A few days into lockdown, we’re all starting to get to grips with how long the days are… We’ve scrolled through what seems to be the entirety of Netflix and we’ve refreshed our Facebook feeds a hundred times over. If the boredom is getting to you, why not try your hand at some of these free online courses? That way, you’ll be learning a new skill or refining an old one – either way, they’ll leave you feeling stimulated and productive.
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Online courses are a great way to keep busy during the lockdown (and beyond). You can finally get the lowdown on work-related content or start pursuing that hobby you’ve been considering for ages. The options are endless.
Alison
Alison offers thousands of online courses that are all completely free. These courses are self-paced, meaning you can take your time to complete the work whenever you’d like. If you’re keen to binge one of these free online courses or pace it over months, you can do just that.
The courses are divided into nine distinct categories: IT, business, language, health, humanities, science, marketing, lifestyle and mathematics. You can learn everything from corporate governance to makeup artistry or fashion design.
WitsX
WitsX is Wits University’s online learning platform that offers free, self-paced courses. These courses are slightly more formal and academic in nature, so you’ll need to have your thinking cap firmly on. They are facilitated by industry professionals and lecturers from the university itself. Many of the courses take about three weeks to complete and require 2-3 hours each week, making them totally doable even post-lockdown.
To participate in these courses is free, but if you’d like a certificate of completion, you may have to pay a small fee. Some of the courses include Activism and Citizen Journalism and What Do Urban Planners and Architects Do?
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FutureLearn
FutureLearn offers exciting virtual courses hosted by some of the world’s leading universities. These free online courses are diverse, interactive, and super useful. Some of their most popular courses at the moment deal with Covid-19 and mental health.
These courses vary from specialised professional sessions to more relaxed recreational lessons. There’s sure to be something for you on this site.
Whether you’re interested in screenwriting or archeology, FutureLearn has got it. Moreover, the courses have useful breakdowns for you to check out before committing to one. These summaries let you decide whether a course really is for you, or if you’ll be bored in the first two minutes.
Harvard University
Believe it or not, Harvard University also offers loads of free online courses. You can filter the courses according to duration, difficulty, and start date. So this means you can gauge your commitment and enrol accordingly.
These courses look amazing! The variety is astounding. You can learn about 18th Century Opera, or the pyramids of Giza, or even Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. And if you absolutely loved whatever course you chose, you can donate to Harvard, thus ensuring the development of even more stimulating, accessible content.
Udemy
Udemy offers loads of free online courses that’ll make your lockdown that little bit more pleasant. This site also has stacks of paid courses at reasonable prices – and they regularly offer discounts, so be sure to keep an eye out for those.
What makes Udemy special is that some courses can take up to a year to complete while others can be mastered in an hour. If you’re herding kids, working from home, and trying to stay sane, maybe even just an hour of learning will suit you. It’s totally up to you.
Each course’s description will tell you how many hours of teaching the course includes, as well as its difficulty level. Some of the free course highlights include: a budgeting masterclass, yin yoga for sleep, and watercolour painting for beginners.
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By Features Writer Ashton Kirsten
