How often are we at home for weeks with no social engagements to host or attend? It’s the perfect time to immerse yourself in activities (and learning) that you otherwise don’t have the time for. It’s that rare opportunity to embark on a journey to up-level your skills with free online courses so you are more than ready for a career-jump when all of this is over.
We recommend you begin with creating a learning calendar with specific, time-bound learning goals that will help you stay on track with these self-paced online courses. As they say, writing down your goals is the most important thing.
Here are a few things you could include in your learning calendar:
- Skills you want to hone
- Platforms that offer relevant free online courses for those skills
- Course duration
- Daily/weekly time needed to complete the online course
- Start date
- End date
Here’s a sample template for your online learning:
Online Learning Calendar (Sample Template) |
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| Skill | Platform | Course Duration | Weekly Hours Needed To Complete | Start Date | End Date | |
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | ||||||
| 3 | ||||||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 | ||||||
Once you are ready with your calendar, it’s time to get started on actual learning. To help you on your journey, we have put together a list of 60+ platforms that offer online courses across tech, design, coding, leadership, and more!
Some of these platforms offer free Ivy League courses that are self-paced. While most of these online courses are free, if you are looking for online courses with certificates, you will have to pay a small fee.
60+ Platforms Offering 1000s of Online Courses That You Can Take Right Now:
| Platform | What it offers |
| codespaces.com | Find the best courses, certifications, training & tutorials online. Choose from free and paid resources handpicked by our team of experts. |
| datasciencedegreeprograms.net | Your Guide to Campus and Online Data Science Programs |
| greatlearning.in | No.1 Ranked online and classroom courses on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Business analyst, Deep Leaning, Data Science Engineering, Cloud Computing, DevOps Engineering, Get certified by Top Ranked Universities. Visit us to explore more. |
| emeritus.org | Emeritus provides online executive education programs in collaboration with top universities from across the globe |
| coursalytics.com | Browse and compare thousands face-to-face and online courses for executives all over the world and choose to boost your leadership skills. Read detailed program descriptions and faculty profiles to find the best match. |
| execonline.com | Meet the industry leader of leadership development. Introduce a new solution to your organization that provides you access to online leadership development programs from top universities while driving impact and success to both your business and its talent. |
| discoverdatascience.org | Find the best data science degree programs and bootcamps both online and on campus. Read expert advice and leverage in-depth resources to choose a great school. |
| redvector.com | RedVector delivers best-in-class online training and continuing education to a wide range of industries to help them reduce risk, improve performance, renew certifications and satisfy compliance requirements. |
| trumplearning.com | TrumpLearning: 100s of experts have come together to pick the best online courses, certifications & trainings to help you jump start your learning & career. |
| campus.sagepub.com | Learn data science online by social scientists, for social scientists. Institutions and universities use our online data science courses to upskill students, faculty and researchers in Python, R, data visualization and more. |
| futurelearn.com | Online Courses and Degrees from Top Universities |
| classcentral.com | Discover thousands of free Ivy League online courses and MOOCs from top universities and companies on Class Central. |
| mooc-list.com | Free Online Courses from Coursera, edX, Futurelearn and other top providers in a wide range of subjects. |
| alison.com | Free online courses with certificates. Join 2 million graduates and empower your career. |
| distancelearningportal.com | Find and compare online Bachelor and Master degree programmes as well as PhDs and short courses from top universities worldwide. |
| digitaldefynd.com | Find the Best Courses, Tutorials & Certifications Online |
| universalclass.com | Universal Class is the place to continue your education online and fulfill all your lifelong learning goals. |
| ecornell.com | eCornell provides online certificate programs across marketing, management, hospitality, human resources and more. Learn more about eCornell today! |
| getsmarter.com | Gain the recognition, competencies and confidence you need to take the next step in your career with an online short course from a top university. |
| udacity.com | Advance your career with online courses in programming, data science, artificial intelligence, digital marketing, and more. Built with industry leaders. |
| oxfordhomestudy.com | Oxford Home Study College is one of the leading UK Home Study Colleges offering fully endorsed online courses. |
| mooclab.club | Connecting People to Online Learning |
| academicearth.org | Find free online courses, lectures, and videos from the best colleges in the US. Take online classes from schools like Yale, MIT and Stanford. |
| skillshare.com | Skillshare is a learning platform with online classes taught by the world’s best practitioners. Personalized, on-demand learning in design, photography, and more. |
| udemy.com | Udemy is an online learning and teaching marketplace with over 100,000 courses and 24 million students. Learn programming, marketing, data science and more. |
| openculture.com | Your guide to free educational media. Find thousands of free online courses, audio books, textbooks, eBooks, language lessons, movies and more. |
| uopeople.edu | The world’s first non-profit, tuition-free, US-accredited, online university. |
| uclaextension.edu | UCLA Extension provides best in class education in marketing, business, engineering, arts, and much more. Classes held in several convenient locations or online! |
| cybrary.it | Take your career to the next level with Cybrary’s online Cyber Security courses. Join the only free cybersecurity training that can help get you there! |
| edx.org | Access 2000 free online courses from 140 leading institutions worldwide. Gain new skills and earn a certificate of completion. Join today. |
| onlinecourses.com | Free online courses, videos and lectures from the world’s leading universities like Yale, MIT, Stanford, and Harvard. Over 500 courses right at your fingertips. |
| learndirect.com | Inspiring people to realise their potential through distance learning and online courses. |
| learnaboutfilm.com | Free online film school for everyone. Learn filmmaking, film storytelling, how to plan, shoot and edit a movie. |
| open.edu.au | Study online and graduate with a degree from leading Australian universities. |
| masterclassmanagement.com | Free Online People Management Courses with Certificates of Completion. Learn People Management Skills and How to be a Great Manager and Leader. |
| findamasters.com | Postgraduate Masters Degrees, courses & programmes in Europe, including online and distance learning courses |
| learndigital.withgoogle.com | Free online marketing training to get the digital skills you need to grow your business, your career. Free courses from Google to become a digital expert |
| humanrightscareers.com | We make human rights careers accessible to everyone. Explore free online courses, paid internships, top human rights masters and other opportunities. |
| cyberdegrees.org | Learn about cybersecurity degree options and career paths. Browse our comprehensive directory of online and on-campus cyber degrees across the US. |
| opencolleges.edu.au | Open Colleges is Australia’s leading online educator. Study a wide range of nationally recognised & accredited courses at your own pace. Flexible, affordable. |
| bestcolleges.com | Start your search for the best online college for you here! We have the resources you need to meet your education and career goals. |
| intellipaat.com | Intellipaat offers professional certification online training courses authored by industry experts. Learn the high in-demand skills from our experts. |
| freecodecamp.org | Learn to code with free online courses, programming projects, and interview preparation for developer jobs. |
| codecademy.com | Learn the technical skills you need for the job you want. Start with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, Python, Data Science, and more. |
| hackr.io | Find the best courses and tutorials recommended by the Programming community. Pick the most upvoted tutorials as per your learning style: video-based, book, free, paid, for beginners, advanced, etc. |
| simplilearn.com | Simplilearn, one of the world’s leading certification providers, offers short-term online training courses to help professionals get certified and get ahead. |
| learningtree.com | Learning Tree provides award-winning IT training, certification & management courses. Attend online, in the classroom, on-demand, on-site or a blended solution. |
| freevideolectures.com | Free Online Courses with video lessons from best universities of the World. Courses from IIT’s, MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Coursera, edX, FutureLearn, Udacity, Udemy etc… Some of the courses can be downloaded to watch offline. |
| computerscienceonline.org | Find the best computer science schools, degree programs and courses online. Read expert advice, in-depth resources and learn what’s cutting-edge in CS today. |
| affordablecollegesonline.org | Compare thousands of online colleges and programs by cost and quality to find the best options for you. |
| edureka.co | Edureka is an online training provider with the most effective learning system in the world. We help professionals learn trending technologies for career growth. |
| skillcrush.com | Online classes in web design, coding, and other marketable digital skills. Learn the skills that will get you hired, guaranteed. |
| learn.org | Degree directory of online degrees, associate degrees, bachelor degrees and graduate degrees including business colleges, nursing schools and engineering universities by geographic region. |
| coursebuffet.com | Find free college equivalent online courses (MOOC) from top free course providers & universities. Find & compare courses from Coursera, Udacity, Futurelearn & other massive open online courses websites |
| straighterline.com | Take StraighterLine low cost online courses for college credit. Credits are guaranteed to transfer to any of our partner colleges. Start a free trial today! |
| edukatico.org | Edukatico is a search portal for online courses, showing thousands of video courses from all subjects in its directory. |
| pluralsight.com | The tech skills platform that provides web development, IT certification and online training that helps you move forward with the right technology and the right skills. Thousands of on-demand courses for popular programming languages, developer tools and more! |
| collegechoice.net | College Choice offers numerous free online resources to help you in your college search, including our unique student-centered college rankings and more |
| coursesity.com | Find the best courses on programming, design, marketing, business, test prep, health, personal development and anything you want to learn. Discover the best online courses & tutorials on the internet for your next learning. |
| ed2go.com | With hundreds of online classes, career training programs, and certification prep courses, we have the professional development you need to start a new career or get your next promotion. |
| codingdojo.com | Interested in starting your new career in tech? Learn to code at one of the top coding bootcamps. Build your first website and app in a matter of weeks. We teach Python, Java, .NET, iOS, Javascript and more. Online learning options and scholarships available. Learn more today! |
| accreditedschoolsonline.org | Search accredited online schools & online colleges. Online degree programs are offered by the nation’s best colleges – make sure yours is accredited. |
| bitdegree.org | Looking for the best online courses? Click here and gain or improve digital skills on our eLearning platform. Enroll in the best online courses today! |
| saylor.org | Free online courses available across the world. Build new skills or work towards a degree at your own pace with free Saylor Academy courses! |
| snhu.edu | Southern New Hampshire University offers 200+ career-focused programs to more than 100,000 students online. |
So, now you have all you need to get started on a brand new journey of learning, up-skilling and growing your career!
At the same time, it’s a good idea to build your online portfolio to show off all the new skills you that you learn. It’s also a great side-project for you to build a virtual portfolio.
