.  

edX 

edX is a nonprofit online learning destination founded by MIT and Harvard. It offers high-quality educational content from the world’s best universities, institutions, and companies to anyone with internet access. With over 6 million users worldwide, edX provides an interactive and engaging experience for learners of all ages, backgrounds, income levels, and career aspirations—opening up new opportunities for individuals everywhere with online college courses for free.  

To date, there are ten active courses on edx. The program offers high-quality educational content from the world’s best universities, institutions, and companies to anyone with internet access. With over 6 million users worldwide, edX provides an interactive and engaging experience for learners of all ages, backgrounds, income levels, and career aspirations—opening up new opportunities for individuals everywhere. 

Udemy 

Udemy offers 45,000 classes to students in over 180 countries. It has more than 2,000 instructors and 11 million students. Udemy’s wide range of topics includes business, marketing, coding, design, photography and video, health and fitness, music and audio production, language learning (including English), automotive maintenance and repair, computer science fundamentals, programming languages like Python 3 or JavaScript/HTML5, job skills training including resume-building strategies, interview preparation advice and more. 

As the name suggests, Udemy offers free online courses as well as paid ones at varying prices depending on instructor experience level (if any) or subject matter expertise required to teach specific topics like video game design principles or how to make money through affiliate marketing programs such as the Amazon Associates program. Udemy offers a solid variety of traditional and non-traditional subjects to continue your educational journey.  

TED-Ed 

A nonprofit organization that provides free online classes, TED-Ed is a website that offers free online courses. TED-Ed’s mission is to spread ideas through the power of video. Their videos are short, informative, and entertaining. TED-Ed videos are free to watch, but they also have a paid membership that allows you to access their entire library of online classes. 

TED-Ed videos are concise and engaging. They feature powerful speakers with plenty of valuable lessons to share. Their videos are short, informative, and entertaining. TED-Ed videos don’t cost anything to watch, but they also have a paid membership that allows you to access their entire library of online classes. Whether you’re looking for a short tutorial or want to dive deeper into a particular topic, TED-Ed has many great options for those looking to learn online.  

UoPeople 

UoPeople’s goal is to allow high school graduates to receive free online college courses without letting economic, regional, or personal obstacles get in the way. UoPeople is a nonprofit, accredited university that is entirely virtual. It has an impressive collection of academic programs. The spirit of UoPeople is to provide greater access for students to top-flight higher education programs worldwide. The best part is that UoPeople programs are tuition-free. 

No matter what level of higher education a student seeks, UoPeople can provide them with it. The university enables students to pursue master’s, bachelor’s, and associate’s degrees and certifications with majors in a variety of disciplines.  

UoPeople offers bachelor’s degrees in the following topics:   

  • Business Administration 
  • Computer Science 
  • Health Science 

Additionally, UoPeople offers master’s degrees in:   

  • Business Administration 
  • Information Technology 
  • Education 

At this time, the university has over 126,000 students found in over 200 countries worldwide. Beyond offering a comprehensive curriculum in various subjects, UoPeople also provides students with flexible scheduling that works for their lifestyles.  

The right online university is only a click away 

It’s never been easier to receive a comprehensive education with free online classes, no matter your location. That’s why the options described above are so desirable – they provide you with the same education you could receive in a traditional, physical classroom but can be taken from anywhere. The key is to identify which option works best for you.  

While there are always multiple options for online learning, the one with the most structure and best options is UoPeople. UoPeople’s academic programs can lead you into rewarding, enriching careers after school. UoPeople also pairs its students with academic advisors to help put them in a position to succeed.  

So what are you waiting for? Start your online journey today. Reach out to UoPeople for more on how our academic programs can lead you to a new career.  

At UoPeople, our blog writers are thinkers, researchers, and experts dedicated to curating articles relevant to our mission: making higher education accessible to everyone.
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