We had our team research the top online course websites. These 25 education sources are not in rank order, so just give it a look and explore. Most of these are free online course sites while others have a subscription or pay-per-course model. Many of these sites offer certificates for completing online courses. You will also find free online courses or education opportunities on this list from prestigious universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Yale. In addition to being a student, you can also be a teacher and create your own online courses on a platform like our recommendations Teachable or also Thinkific.

TOP ONLINE COURSE PLATFORMS and WEBSITES for 2023 [FREE & PAID]

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Coursera

Coursera is an online learning platform that offers thousands of online courses in partnership with the world’s leading universities and companies. It offers free individual courses as well as Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs. University students can enroll given that their university is included in Coursera’s partners’ program. For non-university students, costs may vary per course, specialization, and certificate.

For some courses, you can enroll for free and then pay to get the certificate. For other courses, you can buy a monthly subscription and access a number of courses as long as you pay the monthly fee.

Skillshare

Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes on topics including illustration, design, photography, and more. To access Skillshare classes, just create an account that comes with a 7-day free trial. After the trial period, you can pay the annual membership fee to access all the classes.

edX

Founded by Harvard and MIT, edX is an online learning platform providing massive open online courses (MOOC). edX offers high-quality online courses from leading universities and organizations from around the world. Most of the courses are free, though you can pay for an optional upgrade to have a certificate upon completion.

MasterClass

MasterClass is a streaming platform where you can watch or listen to hundreds of videos taught by popular celebrities and experts from industries such as acting, leadership, photography, cooking, and more.

To have full access to all of the classes available, an annual membership of $180 is needed and MasterClass offers a 30-day guarantee if it’s not for you.

LinkedIn Learning

Formerly known as Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning is an online learning platform that offers extensive video skills and a tutorial library covering the latest business, technology, and creative skills. It has a monthly subscription that includes LinkedIn’s Premium Career features so it can be useful for growing your career.

MIT OpenCourseWare

MIT OpenCourseWare is a free, publicly accessible, openly-licensed digital collection of high-quality teaching and learning materials. Available courses include the syllabus and instructional materials you need. MIT OpenCourseWare offers undergraduate and graduate-level courses in business, energy, fine arts, the humanities, math, science, teaching, and more. You don’t need to enroll or even sign up for an account to access the courses.

Academic Earth

Academic Earth is a collection of free online college courses from some of the world’s leading universities and colleges. On its site, you’ll be able to find specific courses in many subjects as well as search by university. Additionally, it compiles playlists and video groups to assist you in learning from a variety of providers.

Academic Earth is a good place to start your journey. It collects many free courses from around the world, so you may click on a lesson plan and be taken to another partner on our list.

Reliablesoft Academy

Reliablesoft Academy is a digital marketing training company offering a range of online digital marketing courses. All courses are highly practical and taught by experts with years of SEO and Digital Marketing experience.

The digital marketing academy launched in 2016 and is part of Reliablesoft Digital Marketing Agency. Reliablesoft Academy is trusted by thousands of students who use our courses to get certified and improve their digital marketing skills.

Alison Learning Paths

Alison is one of the world’s largest free learning platforms for education and skills training. It is a for-profit social enterprise whose mission is to allow anyone to study anything online for free, at any level, and from anywhere at any time.

Alison provides all of its courses for free, as stated in its mission statement. Of course, the trade-off for that is that you will see ads throughout the platform, which seems like a good deal. However, if you are not interested to see the ads, you can pay their monthly fee.

Stanford Online

Stanford Online offers a wide range of educational opportunities to help you meet your personal learning goals, wherever you are in your life or career. In addition to providing courses and programs, Stanford Online works with other organizations to offer specialized educational content on their platforms.

Stanford Online is operated and managed by the Stanford Center for Professional Development, a leader in global, online, and extended education.

TED-Ed

The TED-Ed platform allows users to take any TED Talk, TED-Ed Lesson, or educational video and easily create a lesson plan of customized questions and discussions. TED-Ed produces a growing library of original animated videos, provides an international platform for teachers to create their own interactive lessons and helps curious students around the world bring TED to their schools and gain presentation literacy skills.

Canvas Network

Canvas Network provides K-12 and Higher Ed educators with free, open professional development courses, and some of its courses are also open to the public. Its content is also available under an open license, so if you want to ultimately create your content and lesson plans, you can utilize what Canvas makes available in some cases. Canvas offers courses and tools in a variety of languages, making it open and more accessible. You can access a wide range of content and lessons by signing up with just an email.

Canvas Network courses are taught by educators from around the world and focus on ways to help educators thrive in their classrooms and their careers.

Udemy

Udemy is one of the largest learning platforms offering a wide range of courses that are constantly being added to daily by new teachers. Its course may cost anywhere between $11.99 and $199.99 a course. It also offers Udemy for Business with Team plan which costs $360 per user, per year, and the Enterprise plan which is customized based on the number of users but needs a minimum of 21 users. Besides paid courses, you can also find almost 600 free courses on the site.

Acumen Academy

Acumen Academy is the world’s school for social change. Its courses focus on equipping people around the world with practical tools and innovative mindsets to become more active and effective at tackling poverty. Acumen Academy offers Team Courses and Master Classes. Team courses are free but are open for a limited period of time while Master classes are paid but have no expiration date.

Udacity

Udacity is a for-profit massive open online course (MOOC) provider. Entry-level programs to highly advanced and specialized programs are offered in Udacity which includes Artificial Intelligence, Business, Cloud Computing, Data Science, and more.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a non-profit, educational online platform providing a free library of “micro-lectures.” It offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that lets learners study at their own pace in and out of the classroom. Khan Academy provides a mix of video and text-based materials.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Khan Academy expanded its online services, and learners of all ages can benefit from the growth of its content, lesson plans, and more.

Codecademy

Codecademy is an online learning website that is focused on teaching coding. It offers courses in different coding languages including Python, Java, and SQL. Free courses are available on the site although the content and real-world projects are limited, it is a great way to start learning. Pro membership is also available for individuals, students, and teams which offers more direct guidance and support for creating a real-world portfolio to start a freelance career.

iTunes U

iTunes U is a collection of educational audio and video files from universities, museums, and public media organizations. In many cases, you’ll be able to get audio and video of lectures, have access to some books and materials and even download quizzes with answer keys.

Open Yale Courses

Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. Each course includes a full set of class lectures produced in high-quality video accompanied by such other course materials as syllabi, suggested readings, exams, and problem sets. Many courses are foundational and introductory reviews of broad areas of study, such as chemistry, physics, and political science.

HubSpot Academy

HubSpot Academy offers free online training for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service professionals. They specialize in comprehensive certifications, singular-topic courses, and bite-sized lessons for professionals that want to grow their careers and business. All the courses are free, although you have to create an account to access them.

Skillcrush

Founded in 2012, Skillcrush is a woman-owned, independent, online coding & design school. It offers free and paid classes in areas like HTML coding, UX design, visual design, and more. Skillcrush also offers an ongoing free coding boot camp.

Skillcrush is designed for people new to computer science and coding, so there’s no requirement for prior experience or existing coding knowledge.

Better Explained

Better Explained offers interesting math classes, articles, and lessons. Individual lessons are generally free and so are online course texts. Courses cover a wide range of study areas and complexities, plus some specific places where math rules guide computer programming and web development.

General Assembly

General Assembly is a pioneer in education and career transformation, specializing in today’s most in-demand coding, business, data, and design skills. It offers a mix of full-time and part-time classes online plus workshops, free training, and coding events. General Assembly livestreams popular lectures and provides real-time interaction with the lecturer and other students. Costs vary if your choices are one-off lectures or multi-part workshops.

Upskillist

Upskillist is the rebrand of Shaw Academy and provides interactive classes which allow students to learn at their own pace. It offers courses including finance, photography, health and fitness, marketing, technology, design, beauty, music, business, and the English language. A 7-day free trial is offered upon signing up, then after the trial, you can choose to pay their monthly fee or choose on their other subscription options.

GCF Global

GCF Global is a free online educational platform that has a wide range of topics that includes Microsoft, Creativity, Internet Skills, and more. The site offers more than 300 topics, including more than 6,000 lessons, more than 2,000 videos, and more than 50 interactives and games.

GCF Global is a program of the Goodwill Community Foundation Inc.

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP ONLINE COURSE PLATFORMS and WEBSITES for 2023?

This is a list we created from our e-learning experience and online course research. In addition to these sites you can leverage the power to learn from Youtube with a tool like SmartieHub.
What are some of your favorite e-learning platforms, sites, or sources for online education or even free online courses or certifications? Let us know in the comments.