100+ Self-Education Resources for Lifelong Learners There Are So Many Incredible Resources for Self-Education and Lifelong Learning Online
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LOGIN SIGN UP (HTTP://WWW.DIYGENIUS.COM/REGISTER/) (http://www.diygenius.com/) 100+ Self-Education Resources For Lifelong Learners There are so many incredible resources for self-education and lifelong learning online. Learn something new everyday! Self-education and the embrace of lifelong learning is becoming a critical mindset to navigate our rapidly changing world. Lifelong learning can be a catalyst for earning more money in your career and it can be a gateway to self- employment. Fortunately, the Internet has made it easier than ever to find the right resources to spark your curiosity and learn what you need to know. In this post, I have compiled some of the most useful self-education resources that I’ve found online. You will find online courses and tools to master new skills, learn languages, find classic books, broaden your mind and interact with other lifelong learners. Want even more awesome digital learning resources? Join my new community Hackademic.ly (http://www.hackademic.ly). 778 Shares Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Take free online courses from the world’s best Universities. MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) provide video lectures, structured deadlines and interactive learning communities. 180 1. Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) -The largest course platform for free MOOCs . Founded by two former Stanford University professors. 176 2. Udacity (http://www.udacity.com/) – Founded by Sebastian Thrun, the creator of the artificial intelligence system behind Google’s self-driving cars. Udacity’s focus is on free MOOCs for improving your knowledge of STEM (Science, 94 Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines. 3. EdX (https://www.edx.org/) – A free MOOC platform developed through a partnership between Harvard, MIT and Berkeley. Expanding rapidly. 23 4. MIT Open Courseware (http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm) – This ambitious project launched over a decade ago by MIT makes the course materials used in virtually all of MIT’s courses available on the web for free. 5. Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org/) – Salman Khan’s pioneering online academy where you can learn just about any academic subject online for free. 6. Saylor (http://www.saylor.org/) – Started by serial entrepreneurial and education futurist Michael Saylor. The Saylor Foundation is a non-profit that provides a free University education that includes written exams and University credits for most of your work. 7. University of the People (http://www.uopeople.org/groups/tuition-free-online-degree) – A tuition-free online University that aims to democratize higher education by offering it anyone in the world. 8. iTunes U (http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/) – Apple’s iTunes University initiative makes it easy to take courses on your iPhone or iPad wherever you go. 9. World Education University (WEU) (http://www.theweu.com/) – A massively open online University (they call it MOOC 2.0) that offers degrees and full program for free. It’s a for-profit enterprise that funds itself through advertising, publishing and organization partnerships rather than tuition fees. 10. Canvas Network (https://www.canvas.net/) – An open learning network with a growing collection of free online courses. Sign up early for courses, they fill up fast. 11. FutureLearn (https://www.futurelearn.com/) – The United Kingdom’s MOOC initiative has over 40 leading Universities offering free online courses. Lectures and Video Learning Websites: Get inspired by watching short lectures by the world’s leading thinkers, entrepreneurs and creators. 1. TED (http://www.ted.com) – With its slogan “Ideas Worth Spreading” the TED Conference (stands for Technology, Education, Design) features world’s leading academics, teachers and innovators in easily digestible 18-minute lectures. 2. YouTube EDU (http://www.youtube.com/education) – Google’s YouTube Education channel. Lots of great educational content, lectures and conference talks conveniently organized. 3. Do Lectures (http://www.dolectures.com/) – Inspiring talks from people who have set out to change the world. 4. Solve For X (http://www.wesolveforx.com/) – A forum established by Google to amplify technology-based solutions to radically challenge the world’s problems. 5. Big Think (http://bigthink.com/) – Short videos with important contemporary thinkers, entrepreneurs and scientists talking about their expertise. 6. Fora.TV (http://www.fora.tv) – Constantly expanding collection of videos from the world’s biggest conferences and events. 7. @Google Talks (https://www.youtube.com/atgoogletalks) – Innovator thinkers and doers visit Googleplex to give inspiring talks that are posted freely online by Google. 8. RSA Animate (http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/) – Engaging, hand-drawn videos that illustrate important issues in the world today. issues in the world today. 9. Creative Live (http://www.creativelive.com/) – Live workshops taught by world class experts. Free if you mark the talks on your schedule and watch the live streams. 10. Mixergy (http://mixergy.com) – Excellent courses and interviews by Andrew Warner with today’s top Internet entrepreneurs. 11. Academic Earth (http://www.academicearth.org/) – 1000s of free video lectures from many of the world’s top Universities. 12. The Faculty Project (http://facultyproject.org/) – Udemy has created an excellent free platform for the best professors from the world’s leading Universities to teach online. 13. The Floating University (http://www.floatinguniversity.com/) – Inspiring video lectures from today’s most interesting thinkers, practitioners and leading scholars. 14. Reddit Lectures (http://www.reddit.com/r/lectures/) – A busy Reddit community for the latest and greatest video lectures. 15. Video Lectures (http://videolectures.net/) – A growing collection of 14,500+ video lectures. Watch Streaming Documentaries: Watching documentaries is a great way to relax and learn new things. 1. Mind Expanding Documentaries (http://www.diygenius.com/mind-expanding-documentaries/) – Free, streaming educational documentaries collected from across the web. 2. Snag Films (http://www.snagfilms.com/) – One of the largest collections of ad-supported movies and documentaries online. 3. Can I Stream I? (http://www.canistream.it/) – Search Netflix (http://www.netflix.com), Hulu (http://www.hulu.com), Google Play (http://play.google.com) and iTunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) to find movies and documentaries that you can instantly rent or buy. 4. PBS Video (http://video.pbs.org/) – Watch full-length shows and documentaries from PBS. I especially recommend their Frontline (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/) documentaries. Digital Skills Training: An emerging group of education startups that are offering skills training for the digital workplace. 1. Udemy (http://www.udemy.com) – The iTunes of learning new digital skills and training for your career. 2. Skillshare (http://www.skillshare.com/) – A global community centered around creativity, collaboration and learning by doing. Online and offline classes. 3. University of Reddit (http://ureddit.com/) – If you love Reddit (http://www.reddit.com), you can take part in their evolving online education initiative. 4. ALISON (http://alison.com/) – Free workplace skills training with over 300+ online courses accessible to you. Digital Skills Portfolios: With so much informal learning now happening online, your credentials are less important than what you can do with your knowledge. These platforms are developing alternative forms of accreditation that are based on your practical skills and accomplishments. 1. Degreed (http://degreed.com/) – Trying to jailbreak the college degree by helping your build a digital, lifelong diploma. 2. Pathbrite (https://pathbrite.com/) – Collect, organize and share a lifetime of learning and achievement. 3. Smarterer (http://smarterer.com/) – Benchmark your skills and track what you’ve learned through online skill tests. 3. Smarterer (http://smarterer.com/) – Benchmark your skills and track what you’ve learned through online skill tests. 4. Mozilla’s Open Badges (http://openbadges.org/) – Get recognition for your skills and achievement by earning digital badges. 5. LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com) – The professional social networking website has become the new social resume. Open Educational Resources: Access high-quality education textbooks, get your burning questions answered and explore a world of free digital self- education resources. 1. Boundless (https://www.boundless.com/) – Disrupting the big textbook publishers by offering textbooks online, for free. 2. Textbook Revolution (http://www.textbookrevolution.org/index.php/Book:Lists/Subjects) – Free, open source textbooks if that’s how you want to learn. 3. Open Textbooks (http://collegeopentextbooks.org/opentextbookcontent/open-textbooks-by-subject) – Browse college textbooks by subject, which are made freely available online. 4. Scribd (http://www.scribd.com/) – Amazing library of digital documents on every imaginable subject. 5. Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/) – Learn new things and find information broken down to the essential bits in this incredible library of digital presentations. 6. Creative Commons Education (http://creativecommons.org/education) – An open source movement to make educational content freely available online. 7. Connexions (http://cnx.org/)– A global knowledge sharing community that breaks information down into small, easily-digestible chunks. 8. Open Study (http://openstudy.com/) – Ask. Answer. Understand.