Top 6 Resources for Free Online Courses

There are many places online where you can learn things, but can be hard to filter through some of the better quality ones. If you are after short quick information, places like YouTube if you are a visual learner are a huge resource on how to quickly look up to do things, but if in you are after more in depth resources, the below are a good place to start if you would like to learn more in depth information on specific topics, and for some of them like Stanford and Harvard, you are also able to get certificates from the university once you have completed the course work for a specific course which can come in handy if you would like to use it as a supporting document in your resume, for work, or for courses like from Khan Academy helpful in helping round out knowledge gaps for school.

  1. Khan Academy: Khan Academy provides free courses and instructional videos on a wide range of subjects, including math, science, humanities, and more. Website: www.khanacademy.org
  2. MIT OpenCourseWare: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers free access to course materials from its undergraduate and graduate-level courses. Website: ocw.mit.edu
  3. Stanford Online: Stanford University offers free online courses, lectures, and educational content across various disciplines. Website: online.stanford.edu
  4. Harvard Online Learning: Harvard University provides free online courses on various subjects, including computer science, business, arts, and more. Website: online-learning.harvard.edu
  5. Open Yale Courses: Yale University offers free access to recorded lectures from a selection of undergraduate courses. Website: oyc.yale.edu
  6. OpenLearn. OpenLearn is a free online learning platform from the Open University. It offers a variety of free online courses, as well as other resources, such as articles, videos, and quizzes. Website: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/

Top 6 Websites to get Free eBooks

  1. YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY
    If you are a member of your local library, it is likely you are able to borrow books from it without even having to set foot within the library.

    Libraries such as the Auckland City Libraries belong to a service like OverDrive [https://auckland.overdrive.com/] which enable you to download books directly to your computer, tablet or phone so that you are able to take books with you easily – and best of all it syncs your books and current reading location between your different devices. To find out more, visit your local library website or visit in person and they will be more than happy to show you the ropes.
  1. PROJECT GUTENBERG
    Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971 by Michael Hart who created the eBook standard, and now has over 65,000 Public Domain books available for download, sorted by Category, Author etc, and is searchable.

    If you would to visit it – it is located at: www.gutenberg.org
  1. FREE KIDS BOOKS
    In addition to being one of the biggest sellers of books in the world, Amazon has a wide range of free books for children. Available in Kindle Format they can be read on Kindles as well via the Kindle app on Apple iPad, iPhone, and Android Devices. It is a good place to go if you would like to load up on some books on an old tablet or Kindle for kids to read during school holidays, being stuck indoors during miserable weather, or on long trips where kids may get bored and fidgety.

    Site: https://www.amazon.com/free-kids-ebooks-Books/s?k=free+kids+ebooks&rh=n%3A283155
  1. FREE CLASSICS ON AMAZON
    Amazon also has a wide range of classics for both kids and adults available on https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=2245146011
  1. Smashwords
    Smashwords is the world’s largest distributor of indie eBooks online. They have made it easy for authors and publishers to publish and distribute books to major retailers and to libraries throughout the world.

Their free extensive eBooks has over 24,000 books and cover a wide variety of genre. It is located at https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/home/1/free/any

  1. GoodReads
    While being known for being a more of a social networking website for book lovers to keep track of books they have read and discover new authors and book recommendations, they also have a library of over 25,000 free books for people to be able to download and read with more books being added by authors all the time.

    Their free eBook selection is located at https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/free-ebooks and their main site at https://www.goodreads.com/ is worth exploring for book lovers.