Got some extra time on your hands right now? You're not alone. It's a great opportunity to pick up some new creative skills, but it can be a frustrating business learning things piecemeal from random tutorials and YouTube videos.
What's preferable is a well-organised and academically rigorous course. But what if you have no money to pay for one? Well, the good news is that an increasing number of providers are making most, or all, of their courses available for free. In this post, we highlight 10 of the best places to find free online training today, in a wide range of subjects.
01. FutureLearn
Future Learn offers courses from top universities, for free (Image credit: Futurelearn)
FutureLearn is a UK-based digital education platform that’s jointly owned by The Open University and SEEK Ltd, which has over 140 international partners. Most of its short courses are free, although you’ll have to pay for extras such as receiving a certificate. It offers a number of arts and design related courses, such as An Introduction to Coding and Design and Introduction to Content Design, but they aren't grouped into one category, so you'll need to use the site's search tool to find what you're looking for.
02. Coursera
Coursera is a world-wide online learning platform founded by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. It partners with universities around the world, as well as companies like Google and IBM, to provide around 1,000 courses for free, and since Covid-19 that has been extended to the whole of its 3,800 courses. Its design courses range from beginner level, such as Fundamentals of Design with CalArts, to advanced fare like 3D Model Creation with Autodesk Fusion 360. There are some great art courses too, particularly the recent additions from New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
03. EDX
EDX has a large number of computer science courses and a small selection of arts-based courses (Image credit: EDX)
Another large-scale provider of online courses, mostly for free, EDX is a non-profit organisation launched by MIT and Harvard University. It offers a large range of computer science courses, mostly focused on specific languages such as HTML5 and CSS, as well as a small number of art-related courses, such as Inspiring and Motivating Arts and Culture Teams.
04. Alison
Based in Ireland, Alison is an online education platform mainly focused on workplace skills. It has 14 million registered learners, two million graduates and 1,500 courses available for free. Its creative courses range from short courses in print production and colour theory to a diploma in web design, but again, these don't fall into a single category so you'll need to use the search tool.
05. Google: Digital Marketing
Google is offering a free, 40-hour course in digital marketing (Image credit: Google)
Want to master the basics of digital marketing? Google is offering a 40-hour, free course that's accredited by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe and The Open University. There are 26 modules to explore, all created by Google trainers, and each is packed full of practical exercises and real-world examples to help you turn knowledge into action.
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06. Google: Analytics Academy
Another free course provided by Google, Analytics Academy helps you learn about Google's own measurement tools so that you can grow your website’s traffic and performance through intelligent data collection and analysis. There are a number of courses on offer, all with self-explanatory titles, from Google Analytics for Beginners to Advanced Google Analytics.
07. Michael Flarup: Icon Design
Michael Flarup recently made his course in icon design free (Image credit: Michael Flarup)
Danish designer and speaker Michael Flarup is one of the world’s leading voices in the art of icon design. So his course Designing App Icons, which is spread across 14 video lessons, is well worth taking... not least because in response to the lockdown, he’s generously slashed the price from $49 to completely free! Aimed at anyone interested in becoming a better designer, the course covers deliveries, process and tools involved in app icon design using Photoshop, and how to find your personal visual style.
08. Free Code Camp
Free Code Camp delivers exactly what it promises in the title. This not-for-profit organisation based in San Francisco offers a free and easy way to learn to code online. You'll begin with tutorials that introduce you to HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and then progress onto project assignments that put your skills into practice.
09. Open University
The Open University has more than 1,000 free courses to choose from (Image credit: Open University)
Specialised in distance learning, the Open University offers a number of free courses online via its Open Learn platform. There are nearly 1,000 to choose from, and design-related courses include Design Thinking, Designing the User interface, and an Introduction to Interaction Design. You can find the full catalogue of free courses here.
10. Ivy League
The Ivy League group of universities in the United States, including Harvard, Princeton and Yale, are one of the most exclusive, and expensive, educational institutions in the world, so you might be surprised to find them at on a list of free resources. But it’s true: these esteemed palaces of learning have made over 400 of their courses free, for anyone to study online, and many of them cover creative topics, from art and design to programming. These courses are all spread across different platforms, but Class Central founder Dhawal Shah has compiled a handy guide to what they are and how to access them.
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.
