Learn for Fun or Free or Fun & Free
Just a whole bunch of websites with free & affordable courses, certifications, and learning tools.
Made this list after getting emotional about learning. I’ll save the sob story, I know what you’re really here for.
[scroll to bottom if you’re like “no, actually. I’d like to hear why you got emotional!”]
Free & Affordable Online Classes & Certifications
Alison
Free online courses with certificates & diplomas
5,500 + free online courses in fields like IT, Health, Language, Business, Management, English, Personal Development, Sales & Marketing, Engineering & Construction, as well as Teaching & Academics
Coursera
Free and affordable online classes from leading universities and companies
Certifications offered
Arts & Humanities, Business, Computer Science, Data Science, Health, IT, Language Learning, Math & Logic, Personal Development, Physical Science & Engineering, Social Sciences & more!
edX
Free & paid options for online courses from top universities like MIT, Harvard, and Berkeley
Also has an option to “explore career resources” where you can go step by step for different career paths like; how to become an actuary, how to become an art therapist, how to become a data engineer, etc
Code academy
Free and affordable online courses as well as certifications in various coding languages
Class Central
Huge collection of free and affordable class options
Just came out with their 2025 “Massive List of Thousands of Free Certificates and Badges” including 450+ free certificates and badges from Google alone
Loecsen
https://www.loecsen.com/en#google_vignette
Free and affordable language learning courses
Massive selection of language categories like Europe & America, Africa & Middle East, Asia, as well as one dedicated to regions
More Learning Resources
Phet Interactive Simulations
Free interactive simulations for science and math
Ex: watch physics simulations for motion, sound & waves, work, energy & power, and much more
Fields: physics, math & stats, chemistry, earth & space, and biology
Learn Anything XYZ
Type in the topic you’d like to learn more about and the website will give you a list of locations across the web where you can learn more. The website name honestly says it all, I really didn’t have to type this.
Ifixit
Step by step guides on how to fix anything, over 126,440 free manuals for over 71,853 devices
We All Sew
Free skill builder sew alongs where you get step by step instructions, patterns, and insight on all types of sewing projects (especially quilting. God the quilts are so cool)
Musicca
Learn music theory for free!
Also an option available for schools!
Pinterest-Recipe-Like-Emotional-Context for This Post
[I know it’s for SEO and ownership reasons but damn, let me make a joke.]
Me: Oh my god you actually scrolled to the bottom. You care about my feelings?
You: I’m literally reading about Musicca and this accidentally caught my eye.
Me: Fair. But since you’re here, would you like to hear about why learning makes me emotional? Why I cried today? Why I have a podcast called Schauer Thoughts where I try to put neuroscience into fun, digestible terms but also read some feedback this afternoon that said my thoughts were disorganized and my analogies weren’t “exact comparisons?” Would you like to hear about how after a lifetime of feeling stupid I embarked on a 2 1/2 year reading journey where I taught myself everything I could and then started a podcast about that journey and -
You: [literally left before I typed “fair”]
Me: Damn. But yeah. I was heartbroken that my work seemed disorganized and not effectively communicated so I ordered the book ‘Polish Your Academic Writing Skills' by Helen Coleman and signed up for a free 5 week course on Science Communication so I could present and communicate my work better.
You: Why’d that make you so emotional?
Me: Oh my god you did stay!
You: I didn’t want to, I had a feeling you had one more website.
Me: Wowwwww. But also, I do. It’s Science Communication Lab - it’s a website where you can take courses on being a better science communicator.
You: ‘preciate it.
Me, imagining all readers in one room now: Livin in my own world, couldn’t understand -
You all: that anything could happen, when you take a chance
Me, with more enthusiasm: I never believed in, what I couldn’t see
Us: I never opened up my heart (oh-oh)
To all the possibilities, ooh-ooh
that something has changed
(Never felt this way)
And right here tonight
This could be the start
Of something new
It feels so right
To be here with you, oh-oh
Sorry guys, got carried away. Happy learning. High School Musical 4 Ever.
I've also been getting emotional about learning recently. Knowledge is power and I wanna the most powerful wizard the land has ever known. No reason I just like to hoard knowledge in my noggin
Love this list and love your vulnerability! Of course I read till the end 🫶🏻✨