There’s plenty of articles and free stuff for kids’ education, but what about those of us who got old and began to resemble adults, at least physically? I guess if we missed out on the top bachelor’s degree programs, master’s degree programs, and doctoral degrees, we’re minced meat, aren’t we? Well, no—but it seems that adult education has really fallen by the wayside lately!
For all we hear about lifelong learning, continuing education isn’t nearly as common as it once was. In many industries, people get left behind, relying on whatever they may have gotten out of their expensive degrees and life experience. This is fair to absolutely no one except people at the top who then can make anyone below them expendable to make room for fresh meat. I know this sounds harsh, but this is exactly what happens and why unemployment is as high as it is.
So, I’m looking to changing this in any way I can. My small way of contributing to lifelong learning is to create a resource for Free Learning and Educational Resources for ADULTS! While, yes, obviously primary education is important, there’s plenty out there for that. For the rest of us, who actually want to, I don’t know, become smarter and more knowledgeable people, here’s a head start for you.
These are the three places I swear by when it comes to (mostly) free learning resources:
Internet Archive: Yes, the Wayback Machine is actually very helpful in digging up info that’s become lost to today’s web. But there’s also a lot of free books on there, many of which you have to “borrow” in order to read, but still, it’s like a library from your favorite lounging spot.
Khan Academy: While it’s probably the best free K-12 resource out there today, there’s plenty of adult education on there, too. I learned a ton from free Khan Academy courses, including a lot about history they don’t teach even in college!
YouTube: It’s the only streaming platform I still pay for at this point, simply because I hate ads. I also watch it every day. For all the crap that’s on there, if you know what to look for, it can give you a better education than some university degree programs. There’s more educational content on the world’s leading video sharing platform than anywhere else. Even the “premium” services a lot of times use YouTube as their host; their videos simply are unlisted and don’t show up in search.
While it’s technically free, I strongly urge you to pay the monthly fee for Premium. The ads make things really frustrating, and you actually help creators out by watching their videos while having a Premium membership.
Free College Courses
Many universities offer entirely free course material online. Some don’t offer college credit, but you can take them entirely at your own pace with zero pressure. But there are others from which you can enroll in the course for free and follow along; then, if you want to get credit, you must buy into the exam. Unfortunately, a lot that used to be free are now locked behind a free trial paywall.
Learn at Your Own Pace
Top Free Courses – Learn Free Online (coursera.org) – Honestly, the free courses here are mostly introductory. To really dive in you’ll likely need to pay for courses, but like Stanford and Harvard, many are free to audit.
Courses | Harvard University – These are through edX, and many Harvard courses are still available for free, fortunately. They are mostly self-paced, and while they are free, you can buy a certificate for many of them starting for $99. What’s great is that after courses are archived, you can still enjoy the materials, even if credit is no longer available.
Free Online Courses | Stanford Online – Pretty much the same deal as Harvard, these are through edX. The archived courses are available with a free edX account, which is great, even if you can’t get the free audit any more on them.
Free College Courses Online
Swayam Central – This is based in India, so I’m not sure how certification works outside of that country. However, just reading the course descriptions, you can glean the entire course structure and what textbooks are used and get a sense for what’s taught in the course.
OpenLearn from Open University – What’s great about OpenLearn is that you can get a free statement of participation, for what that’s worth. But you can also do short activities if you’re short on time, as well as check out lots of free collections of learning resources.
Other Neat Learning Stuff
In my research for finding cool learning resources, I’ve come across these neat websites that are applicable to pretty much everyone:
Yours for the making – Autodesk Instructables
Tools for better thinking | Untools
More Niche Educational Resources
As I come across more free resources for more specialized fields, I’ll list them here. Some of these will probably try to sell you something, so if they require an email or phone number or whatever to access, just make a secondary email and use one of those free online phone number services. That’s what I always do.
13 Free Learning Resources for Designers, Developers – Practical Ecommerce
20+ FREE educational resources for cybersecurity, OSINT and IT – osintme.com
40 Free Learning Resources For Game Developers (gameanalytics.com)
Free Learning Resources for B2B Sales & Marketing – IndustrySelect®
Free Educational Resources for Administrative Professionals – Office Dynamics International
Free Educational Resources on Construction Payment | Levelset
Learn WordPress: Top FREE Learning Resources for 2024 (wpastra.com)
Stanford eCorner | Where Entrepreneurs Find Inspiration
UI and UX design tutorials: free learning resources – Justinmind
