The pandemic has presented the world with many a complex challenge, and one of them has been migrating from the conventional classroom to a virtual one. Online education is nothing new, but it can be hard to motivate students to learn consistently without face-to-face classes, especially if it involves math concepts or analytical skills.
Now, more than ever before, there’s a demand for online educational videos and learning-related content. Teachers need these tools to help them engage their students, and even for people who simply want to acquire knowledge and learn new skills, it can be hard to know where to start looking.
Whether you are looking for places to learn from, or just looking for the best way to leverage this worldwide demand for educational video content, here are a few amazing platforms you should definitively check out, and learn more about education through videos.
Let’s get to it!
1, FutureLearn – College Level Courses for All Interests
If you’re looking for an alternative to college webinars and lectures, then FutureLearn is the place for you. FutureLearn is an online learning platform that allows you to take fully accredited online courses from renowned universities and companies all across the globe for free. You can even earn certificates issued by those institutions, but you have to pay for them.
You can learn about anything you want: from business and management to medicine, art, and everything in between. They even have “boredom-busting courses” so you can discover a new hobby or learn a new language!
The course material includes video content, reading assignments, and short quizzes. Students can post any questions they have and discuss topics with teachers and a community of other students also taking the course. Just as if you were back in the classroom!
The platform can be a bit tricky to navigate because there’s a lot of information on the pages, but once you get the hang of it you will greatly benefit from all the knowledge available for free.
2, Khan Academy – A Global Classroom at Home
Khan Academy is an American non-profit organization that seeks to provide free, world-class education for everyone, no matter where they are.
They have a wide range of courses that go from basic math and reading classes for kids to computer programming and economics for more advanced students. They even have courses on important topics that schools usually don’t have the time to cover, such as life skills and personal finance.
And you know how they teach all this content? Through video lessons and interactive content! Their educational videos are a fantastic tool for learners of all ages because they’re engaging and visually attractive. You can say goodbye to tedious lectures in a stuffy classroom.
Because of the coronavirus crisis, most people are working and studying at home. So Khan Academy has created daily learning schedules and resources for children aged 2–18. They’re meant to be used as a guide to help teachers, parents, and students organize their online schooling.
The platform is available in over 30 languages and has a clean web design that makes navigating through the courses and their content simple and easy.
3, MoMA’s MOOCs – Classes for Art Lovers
If technology and science aren’t really your thing because you’re more into art history, painting, and design, then you should check the Museum of Modern Art’s new Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).
Through a partnership with Coursera, the MoMA has curated a collection of art-related classes that are beginner-friendly. They have produced a series of stunning and informative videos on topics such as postwar abstract painting, modern art, fashion design, and photography. The videos are in English, but subtitles are available in Spanish, German, and six other languages.
And you know what the best part is? The courses are all free! You can also pay a fee to earn a certificate issued by Coursera, but this is optional.
4, Open Culture – An Endless Source of Knowledge
If you still can’t find the course you’re looking for on any of the platforms we’ve mentioned so far, then you should definitely check Open Culture’s massive library of educational content.
Open Culture offers a list of thousands of free online courses from top universities worldwide, such as Yale, MIT, Harvard, Oxford, and more, that can only be found on their private websites.
The collection is organized by topics and subtopics so that you can easily find what you need without having to visit each university’s site.
Open Culture’s archives are a treasure trove for students and teachers because there’s virtually nothing you can’t find there. The list gets updated regularly, so you can discover new courses from time to time.
There is content on broad topics like economics, geography, and language learning and more specific ones that are usually not easy to come across, such as film studies, theology, sociology, and even archaeology!
And do you know what the best part about Open Culture is? It doesn’t stop at video content — there are great quality language courses, e-books, audiobooks, textbooks, music, and more. And all of it for free!
5, Codecademy – Coding Courses for the 21st Century
For those who love programming or are interested in a potential career in coding, there is Codecademy, an online platform that specializes in teaching coding and other related subjects.
Their mission is to teach their students the necessary skills to succeed in the 21st century. HTML, Java, web design, game development… they have everything you might need to unlock new technical skills!
Their courses are designed for beginners, and they’ve even developed a quiz so that new students can discover which courses best suit their personal interests and strengths.
They offer a mix of reading and interactive content in the form of simple tasks and short quizzes. However, what makes this platform very interesting is that you can practice coding while still viewing the lesson material and receive feedback in real-time.
The courses are engaging and easy to follow, and the website is intuitive. You just have to access the catalog to find a list with all the languages and subjects you can learn.
Once you start a course, you can monitor your progress, see your goals, and view the syllabus all together on the centralized dashboard.
Conclusion
We need to make the best of our current circumstances and take advantage of our time at home to advance in our studies, expand our professional horizons, or even learn a new hobby.
The internet is the perfect place to do any of that because it’s full of free educational content. We’ve narrowed down the five best online educational platforms to help you find quality resources.
No matter what you want to learn, you will surely find some courses on the topic on one of these platforms, so go check them out!
