(Chaay_Tee / shutterstock.com)
Home schooling is for grownups too! Get your learning on with these 7 free education sites. If you are hungry for more, read this: 10 Free Education Websites that Will Expand Your Horizons
Here starts the list...
1. COURSERA
WHAT: Coursera strives to make education accessible to anyone.
HOW: Free courses online from world-class universities, including Princeton University and the University of Michigan. The topics are varied, and lectures are formatted into series of 15-minute-long clips.
BONUS POINTS: Freedom is the name of the game: students can watch videos at their convenience and in their own time.
2. UDACITY
WHAT: A free education website for brainy types, founded by four Stanford roboticists.
HOW: Udacity currently offers 11 courses , all of which are in science and math-related topics. According to the website, plans are underway to expand the curriculum.
BONUS POINTS: Udacity is free of deadlines, free of prerequisites, free of quizzes and other annoying school stuff. Needless to say, courses are also free of charge.
3. OPEN CULTURE
WHAT: High-quality cultural and educational media.
HOW: Open Culture offers a staggering collection of 400 courses, online, for free, from Ivy League universities, such as Stanford, UCLA, Columbia and Oxford University. Courses run the gamut from science and art to math and economics.
BONUS POINTS: Classic and indie films, including many from the 1940’s and 1950’s, are available to watch for free.
4. TED-ED
WHAT: TED, The powerhouse of jaw-dropping lectures needs no introduction. Now, they’re bringing their talent into education with an offshoot, Ted-Ed.
HOW: A treasure trove of beautifully animated and gripping videos on a wide array of subjects, such as The Power of Simple Words and How Many Universes are There. All videos are under 10-minutes-long.
BONUS POINTS: Supplemental materials such as quizzes and discussion questions are also available.
5. MENTORMOB
WHAT: Curating and ordering learning materials.
HOW: MentorMob is like the YouTube of learning materials: users create learning “playlists” from first-rate websites.
BONUS POINTS: MentorMob is a community, whose members share and rank each others’ learning playlists.
6. MEMRISE
WHAT: Effortless learning based on three pillars: science, fun and community.
HOW: Based on scientific methods for implanting new information, Memrise proves that what may seem impossible is in fact doable - yes, even learning Mandarin Chinese.
BONUS POINTS: The Guardian Wallcharts are mapped Memrise style, teaching you all about cheeses, herbs and other wonders of life.
7. LEARNIST
WHAT: Learnist is the Pinterest of learning.
HOW: The interactive platform allows users collect teaching materials and educational content that are grouped into "boards".
BONUS POINTS: The platform is equipped with the Learn it! bookmarklet, which enables picking images anywhere on the web and automatically shoots them to your Learnist board.
