Whether you are looking for a new career or a new hobby, the internet is teeming with education opportunities that you can pick up at the drop of a literal hat. On demand courses are operated at the pace of the student’s choosing with no fixed deadlines or due dates. Many of these courses can be had for free or for a low fee. Others are more comprehensive with whole subscription packages adorned with a job guarantee and career services.
Featured Programs
- Machine Learning with Python: A Practical Introduction
- Harvard’s Introduction to Computer Science
- Programming for Everybody (Getting Started)
- Learning How to Learn
- How to Build a Website
Disclaimer: Some courses may include an affiliate link. Courses were chosen first based on the methodology with affiliate links only added after the ranking was complete.
We compiled this list of courses by picking the most popular on demand courses on eleven of the most popular course providers. Each provider is introduced with a brief bio that explains their pricing model, particular focus and level of student services offered. After each “site bio,” the most popular asynchronous courses are listed in no particular order. Two sites only offered four such courses, so they have a shorter list than the other nine providers. This is not a reflection of the quality of either of those sites, just a result of the focus of their offerings.
Featured Programs
#1 – EdX
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An open-source MOOC provider offering college-level courses (some for free) from top schools and organizations covering a diverse array of topics. This website is set up as a nonprofit and was created by MIT and Harvard University in 2012. There are a variety of points of entry to EdX, including auditing classes for free with limits to some features and completing the course for an edX verified certificate which charges a nominal fee. Other courses charge fees that vary by topic and offering institution.
Machine Learning With Python from IBM
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Taught by Senior IBM Data Scientist Saeed Aghabozorgi, this course aims to teach you about AI’s little brother, machine learning. Utilizing the accessible and widespread programming language of Python, you will delve into algorithms like Classification, Clustering, Regression, and Dimensional Reduction and models like Random Forests, Root Mean Squared Error and Train/Test Split. The course is five weeks long with a predicted workload of 4-6 hours per week. There is no charge for participation, and for $39 you will receive a verified certificate upon completion.
Harvard’s Introduction to Computer Science
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CS50 is the most popular course offered by Harvard University, and the school has adapted it for EdX into CS50x, which is part of the professional certificate programs: Computer Science for Game Development and Computer Science and Mobile Apps. The course consists of 9 problem sets that are estimated to take 10-20 hours to solve each. The introductory level class has no prerequisites. Participation is free, but upon completion, a verified certificate may be purchased for $90.
Introduction to Kabbalah
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Covering basic concepts and practices of Kabbalah, as well as an entre’ into Jewish thought in general, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev offers this introduction to basic Kabbalistic theories, works, and movements that uses video lectures, assignments, and discussion. Taught by professors Boaz Huss and Yoed Kavary, the class uses sociological and historical approaches to cover primary sources and up-to-date secondary literature. Major figures, schools, and practices will be analyzed through different views and discussion. Historical implication and cultural placement from medieval times to the current day will also feature in the deliberation.
Fat Chance: Probability from the Ground Up from HarvardX
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Requiring basic high school algebra, this course runs from advanced counting to basic statistics. Comprised of seven modules, the course is taught by two Harvard professors, Benedict Gross and Joseph Harris, and an assistant professor from Johns Hopkins, Emily Riehl. Lasting 7 weeks, the class calls for 3-5 hours a week worth of work. This course is self-paced and free of charge. A completion certificate is available for $49. The course offers students the chance to re-align their thinking when it comes to fear of statistics and the recognition of common ways probability is used to mislead people.
C Programming: Getting Started offered by Dartmouth University
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This course is part of edX’s C Programming with Linux Professional Certificate a series of seven brief classes to open doors in the field of computer engineering. The C programming taught in this class can be executed with the tools provided by a web browser, no installation of anything required. This self-paced course can be completed in seven weeks with 2-4 hours of classwork per week, expected. This course covers basic aspects of C programming like loops, simple computations, and the thrill of writing your first programs.
MIT’s The Analytics Edge
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If you put in 2 to 4 hours a week, you can finish this sequence in about 7 weeks. This intermediate level course uses R and LibreOffice to examine models and data sets. While free to take, for $49, you can get a verified certificate. LibreOffice operates as a stand-in for Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, as a free program that will teach you the ins and outs of statistical spreadsheet study. The methods this class will implement in R include data visualization, CART; and logistic regression.
Professional Certificate in Data Science from Harvard University
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This nine course sequence of graduate level courses can be completed in 2-4 months with 100-180 hours of work. The professional certificate in data science is highly desirable as data scientists are high in demand, but not thick on the ground. The course is comprised of interesting projects to use your newly gained data skills on, such as: building a better baseball team (a la Moneyball); building a movie recommendation system; and analyzing for trends in the US crime rate.
The Science of Everyday Thinking – University of Queensland
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Known as Think101x, this course, offered by the University of Queensland will teach you when to trust your brain’s instincts, and when further perusal of the data at hand is required. Your brain is hard-wired to make shortcuts and snap judgments, otherwise, you would go insane from information overload, but some of those short cuts can lead to long delays in the end. Shifting from “going with your gut” to being deliberative and analytical is a skill that can have lifelong benefits.
#2 – Udemy
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Udemy is a for-profit website aimed at professional adults. Individuals are encouraged to create course content for the site and charge fees. These courses are not accredited and do not lead to college credit, but can lead to technical certification or perfecting job-related skills. Launched in 2010, courses on the site can include PowerPoints, .zip files, video, and live classes as components. Udemy also has a very popular app for iOS and Android where students can participate in classes from the palm of their hand. Course fees vary from free to $200+, depending on the topic.
Landing Page Design and Conversion Rate Optimization
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This course, taught by Isaac Rudansky, will not teach you CSS or HTML, but will get into the nitty gritty of what it takes to convert more of the visitors to your webpage into buying customers. Over the span of ten hours and fifty lectures, this class purports to take you from regular website having person, to person with the skills to establish a great landing page that maximizes design and sales funnel principles to achieve your desired effect for having a website in the first place.
Complete Python Bootcamp: Go From Zero to Hero in Python 3
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Using Python 2 and 3, this course offers 24 hours of on-demand video and 19 projects to bring you from novice to not-nearly-so-novice. Covering topics like, using timestamps and creating GUIs in the Jupyter Notebook system, teacher Jose Portilla allows students to develop a portfolio in Python through quizzes, homework, and three projects. With more than 100 lectures, purchase of the class allows for lifetime access to the coursework and there is also a 30 day money back guarantee.
Selenium WebDriver with Java – Basics to Advanced+Frameworks
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Over the course of 329 lectures and 52 hours, this course purports to make a Selenium WebDriver expert out of you. Student support is the area that has driven this on demand course to the top of the heap. A question posted to the discussion board can be reliably answered in about twelve hours. With a staff of ten and a graduate class in the thousands, this class was updated for the latest release of Selenium on June 10, 2019
Machine Learning A-Z
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Requiring a modicum of high school mathematics skills, this course will teach you a starting tool kit in this hot, hot area of programming. Those “tools” come in the form of machine learning models and which is the right one to choose when confronted with a knotty problem. This course uses R and Python to teach data preprocessing, regressions, clustering, association learning, and why machine learning is so important at this historical moment, among other topics.
Fiverr: Freelance on Fiverr & Become a Top Rated Seller
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Fiverr is a digital marketplace for freelancers of all stripes. This course purports to teach you the skills to become a top-rated seller in very little time. It covers the setup process, the benefits of Fiverr over other services of similar ilk, niche selection, and various methods to increase profile views, client review rate, and multiplying your Fiverr traffic in general. This class is comprised of nine articles and two and a half hours of on-demand video. It has received a rating of 4.6 with more than 5,500 clients.
Learn Ethical Hacking from Scratch
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White hat hackers are the unsung good guys in cybersecurity. They look for website weaknesses to exploit and then shore them up before they can be hacked. Learning these skills through this course teaches both the practical aspects of hacking and the underlying theory. This course is aimed at newcomers to hacking who want to add this vital skill to their IT toolbag. Basic IT skills are a prerequisite. This course offers a 30 day money back guarantee.
Cisco CCNA Routing and Switching 200-125 – The Complete Guide to Getting Certified
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With 37 hours of on-demand videos, 33 articles, and lifetime access, this course offers all you need to pass the routing and switching exam. The only thing you need at the outset is a basic knowledge of the internet and browsing. Each technology area of the exam is covered. Practice labs give you experience in configuration and troubleshooting. You’ll have access to more than 300 pages of lab exercises filled with lab setup files and complete diagrams, Also included are simple, clear directions to build your own lab on your laptop.
Illustrator CC 2019 Master Class
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Need to master Adobe Illustrator? This highly rated course could be the answer. With 12+ hours of video instruction and a carefully curated selection of examples and homework selections, the class provides instruction in logo design, effective typeface use, keyboard shortcuts, and vectorizing hand drawings and photographs. Students must already possess a copy of Adobe Illustrator (CS6 or newer), it does not come with enrollment. Prior experience with the program is not required, but a design background can be helpful.
#3 – Coursera
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Coursera offers five levels of learning, depending on how deep you want to go. You start at the course level, multiple courses are roped into a Specialization, which can lead to a Professional Certificate, or even to a MasterTrack Certificate, and the final level of learning is a full-blown college degree at the baccalaureate or master’s level. All the learning is free, but certification and proof of your education are available for a fee.
Deep Learning Specialization
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The site claims that you will achieve competency in the highly sought after field of AI study. This intermediate course instructs you using case studies from sign language interpretation, generating music, and healthcare. In a 3 month course, you will be expected to put in about 11 hours per week. To provide enough content for certification, you will take five courses: Neural Networks and Deep Learning; Improving Deep Neural Networks; Structuring Machine Learning Projects; Convolutional Neural Networks; and Sequence Models. Once you’ve completed these, you will also need to do a Hands-on Project to earn certification.
Global Strategy II
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The course authors describe how with an unpredictable and highly complex global economy, students need a grounding in conducting global business. The course requires about 11 total hours to complete. The course blends video, quizzes, and readings throughout the following modules: 1: How Should Firms Operate Globally? 2: Entering Global Markets; 3: Entry Strategies of Multinational Corporations; 4: How Do Multinationals Strategize in an Increasingly Complex Political Environment? Reviews for the course appear highly appreciative of the conciseness of the course materials.
Data Science Specialization
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As with other specializations, this data science progression aligns coursework with a hands-on project to earn the certificate. The ten sequential courses run from The Data Scientist’s Toolbox to R Programming to the Data Science Capstone, which is the course for that student project. At completion, you’ll have a portfolio showing that you’ve mastered the material, including navigating the entire Data Science spectrum, performing regression analysis, and becoming adept at using GitHub to manage projects. The course takes 8 months to complete, and it’s recommended that you have a beginner’s level experience with Python and familiarity with regression.
Learning How to Learn
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Though a bit counterintuitive, learning how to learn seems to have earned a strong positive student response for breaking down modes of thinking. Some theoretical background is established, but the thrust of this course seems to lean heavily on pragmatic suggestions relating to memory, information, time management, and, notably, sleep. This 100% online class can be completed with around a dozen hours of work, between video, class exercises and other materials, like readings. With more than 44k ratings, this class has received a rating of 4.8 out of 5.
Digital Marketing Specialization
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This seven course specialization contains one of the most popular courses in Coursera, Marketing in a Digital World. The educational process ends with a capstone project that entails solving a problem for the Digital Marketing team at W.W. Grainger, a multibillion dollar industrial supply company. Finishing the specialization results in a certificate that can be shared with prospective employers. This specialization is part of the online master of business administration program at the University of Illinois.
Programming for Everybody (Getting Started With Python)
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Based on the first five chapters of “Python for Everybody,” this single course teaches program construction from simple instructions and does not attempt any mathematical heavy lifting. There are no prerequisites and graduates of this course should be prepared for more advanced programming coursework. Focusing on Python 3, 12 hours is the estimated time this class takes to finish at the rate of 3-4 hours per week. Completion of the (paid) course results in a certificate you can post to your LinkedIn profile.
Applied Data Science with Python Specialization
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A five course specialization utilizing the Python programming language, the program is aimed at those already familiar with basic programming or those with a background in Python. The courses are not eligible for college credit, but some institutions of higher learning may accept completion of the specialization in lieu of other college credits. Inferential statistical analysis, critical review of data visualizations, and applied machine learning are all techniques covered in this program. The course of study can be completed in just five months at a clip of seven hours of work per week.
Academic English: Writing Specialization
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This five course specialization promises to teach you college-level writing skills and awards a certificate you can present to employers. The five classes included are: grammar and punctuation; getting started with essay writing; advanced writing; introduction to research for essay writing; and a final project – writing a research paper. Coursera estimates three months from beginning to completion at a rate of about seven hours of work per week.
#4 – Treehouse
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Since 2016, Treehouse has focused on offering its in-house TechDegree program. These four degrees are designed to prepare students for “starter” jobs in the tech world. The TechDegree programs can be unlocked for $199 per month. Treehouse also provides training to corporate entities and, as a company, has placed a premium on making their workplace an equitable and diverse environment. The four TechDegrees offered by this site can be completed in under six months with full-time commitment.
User Experience Design Tech Degree
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Partnering with Adobe, the UX Tech Degree develop skills in design critique and user research as part of producing mobile apps. The site clearly claims students will be finished in about 3 months ready to enter employment in the field. The process of mastering both “technical and soft” skills takes 10 projects. You begin by developing a critical eye, work on a wireframe, create a prototype, measure an app’s user flow, among other critical skills that lead to a portfolio-based capstone project.
Front End Development Web Tech Degree
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To complete your front end development degree, you will work through nine projects from building a personal profile page to using Sass to build a style guide to a game show app and a web app dashboard. Completing your capstone project will require you to summon the skills you have by creating a professional-level portfolio of GitHub pages. This program is suited for beginners and those with basic computer proficiency, but little programming experience. There is a dedicated Slack community for participants of this degree.
Full Stack Javascript Tech Degree
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Even if you start out as a beginner, in as few as three months, you can learn CSS and HTML, go on to become adept at JavaScript, and then be ready for employment as a Full Stack JavaScript developer. Through the course, you will build between nine and twelve projects in order to practice what you are learning. These projects will become your portfolio to share in future job interviews. Each project outlines numerous, engaging activities (between 7 and 15) to guide your work. An element of “fun” seems to be incorporated into each one.
Python Web Development Tech Degree
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Promising to create a strong technical basis for a career in Python-based web development, this tech degree from Treehouse is twenty-four courses and 12 projects which also gives you a portfolio of real-world, solution-based work to show potential employers. Depending on your rate of study, this course can be completed in eleven months or less. They estimate about 180 work hours total for the degree. The degree program comes with a dedicated Slack channel for students to collaborate on especially knotty problems.
#5 – Udacity
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A for-profit website focused on vocational courses for working adults, Udacity offers “nanodegrees” in five schools: data science; artificial intelligence; programming; autonomous systems; and cloud computing. The programs are intended to build or advance career skills and prepare workers for the next big thing, employment-wise, whether that is a new (to you) programming language or preparations for a new job title. Udacity also offers a limited array of free courses to registered users on topics like product design and rapid prototyping.
Intro to JavaScript
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JavaScript is the most utilized programming language in web design. In just about two weeks, this beginner level course will have you using: data types and variables; conditionals; loops; functions; arrays; and objects. This course is part of the FullStack Web Developer NanoDegree program. But this course can be had as standalone content, with limited access, for gratis. For paying customers, mentorship, project reviews and a community of student support are available. This course is self-paced and contains assessments with interactive content.
C++ Nanodegree Program
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This program requests that students come to the course with an intermediate knowledge of any programming language. The nanodegree can be completed in four or five months, assuming a time commitment of roughly ten hours per week. Broken into four components: C++ foundations; object-oriented programming (OOP); memory management; and concurrency; the program is finished off with a capstone project that involves building a C++ application of your own invention. All this can be yours for just $399 per month.
Intro to JQuery
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JQuery, the top JavaScript library in use by popular websites, consists of the critical features of traversal, manipulation, and DOM element selection. This course covers all of these elements and gives students the keys to take the full spectrum of this program out for a spin, upon completion of the course. It takes about two days to complete this coursework, which is part of the front end development nanodegree. Self paced learning is the format for this interactive exercise that allows you to tap into the site’s student support services.
Data Structures and Algorithms Nanodegree Program
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To get into this program, you will need to have Python and Basic Algebra. The welcome section drops you into unscrambling open-ended data-related problems. Then you will work on learning about how to deal with differing data structures such as Private Blockchain and File Recursion. Next, you will learn by attempting to solve initial problems in the Basic Algorithms section. In Advanced Algorithms, you are expected to produce your own algorithm that functions as a route planner.
Intro to Computer Science
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This free, introductory Python course is for beginners with no previous knowledge of this popular programming language. Topics in the syllabus include Write Your Own Computer Program, How to Manage Data, and How to Have Infinite Power, culminating with The Past, Present, and Future of Computing. You will focus on creating your own search engine and social network. With a paid membership, lessons will cover project reviews, certification, career services/job assistance, and mentorship. The course should take about three months.
Data Engineer Nanodegree
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If you can put in five hours a week, you can finish this nanodegree in about five months, during which you will produce data infrastructure, which is most likely what you will be doing in your data career. To get in, you will need to have already taken Intermediate Python & SQL. Early in the sequence, you will study Data Modeling, for which you will visually model with Postgres and Apache Cassandra. Next, you will learn to navigate large ecosystems of data by using Park and Data Lakes. After that, you will learn to schedule and monitor pipelines of data. As with other sequences, you must produce a final capstone project.
Kotlin Bootcamp for Programmers
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Obviously intense, this programmer’s bootcamp has been developed by Google. Kotlin is a cross-platform programming language that will work on a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Known as a developer’s language, it should take you about two weeks to get through the course. As you grow more familiar with the programmer life, you can choose the second option of Android Developer, which be responsible for mobile development.
Lesson 1 will set you up in IntelliJ, crucial to this course. The latter five lessons will get you comfortable with the basic use of language, functions, building classes, and eventually getting beyond basics and learning how to write extensions and finally functional manipulation.
Business Analytics Nanodegree
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Ranked 4.7 out of five over more than 500 reviews, this nanodegree purports to, over the course of three months, grant the student fundamental data skills that can apply in basically any industry. Facility with SQL, Excel, and Tableau are highly desirable talents in employees, and studies have shown that similarly skilled employees rate higher salaries. With a new and in some cases improved focus on student and career services, this site courts students who are looking for a new career, or just the next notch in the professional belt.
Featured Programs
#6 – Kadenze
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Kadenze specializes in coursework that has fallen behind, in general, in the worldwide MOOC race. Courses like Guitar for Beginners and Powerful Presentation for Artists. That said, they have a healthy offering of tech-related course coverage, as well. Membership to the website is organized into tiers, starting with free membership which allows basic access and moving up to Premium membership where students are given full access to course features and are able to receive a Certificate of Accomplishment upon completion of a course and build a portfolio of relevant projects.
Pen and Ink Illustration: The Basics for Creating Magical Drawings
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Broken into three one hour sessions, Kadenze instructor Yasmina Creates promises to take you through supplies necessary for this adventure and on into technique, using worksheets online variation and shading and closing up with a final project in this course on pen and ink illustration. This micro course is available for a fee of $25. The course is self-paced with recommended due dates that can be turned off with your account’s dashboard. This course is rated for beginners and has no prerequisites.
Ableton Live 10, Part 1: The Interface & The Basics
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Ableton Live 10 is a versatile software package used for live performance, recording, and mastering. This micro course takes you through the basics of its interface (“two views”), and once you have learned to navigate the space, it moves on to recording and editing in the program. Ableton Live 10 is available for Mac and Windows, so no special purchase of a Macbook is required. Dr. Jason Allen, the course’s teacher, is a Certified Ableton Live Trainer.
Music Theory for Beginners
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This course in beginner music theory takes students through ear training for melodic and rhythmic notation and delivers them back into the world as individuals capable of reading and writing Western musical notation. This $69 micro course is the place to start if you have no background in music theory and would like to pursue the study of this subject further. In three four-hour sessions, instructor Saurav Ghosh will utilize interactive lessons to fully illustrate the concepts and ideas presented.
Powerful Presentations for Artists
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So if you are used to communicating as an artist, through your medium, it can be tough to translate that vision into, say, a PowerPoint, or a webpage. But this course can help you hone your message to connect with your audience while maintaining its authenticity. Over four sessions, and 8 lessons, the course covers audience profiling, content management, and personal presence as things the artistic individual must consider when presenting to a group of people. The micro course costs $49 and takes about eight hours of study, in total.
Vocal Techniques 101
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Instructor Ronja Burve takes beginning vocal students through basic anatomy of the throat and vocal apparatus, the physics of making sounds, proper warm-up technique, and breath support to prepare them for later lessons like lyrical interpretation and working with a band. At only $69, this microcourse can be completed in ten four-hour sessions, which is a real bargain. Students will upload videos of their performances to the website for peer review. Kadenze has strict community standards regarding the manner in which peer reviews are conducted (tl;dr: everybody, be nice).
Introduction to Guitar Performance
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This course is meant to get you up to speed as a guitarist, with greater speed than traditional lessons or self-study. Starting with the anatomy of the guitar and some dexterity exercises, the course covers scales, basic music theory, and ends by tackling that great slayer of would-be guitarists everywhere, the barre chord. The class costs $69 and calls for 8 four-hour sessions of study (plus practice time). This course offers the opportunity to earn and share badges to show off your hard won skills.
Anyone Can Watercolor: The Basics for Creating Magical Pieces
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This beginner level course starts with a shopping list of what you need to get started, and then, over the course of 3 one hour sessions, breaks down the instructor’s years of experience in watercolor to benefit artists of all skill levels, but beginners, more so. Once you have your supplies, be prepared to dive in to wash techniques, layering and blending, masking fluid, and techniques with salt and alcohol. The micro course costs $25 and includes supply options for a range of budgets.
Music Theory 1 – Part One
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Recognized by the Grammy Foundation for his contributions to music education, instructor Dr. Jason Allen is here to guide you through the thorny areas of music appreciation and technical knowledge in this 7 session micro course. Requiring about one hour of work per session, this is part of a six course sequence that is equivalent in scope to first-year music theory 101 and 102. Also, signing up for the first part of this sequence locks you in for discounts on the remaining sections. At $25 per microcourse, that is a lot cheaper than college tuition.
#7 – Youtube.com
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A wise man once described the internet to me as “a large wall, where anyone can write anything.” This holds very true for Youtube.com, but there is value among the chaff if you know where to look. Among the cat videos and gut doctors telling you to throw out this vegetable, you can find insightful breakdowns of classic literature, stunning physics explanations, and of course, the ubiquitous Green brothers. While a four-minute video explaining the Magnus effect might not qualify you for a PhD, it could make the difference in a letter grade on your next physics midterm.
Backspin Basketball Flies Off Dam
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So, first of all, it’s really cool to watch people throw a ball (that they eventually retrieve) off of a 415 foot drop. And then watch them do it again with unexpected results with only the addition of backspin. But this video goes further, explaining the physical (as in physics) phenomenon of the Magnus Effect acting on the ball as it moves through the atmosphere. Named for Heinrich Gustav Magnus who first documented it in 1852, it was also observed but not claimed by Isaac Newton. The video goes on to explore the real-world applications of this effect.
Crash Course World History: The Agricultural Revolution
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After a brief introduction to a surprisingly high stakes grading scheme, this video (the first part of a 40-part series) explains how humans moved from nomadic hunter-gatherers to wi-fi using coffee addicts in just a handful of millennia. Touching on wage equity and climate change, this pop culture savvy video featuring teen icon John Green uses the example of a 99 cent double cheeseburger to explain the choices of ancient peoples (as evidenced by archaeology and paleobiology) that got us to now.
What if everyone JUMPED at once?
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Pondering the age-old question, this video takes into account many many variables and documents the things that would need to occur (for those who were able) to make the jump significant, and then shows calculations that show that the result of said jump would be, well, meh. It then goes next level and ponders how many people jumping it would take to recreate the seismic activity of, say, the 2016 Fukushima Earthquake that registered 6.9 on the Richter Scale (tl;dr: a lot, a whole lot). It then makes the leap into social relationships and YouTube views and connects in to Newton’s Third Law.
The Sex Lives of Early Humans
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This episode of SciShow (hosted mid-goatee by vlogbrother Hank Green) delves into the uncomfortable and makes a cozy home there. Starting out with humanity’s ancestors interbreeding with Neanderthals and taking a side journey into why that’s a hard “T” sound in Neanderthal, the video winds up in an unexpected area of science, leaving the viewer asking questions like, “What were they researching when they found this out?” and “Where is the closest shower?”
Classics Summarized: Beowulf
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This highly entertaining review of the Old English classic starts with, “What exactly is Old English?” and it’s off to the races from there. Red, from Overly Sarcastic Productions, uses hand drawn art (mostly) to recap the action, with side trips into Tolkien, Skyrim, damascened steel, and why, as an unkillable monster, it is unwise to keep the one thing capable of bringing about your demise, within arm’s reach. (That’s why we have Horcruxes, silly Grendel’s Mother). Caution: there is one teeny, tiny, swear.
How an Igloo Keeps You Warm
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Start with the dispelling of the notion of the existence of a thing called “cold,” and then learn about basic igloo construction as well as the truth about all those different words for snow. This video also touches on examples of the natural world using the properties of an igloo for various other species’ survival. Finally, be sure to read the pinned comment for a thoughtful take on the proper names for native peoples of the extreme northern hemisphere.
What Color Is This Dress? (SOLVED With SCIENCE)
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This video could save you considerable time, should you find yourself needing to quickly explain 2015 to a roomful of freshly awoken coma patients. Utilizing neurology to explain concepts like perception and color constancy, ASAPScience uses this short video to finally settle the weightiest of viral discourses from that year. The fact that the dress is actually black and blue, even with all of modern science at their back, may be enough to radicalize you into a full blown #whiteandgold conspiracy theorist.
Learn Python – Full Course for beginners
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Internet man-about-town and NYT employee Choire Sicha believes that everyone needs to learn to code. If you believe that applies to you, this video lays down the basics for Python, a programming language that can be used for object-oriented programming and structured programming. This 4+ hour video by freeCodeCamp.org leads you through the woods of installing Python and PyCharm and into the meadows of working with strings, numbers, and lists. It will also clarify the differences between and uses for Python 2.7 and Python 3.
#8 – LinkedIn Learning
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Try a free trial for Linkedin Learning.
The facet that sets LinkedInLearning apart from other websites is that credit earned from the coursework they offer can be directly linked to an individual’s LinkedIn profile. Offering coursework in the business, technological, and creative fields, popular topics people look to the site for certification on include: spreadsheets; web standards; and video editing. The fees for access to the site are $29.99 per month (with a discount for annual membership) and then each course has individual fees starting around $30.
Learning Data Analytics
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A beginner level course, for those who wish to learn to perform analytics on data, this course has no prerequisites and can count for up to 3.2 units of CPE. Covering the basics to get you comfortable cleaning and joining data sets in the lead up to the big finish where you learn to use your newfound skills in that widely beloved data analytics program, Microsoft Excel. Time-saving shortcuts and critical troubleshooting skills in Excel are covered.
Excel 2016 Essential Training
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With 12k+ likes and nearly half a million views, this course on Excel 2016 is definitely popular. Some of the essentials covered include: inserting macros; power functions; basic formatting; using functions and formulas, and sorting and analyzing data. The teacher of this class is Dennis Taylor, an acknowledged Excel expert with more than two decades of teaching experience. The course is almost nine hours long and includes fifteen module quizzes. The course results in a certificate of completion for your LinkedIn profile.
OneNote Quick Tips
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This quick, not even thirty minute class on OneNote covers several critical features of this highly useful app. The teacher, Heather Severino, has been recognized by Microsoft as a Most Valuable Professional for her work in this area. She has also been certified as a Microsoft educator since 2006. From sharing notebooks with teams and OneDrive to using SharePoint and writing notes into the app by hand, this course can help boost your note-taking productivity or revitalize your process in that area altogether.
Project Management Foundations
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Bonnie Biafore is here to take you through the knottiest areas of project management and out the other side. This beginner level course has taught more than a quarter of a million people about project scope, quality management, and project communication. This class can be had for just $34.99 plus subscription fees and lasts 3+ hours.
Learning Git and GitHub
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Version control is the key to making reversible changes to the code and content of your website and Git is the most widely used version control system online. This course takes you through the basics of Git and GitHub, the website whereby Git is distributed. Eighty-one minutes in length, this course is intended for beginning web designers. At $29.99 (plus site subscription costs), the class is an affordable entre’ into this essential web development skill.
HTML Essential Training
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This six hour beginner-level course, taught by web expert James Williamson, will instruct you in the ways of the computer language that is the lifeblood of the internet. HTML is the key to creating your own web content, be it a personal site or a more sophisticated enterprise. This online course costs $34.99 and includes showing how HTML interacts with JavaScript and other languages to improve a site’s UX through basic syntax, document structuring, and content formatting.
Learning PHP
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Instructor David Powers teaches this seven-hour class that will teach you all about that confusingly constructed acronym of a programming language, PHP. Some aspects clarified in this class are: server-side includes; conditional statements; loops, and variables through a series of practical exercises. Students are then moved onto a final project involving emailing an online form with user input. Students will exit the class with an appreciation for recycling code, PHP oversight, and the construction of multiple choice forms. Fees for this online class are $34.99 plus subscription costs.
Programming Foundations: Algorithms
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Professional web developer and published author Joe Marini takes you through the basics of algorithms and their relation to basic web development. This one hour and forty-five-minute course acts as an introduction to computer programming, utilizing Python for its examples, but the lessons learned are applicable to any programming language. The course fee is $29.99 plus the monthly subscription fee of $29.99. Topics discussed in this online class include recursion, types of sorting, and hash tables.
#9 – ITProTV
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ITProTV offers three levels of access. Free access gets you a “starter kit” of IT skills and more than 65 hours of training. For $28.50 per month, an additional 4,000 hours of training comes online. And at $42 a month, students unlock virtual labs, practice test access, and the services of dedicated learning coaches. Students may seek training from this site by course category, desired certification, or job title. In addition to technology courses, ITProTV also offers coursework in project management and service management.
Windows Operating System Fundamentals – 98-349
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This fourteen hour course can help prepare you for one of the exams you need to pass to be certified as an MTA. The 98-349, as the exam is known, is a great certification for people who are just starting out in the field of computers. Based in the Windows environment, the coursework is meant to familiarize you with basic configurations in areas like: control panel; UAC and anti-virus; storage; recovery and it’s necessary analog, backup; and native applications and tools.
MTA Security Fundamentals – 98-367
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This course is intended to give a good grounding in Windows and Windows Server security protocols. Touching on topics like: permissions; audit policies; user authentication; encryption; and network security, the class will prepare you to take the 98-367 exam, which is another step on the way to MTA certification. There are no fees or costs associated with this class, it is offered by ITProTV free of charge. This class expects passing knowledge of Windows 10 and Windows Server.
CompTIA IT Fundamentals +
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This 18+ hour course is meant to be the first step on the path to CompTIA A+ certification. A graduate of this course should be ready to take the CompTIA IT Fundamentals certification test that is an entry point into the IT industry. The class includes a digital lab component. Subjects covered by ITProTV in this program include basic terminology, networking, installing software, the building blocks of hardware, and security. This course is designed to follow the specifications for the newer FCO-U61 objectives and not the recently retired FCO-U51.
Cyber Patriot
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CyberPatriot is a program by the Air Force Association to encourage students toward STEM courses and careers. ITProTV provides coursework that takes you through the training program for the National Youth Cyber Education Program that leads to participation in the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, with a chance to earn scholarships and prizes. The ITProTV course covers online safety, online ethics, principles of digital security, virtualization, MSDN and UBUNTU. This 11+ hour course contains scenarios and security exercises.
#10 – Codecademy
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Monthly subscriptions for Codecademy start at $39.99 per month with discounts for longer term memberships. One of the things that makes this site different is the partnership content they offer, teaching how to code Alexa skills or learn about the IBM Watson API. Programming for the site is broken up into career paths, for those looking for a new way to earn a living, skill paths, for those looking to add another tool to the tool kit, and single courses on a specific subject or programming language.
Web Development
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Promising you will be an attractive hire as a “junior” level web developer, this site emphasizes its push of front-end learning of core HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, and that even beginners will progress to communicating with web developers and building interactive sites. Monthly membership is $19.99 ($239.88 yearly, billed once a year) or $39.99, billed monthly, with access to projects, and customized learning paths, and quizzes. You’ll create projects that recruiters will recognize as your professional web developer portfolio.
Computer Science Career Path
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With this course, you are on your way to becoming a programmer. You will become proficient in Git, Python, Command Line and more, while learning the basics of computer science, such as algorithms and data structures. What you master here will be the essentials to creating better, more cost-effective code and coming out on top in technical interviews. A popular payment plan starts at $19.99 a month, billed monthly, but other options are available including yearly membership and biannually.
Data Science Career Path
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Data Science is a rapidly growing field of the tech industry. If your goal is to become a data scientist or data analyst or simply to utilize data more efficiently and correctly in your current job, check out this 35-week course from Codecademy. After all, computers cannot exist without data. Lessons include scikit-learn, NumPy, pandas, SQL, Python 3, and others. You will progress to the point of being able to create machine learning algorithms. This course is free with a paid monthly subscription to the site.
Learn Color Design
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This free three hour course from Codecademy teaches basic color theory and then applies it to user interface interactions, the psychology of colors, and why the color scheme of your website is an accessibility issue. The class includes two projects and two quizzes. The projects and assessments are only available to paying customers of the site. But this course could prove useful to anyone building a personal or personal business website as color is not just an aesthetic background, it can be a brand statement.
Learn Statistics with Python
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Statistics in its ideal form makes the extremely muddy exceptionally clear. The data revolution has weaponized such tools that make stats a required study. This sequence opens with the classic Mean, Median, and Mode lessons but applied to learning and executing in Python to keep and maintain control over the data as you calculate. The same goes with lessons in Variance and Standard Deviation. In the Histograms lesson sequence, you learn to calculate in Python and plot with Matplotlib. For the Quartiles and Boxplots lesson sequences, you will gain further experience in these popular visual representations of statistical data.
SQL: Table Transformation
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The takes you through learning to use Structured Query Language to transform data starting with Subqueries–fitting queries inside queries–moving to Set Operations, Conditional Aggregates, and then, Date, Number and String Functions. To take this course, you must have taken SQL. The estimated time to complete this course is about 3 hours. The academy has partnered with Looker, just recently acquired by Google, to help make transformation and manipulation of data as seamless as possible.
Learn the Command Line
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The promise of this course is that you will become proficient in using text-based commands for your computer in order to move through files and folders, accessing and modifying them–and all without touching a mouse. Codecademy touts the program as an essential and proven way to step up your output as a developer. More than three-quarters of a million users have taken the course, which requires no prerequisites and can be completed in ten hours. Communicating with your computer without a mouse can save time and allow you greater freedom.
Learn Ruby
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What keeps people programming in Ruby? Typically, users need more kid-friendly visual elements that are also part of a highly portable, and in-demand skill. The site notes that ubiquitous companies like Kickstarter and Twitter had their start in Ruby. As you grow familiar with crucial skills such as OOP and control flow, you’ll be able to use these skills in countless settings. Organized into ten lessons this covers controlling flow, looping, creation of arrays, using hashes and reaching object-oriented programming.
#11 – Springboard
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Springboard brings the education to you, with a 1:1 mentor and a 1:1 career coach fully dedicated to helping you succeed. They offer multiple free learning tracks and several paid learning tracks, some of which come with an employment guarantee (more about that below). The paid career tracks can be completed in about six months with 15-20 hours per week of work. They offer career tracks for those wanting to change jobs, and skills tracks, for those wanting to expand their skill sets.
Data Science Career Track
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This site claims to offer a job right away, allowing you to defer tuition. They openly guarantee a job, seeing that as only possible through training you in Python, Seaborn, and Matplotlib. Their methodology retains mentors to keep students feeling supported. The production expectations are ambitious, as 14 real-world projects spread among eighteen units directed toward an immediate hire. These projects will train you to help clients identify problems, assess the necessary data, and make the data tell the right story for that client.
ML Engineering Career Track
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Springboard guarantees you’ll get specific tools and skills from this course. For the Data Science and Machine Learning world, you’ll have the libraries and tools you need. You’ll also receive refresher programs on the best practices utilized in software engineering. The course contains certain math concepts that are basic to machine learning. You’ll brush up your data science and algorithms knowledge as well as the ability to make the most of Python as a way to write faster code. This course has seven units including AI Tutorial: Computer Vision and Deploying AI Systems to Production.
Data Analytics Career Track
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market for Data Analytics is projected to grow at least 19% in the decade leading up to 2026. This Springboard course may take 25 + hours to complete and contains the following units: Framing Structured Thinking; Analyzing Business Problems; Connecting Data Using SQL; Visualizing Data with Python; and Communicating Your Analysis. Skills you’ll develop and hone include knowing what questions to ask, selecting the best presentation of your analysis, and developing an expert eye for data.
Digital Marketing Career Track
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This digital marketing course can be had for just $2,399 for six months of study (if you pay upfront, more if you finance). That price includes all of Springboard’s signature student services and not one single extra cost or fee above the stated price. It is all inclusive. This 200 -hour course of instruction asks for about 8-10 hours of study per week. The program participates with the $10,000 Google AdWords project where students use grant money from Google to help a non-profit boost their web signal.
Front End Dev Career Track
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In just six months, you could complete this on demand online course and be on your way to a new career in front end development at a tech startup in a happening city. Springboard offers several financing options for the tuition payment of around $4,900. This program also qualifies for the site’s job guarantee. Certificates of completion are available for your LinkedIn profile or your CV. This course is eligible to qualify for many employer’s annual continuing education budgets for employees.
UI Career Track
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Springboard’s User Interface Design Career Track has a general duration of six months and a rating of 4.79 out of 5 on SwitchUp. This program is also eligible for the job guarantee. The thing that sets Springboard apart from a lot of other course providers is their focus on student services. Mentoring, academic coaching, fostering of small group work, and career services are all highly touted by this provider. The course involves studies in design theory; design handoff; design process; and a capstone project to showcase your newfound skills.
Full Stack Career Track
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The curriculum of this Full Stack Developer track includes: web fundamentals; GitHub; Ruby; server-side programming; JavaScript; and a capstone project where you build your own app with integration and documentation continuously implemented. The 350-hour workload can be completed in under six months with steady application and an excellent work ethic. This degree also comes with a job guarantee and a tuition of $4,900. Weekly one on one video calls with your mentor as well as the full weight of the career services department are at your disposal, thanks to the Springboard business model.
UX Career Track
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The User Experience Career Track at Springboard comes with a job guarantee. If you meet the job search requirements (which are several) and do not land a qualifying job within six months of being approved for completion, you do not have to pay for your tuition. This program is aimed at individuals with a UX, design, or web development background (at least one year of experience) who hold a bachelor’s degree. The tuition costs for this track is $4,900, but scholarships are available.
Disclaimer: Some courses may include an affiliate link. Courses were chosen first based on the methodology with affiliate links only added after the ranking was complete.
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