The importance of lifelong learning is becoming more and more important as the world around us changes rapidly. Lifelong learning is becoming key to staying competitive and developing our careers. Acquiring digital skills and constantly updating your knowledge in this area is not only an advantage, but often a necessity. The online world offers a plethora of courses and resources from which we can learn. And this chapter will guide us through how to navigate this world and feel confident.
Continuing education pathways in the online world
Online learning offers flexibility, speed and also affordability. In addition, many courses are offered completely free of charge, or in a basic, free version and then with a monthly subscription or course fee. So that you don’t have to spend hours and hours searching blindly, we’ve put together a list of options to further develop your skills:
Online learning platforms
- Coursera
- https://www.coursera.org/
- An education platform with more than 10,000 online courses including courses from universities and companies around the world (e.g. Stanford, Imperial College London, Duke, IBL, Google, etc.). Coursera also offers the opportunity to obtain professional certificates and degrees.
- edX
- https://www.edx.org/
- This platform offers over 4,000 courses in partnership with leading universities and companies.
- Udemy
- https://www.udemy.com/
- Udemy offers over 250,000 online courses in many languages. Courses are also created in collaboration with universities and experts from various organisations.
- Khan Academy
- org
- Khan Academy is a non-profit organisation that brings education completely free of cost. It is primarily for teachers, students and parents.
- Future Learn
- https://www.futurelearn.com/
- This platform offers both free and paid courses and is one of the online education providers with the highest number of accredited degrees.
Other online learning opportunities include a wealth of other resources such as:
✅ Online courses
- LinkedIn Learning
- https://www.linkedin.com/learning/
- LinkedIn offers a range of online courses for skills development and career growth, particularly in IT, data analytics and design
- Digital Garage
- https://grow.google/
- Online courses in digital marketing, business and technology
- Duolingo
- https://duolingo.com/
- Perhaps the most well-known foreign language learning platform, most commonly used as a mobile app.
✅ Webinars
- Eventbrite
- https://www.eventbrite.com/
- On the Eventbrite platform you can find events according to your chosen location, both face-to-face and online events, which are either free or at a reasonable price.
✅ Vlogs
- YouTube
- https://www.youtube.com/
- YouTube is the largest video sharing platform and also vlogs or video blogs. There are also specific YouTube channels for free education. These include:
- TED-Ed (https://www.youtube.com/user/TEDEducation): animated videos on various topics.
- CrashCourse (https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse): short and entertaining videos on various subjects such as history, science, art, math, etc.
- CS50 (https://www.youtube.com/user/cs50tv): a programming course from Harvard University.
✅ E-books
- Project Gutenberg
- https://www.gutenberg.org/
- A platform providing free access to 75,000 books that can be downloaded to a reader or read online.
- OpenStax
- https://openstax.org/
- OpenStax offers free access to textbooks in a variety of disciplines.
👉 Resources for continuing education include blogs, scholarly articles, many libraries offer remote access to their collections, and you can explore mobile educational apps. The possibilities are really vast. The important thing is to find the best resource for you and persevere in your studies🙂 Now you know where to look for educational opportunities for your continued growth. But do you know how to navigate the online world safely? Have you ever come across the term cybersecurity? Let’s learn how to protect your data and recognize dangerous activities in the online world.