“Knowledge is Power”. In this era, the most popular, easier, flexible, accessible, and time-saving source of learning is online learning. It is also known as e-learning, virtual learning, distance education, and remote learning.
This post will be about online courses, their benefits, and the top three websites that offer online courses.
Online Learning:
Online learning refers to learning through courses that are taught completely or partially by using the Internet. The learner should have a mobile or laptop with internet connectivity and he/she can access the course from different websites or other platforms like YouTube. Online courses are more easily accessible as compared to offline courses, if the learner has a good internet connection, then he/she can access the course anytime, anywhere. The learner can choose the course according to his/her needs and will. And also he/she can complete it at their own pace.
The main advantages of online learning are time-saving, freedom to choose a course, cost-effectiveness, accessibility, flexibility, availability, and international certification offered by different websites e.g. Coursera and Udemy.
However, online learning has many disadvantages for instance it always requires good internet speed and fast devices (laptop, mobile, or computer), which may result in internet or technology addiction, less social life, and less interaction with other learners.
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Benefits of Online Learning:
There are many benefits of online learning, some of them are as follows:
- Time-saving: Online courses can save a lot of time compared to offline courses taught in educational institutes and academies.
- Cost-effective: Online courses are cheap compared to offline courses. Most courses are free and also offer certificates.
- Flexibility: Online courses have a flexible schedule. Learners can choose courses on their own, set their own pace, and access them whenever needed
- Availability: Online courses are available 24/7. The learner can start learning whenever he/she gets free.
- Accessibility: The learner can access the course material anytime, anywhere whenever it is needed. All the thing he/she needs is a good internet connection and a mobile or a laptop.
- International Certification: Most websites also provide certificates once the course is completed. It can be a good addition to improve your CV/Resume. These certificates are accepted all over the world.
- Self-made schedule: The learner can make his/her schedule without any restriction due to the accessibility and flexibility of online courses. He/she can finish the course at his/her own pace.
Some Most Popular Online Courses People used to prefer:
The top categories of courses that people prefer are as follows:
- Programming languages: Example C++, Java, Python, C, C#, JavaScript, etc.
- Machine Learning.
- Web Development: e.g. HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), CSS(), JavaScript, WordPress, React, etc.
- Language Course: For example English, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, and German,
- Cloud Computing.
- Presentation and Communication.
- Graphic Design and Video Editing.
- SEO( Search Engine Optimization).
- Video Editing.
- Graphic Designing.
- AI( Artificial Intelligence)
- Digital Marketing.
Top Websites that Offer Online Courses:
Many websites offer online Courses. But in this blog, we will discuss the top three websites that offer online courses.
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Coursera:
Coursera is the most popular website for online learning. It was founded by Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller in 2012. It offers a lot of free and paid online courses with certification. It also offers online degree programs (Bachelor, Master, etc.) from top universities of the world like the University of London.
It is an online learning platform that partners with the top universities and learning platforms to provide the best quality courses, degrees, and certificates. Its hands-on projects and certificate programs make it different from other websites. It contains up to 7000 courses from high-ranked universities. It also offers thousands of free courses with certification from the world’s top-rank universities.
Courses are taught in Over 50 languages in Coursera. The list of languages with the number of courses available is given below:
| Sr.No | Language | No. of Courses |
| 1 | English | 6,559 |
| 2 | French | 5,483 |
| 3 | Spanish | 5,439 |
| 4 | Portuguese (Brazil)( | 5,140 |
| 5 | Arabic | 5,076 |
| 6 | German | 5,028 |
| 7 | Indonesian | 4,992 |
| 8 | Korean | 4,979 |
| 9 | Chinese (China) | 4,964 |
| 10 | Japanese | 4,926 |
| 11 | Ukrainian | 4,918 |
| 12 | Turkish | 4,912 |
| 13 | Russian | 4,877 |
| 14 | Italian | 4,867 |
| 15 | Hindi | 4,853 |
| 16 | Polish | 4,847 |
| 17 | Thai | 4,847 |
| 18 | Dutch | 4,846 |
| 19 | Greek | 4,846 |
| 20 | Swedish | 4,846 |
| 21 | Kazakh | 4,583 |
| 22 | Hungarian | 2,969 |
| 23 | Chinese(Traditional) | 28 |
| 24 | Portuguese (Portugal) | 7 |
| 25 | Vietnamese | 6 |
| 26 | Portuguese | 2 |
Key Features of Coursera:
- Flexible Learning: Coursera offers both self-paced and instructor-led courses. Due to that everyone can learn at their own pace and schedule.
- Wide Range of Courses: Coursera offers courses on almost every subject, from business and technology to humanities and sciences. These courses are offered by top universities like Yale, Stanford, University of London, and University of Michigan. Google, Microsoft, IBM, etc. also offer courses.
- Affordable Pricing: Courses available on Coursera are often free of cost. But still, as well as paid courses are also more affordable than traditional courses.
- Certificates and Degrees: After completing courses on Coursera, it offers certificates also. We can also get degrees through degree programs on Coursera.
Summing up, Coursera is a great platform for learning and improving new skills, advancing your career, or exploring new topics and skills. As it offers thousands of courses related to every field of life. Its flexibility, accessibility, and high-quality content can help to improve skills and to achieve learning goals.
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edX:
edX is also a popular online learning platform like Coursera. It was also founded in 2012 by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It offers a wide range of courses from top universities and institutes around the world.
edX also offers both free courses and paid courses. Like Coursera, it also offers certificates on completing courses, which we can use to improve our CV/Resume.
Key Features of edX:
edX has many benefits and features. Some of them are the following:
- Collaboration with Top Institutions: edX has partnerships with over 250 universities, institutes, and platforms.
- Wide Range Courses: It offers courses related to different subjects, like business, humanities, science, and technology.
- Flexibility: edX also offers self-paced and instructor-led courses like Coursera. Which makes it more flexible and easier.
- Certification: After completing a course on edX, you can earn a verifiable certificate related to the courses. You can add it to your CV/Resume.
- Degree Programs: edX offers a variety of degree programs, including bachelor, Master, and MicroMasters Programs.
Overall, edX is one of the best platforms for learning and improving new skills, advancing your career, or exploring new topics and skills. It offers thousands of courses related to every field of life. Its flexibility, accessibility, and high-quality content can help you improve your skills and achieve your learning goals through online learning.
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Udemy:
Udemy is also a good online learning platform. It was found in 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. It offers a wide range of courses related to science, technology, and other subjects and has become one of the most popular.
Key Features of Udemy:
Some of the key features and benefits of Udemy are:
- Vast Course Library: Udemy’s course library consists of over 200,000 courses. All the courses are taught by experts. You can find courses related to everything on Udemy.
- Flexibility: Udemy also offers self-paced and instructor-led courses like Coursera and edX. Which makes it more flexible and easier.
- Affordable: Udemy often offers courses at discounted price up to 100%. You can visit discUdemy.com to get coupons on courses.
- Certificates of Completion: You can also earn certificates of completion once the courses is completed.
Overall, Udemy is a great option for those who is looking for platforms that offer a wide range courses for free or on discounted price.
Conclusion:
The rise of online learning revolutionized the learning method of humans. As we mentioned in this blog, it has many advantages over offline learning or traditional learning methods. The main benefits of online learning are flexibility, accessibility, availability, cost-effectiveness, and certification of completion. There are many platforms that offers online courses. Some of them are paid and some of them are totally free. The top three online platforms that are mentioned in this blog are Coursera, esX, and Udemy.
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