If you’ve been laid off recently or simply looking to change careers, then you may be looking to pick up a new skill quickly. In the past that would probably mean you’d need to enroll in some classes at a college or university.
The Internet is now home to several online learning websites that (in some cases) can be better than college.
The ballooning costs of higher education may be a turn off to some. Luckily the web is providing some amazing (and cheap!) alternatives for learning online. Here are 5 excellent sites I’ve found that you may not know about.
1. Memrise is an incredible social learning tool that can help you memorize almost anything. It was founded by memory champion Ed Cooke and neuroscientist Greg Detre. The initial focus was on learning new languages but they’ve recently expanded their efforts into general knowledge as well. The site turns the process of memorization into a fun game that makes it easy to learn. The best part is anyone can make a new course using their software.
2. Khan Academy. Salman Khan started making math tutorials for his cousins and putting them on YouTube. After the videos started to become incredibly popular, Sal decided to quit his job at a Wall Street hedge fund and make tutorial videos full time. The site can teach you almost any 101 course that a university could. In addition to the videos, Khan Academy now has an innovative interactive math course that takes you through arithmetic, pre-algebra, algebra and trigonometry.
3. Lynda.com is an industry leader in online education. The site’s main teaching focus is on productivity software like Adobe programs, but they also teach coding and other niche skills. Unlike the previous entries, Lynda costs money but it’s high value and much less expensive than taking a college course.
4. Code Academy is one of the best new sites of 2011. It teaches programming languages in a fun and interactive way. Way better than trying to learn code from a textbook! From the developers:
Codecademy was created out of the frustrations Zach and Ryan felt with learning how to program. Tired with less effective text and video resources, Ryan and Zach teamed up to create Codecademy, a better, more interactive way to learn programming by actually coding.
5. Udemy is a platform for creating online courses on literally anything. It has both free and paid courses available. Professors can use it as an additional tool to teach their classes, create entire courses to sell or create courses for free. Udemy empowers any educator to share their knowledge with the world. As the developer explains:
Udemy’s goal is to disrupt and democratize the world of education by enabling anyone to teach and learn online.
Just as blogging democratized the publishing industry (enabling anyone to instantly become a journalist), Udemy seeks to dramatically change education by empowering millions of experts around the world to teach & share what they know.
Of course, none of these websites are going to give you a degree. But with the skills you could learn from these sites, you might be able to launch your own business or find a high paying job with the right skill set.
Have you tried any of these learning websites before? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below.
Do you know of any sites that provide webdesign courses for free? Lynda has definitely some of the most powerful courses available.
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