Your Ultimate List of Free Online Courses and Events While You’re Stuck at Home
We have to learn to adapt to every situation life throws at us. In light of recent events, we have to change our daily habits – adapt and overcome circumstances in every corner of the world. You have to make the most of every situation you find yourself in and learn to appreciate what you have right now instead of being overly reactive to things you can’t really change. These principles to a large extent relate to ideas of mindfulness that you can embrace without actually being a professional yogi.
Try to look at the bright side of life and figure out what you can personally do to keep calm, be grateful, and, of course, stay productive during tough times. For instance, you can practice 5-minute-long meditations every time you feel anxious and write gratitude lists of the little things that make you happy during the day. As you’ll be saving a lot of time not commuting to work, you can devote these hours to acquiring new skills, seeking inspiration, and getting extra insights while we’re all in the same boat.
If you’re stuck at home like many of us, make the most from a world that’s going digital. Take this time to learn new things as many businesses are offering special perks and freebies.
We’ve made a list of 12 platforms that share their online courses and events for free. There are lectures and tutorials on every subject including design, photography, business and marketing, as well as virtual tours to the world’s best museums.
Free online courses from the world’s best learning platforms
1. Coursera
Students studying at universities or colleges that are partners to Coursera are now getting 3,800 courses on 400 different subjects for free at Coursera for Campus. Access to the courses will be open until July 31.
If you’re not a student, you can still find over 1,300 insightful free online courses on Coursera. Most of them are theoretical but you’ll definitely be able to turn this knowledge into actionable steps for your own projects.
2. SkillShare
There’s no way you’re not familiar with SkillShare yet. But if you’re not, you should definitely explore all the learning opportunities available for different fields, industries, and specialities. In addition to courses that are always gratis, right now the platform is offering an opportunity for new members to try two months of SkillShare Premium for free.
3. Google Digital Workshop
Google Digital Workshop is a learning platform that shares professional knowledge in the field of digital marketing and business. In total, there are 126 available courses in different languages in addition to English. What’s even more exciting, having completed the course “Fundamentals of digital marketing”, you can get a certificate accredited by Interactive Advertising Bureau.
4. Open Culture
On the Open Culture website, you can find over 1500 free online courses from Yale, MIT, Stanford, MIT, Harvard, and many other leading universities. You can learn arts and culture, improve your communications skills, learn product or fashion design, as well as polish up on your business and economics basics. Language learning courses are also available there.
5. EdX
EdX is another website you can turn to for self-education. It has almost 3,000 different courses among which hundreds are offered at no cost. The courses that the platform features are from the world’s best universities such as MIT, Boston University, Berkley and many others. At edX, you can educate yourself in business, management, computer and data science, and humanities.
6. Udacity
Looking for some technical knowledge? Then free courses on Udacity are what you need. You can get familiar with VR software development, Python programming, network and cybersecurity, data analysis and other subjects while staying at home this spring.
7. Udemy
To develop personal skills and get quick but comprehensive knowledge in various subjects, explore the free courses available at Udemy. Every subject that comes to mind is on the platform, from doing yoga for beginners to learning Chinese in 9 weeks.
8. LinkedIn
When you’re stuck at home, the most difficult part might be to stay productive and concentrated. To help you out with that, LinkedIn shares a series of thematic free online courses. You can get new productivity tips, figure out how to manage your team’s work in the best way, become pro in managing stress, and, finally, get a certificate of completion that you can proudly add to your CV.
More exciting things to do online while you’re stuck at home
1. Watch Metropolitan Opera Plays
Most of the venues and institutions are closed right now but it does not mean that you can’t enjoy your favorite performances in the evening. Metropolitan Opera in New York is now streaming plays online. Each performance is available for additional 20 hours after streaming. The nearest schedule is the following:
- Thursday, March 19 – Verdi’s La Traviata
- Friday, March 20 – Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment
- Saturday, March 21 – Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
- Sunday, March 22 – Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
To find out more information on the initiative, check out the Metropolitan Opera announcement.
2. Dive into archive plays of Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera is also sharing its plays with those who love cultural events. It’s streaming archive performances every evening and they are also available for viewers for the next 24 hours. To get access to the streaming, you need to log in in advance as you won’t be the only one who’d like to watch the plays of Vienna State Opera for free.
3. Join the Digital Concert Hall from the Berliner Philharmonie
While the Berliner Philharmonie is closed, you can get free 30-day access to the Digital Concert Hall. On the website, you can find some archive performances and interesting documentaries and watch them on TV, laptop or any other device you like.
What do you need to do to get access? Simply redeem the promo code “BERLINPHIL” by March 31 when registering with the website.
4. Explore exhibitions with Google Arts & Culture
We know opera and ballet are not for everyone so we’ve put on the list other amazing things you can do for free online. For instance, you can explore the exhibitions of the world’s best art museums at Google Arts & Culture. At the top of the list are:
- Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands
- The Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA
- Belvedere, Vienna, Austria
- Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
- The National Gallery, London, UK
5. Spend time wandering empty streets with Google Street View
There’s special entertainment for those who are curious to see how empty streets look like all over the world. You can spend time wandering empty streets with Google Street View. We bet you’ve never seen Trevi Fountain or the Spanish Steps in Rome with no people around.
We hope this list of courses and events will help you feel better, stay productive, and keep calm and relaxed in the next few weeks with something to do off-work hours. We’ll also be looking for more platforms sharing their services for free and will update this list with new and interesting sources.
Bookmark this list and stay tuned. There’s more to come!
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