Learning online has become very popular among the youth as it has become more accessible and easier to use. Getting the opportunity to learn from the comfort of your own has attracted the learners to be more frequent on the Massive Open Online Courses sites. Massive open online courses, commonly known as MOOC sites, are a very popular way to learn from the internet. These sites have gained major popularity in the last decade with the increased use of the internet. These sites have no limit of enrolment and anyone can enrol themselves into these courses without any technical admission procedure. As these have become very common among the learners, it is very difficult to determine the best MOOC sites for online learners. There are plenty of online learning sites in the market today that are doing tremendously well in the business. These sites generally deliver their contents through videos, assessments, discussion forums as well as notes in PDF formats. However, you must learn about these sites properly before enrolling yourself in any of them.
But how do these sites work?
The content of these sites are delivered via instructors from well-renowned universities around the globe. The MOOC sites are generally created by universities and colleges and some are even created by some of the prestigious colleges around the globe including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and many more. Other than universities several top companies also invest in these online learning sites where you get opportunities to work with these investing companies. Some MOOCs are entirely free of cost whereas some charge for their courses.
However, there are some disadvantages of MOOCs as they do not provide any personalized courses or special attention from the instructors. Moreover, you can find it difficult to keep track of the learner’s assignments and involvement. Furthermore, as learners with disabilities or poor internet facilities, one cannot have access to these MOOC sites. Some of these sites do not have language diversity which prevents the learners from getting proper access. But despite these cons, you can find yourselves having a great new experience. And it is wise to gain such experiences to help you enhance your skills.
Now let’s check out some of the biggest MOOC sites which have gained major popularity among the learners. This article will help you to determine which one is the best MOOC site among the top e-learning platforms.
Udacity
Rated as one of the best online learning platforms, Udacity is an American for-profit educational organization founded in 2011 that offers massive open online courses. Udacity offers you a wide range of courses for computer science subjects that lets you enhance your job-related technical skills. The courses are conducted by very well skilled professors from renowned universities of the world. They offer a very flexible digital education that will help you to uplift your goals and boosts your career. But how will you get access to its data?
In Udacity, the enrolled students can get the contents of the courses both for free as well as paid. They offer you more than 200 completely free courses but you won’t receive the certificate until you take part in the examination. You can get certificates only after participating in a final examination for a fee of $89. The contents are delivered to you through pre-recorded video lectures which can be watched according to the convenience of yours and also offer auto-graded quizzes.
One of the best opportunities offered by Udacity is that they have a limited number of students get scholarships for particular nano degrees they have. These scholarships are generally sponsored by the partnered companies for the learners belonging to a specific geographic region. Moreover, the scholarships allow you to freely obtain the nano degree. Nanodegrees are made available to you with just a few dollars of monthly subscriptions. These nano degrees are completely paid and are considered to be an exclusive opportunity for the learners.
Coursera
As one of the most rapid and biggest growing learning platforms in today’s market of MOOCs, Coursera is considered one of the best e-learning platforms. They are known for offering numerous courses by professors from world-renowned institutions. Since 2012 it is one of the go-to e-learning platforms for people where you can gain expertise in various skills for different courses and specializations. It offers courses that help you in enhancing the skills for job-ready careers. The courses that are offered by Coursera are mostly for understanding and learning practical skills in various subjects including programming, data analysis, health, business, and many more. It is a goal-oriented online learning platform that helps you to be well guided and have great knowledge of practical skills.
At present, Coursera has partnered with more than 200 leading universities and companies to bring more affordable and flexible learning for their audiences and will allow you to get an impressive experience. Other than offering online courses, Coursera also offers you degrees from leading universities and companies to its learners. On completing a course, you can get yourself certifications according to your performance. Coursera is a subscription-based online learning platform that can be accessed through various devices according to the convenience of the user through either desktop browsers or mobile apps.
Coursera is one of the most popular MOOC sites and delivers the content in a very intuitive way. The courses are taught by well-renowned instructors from the world’s top learning institutions like Harvard, Yale. In Coursera, the learners are kept engaged through quizzes and assignments and are also awarded certifications for completion of their courses. Due to its career-boosting opportunities, you will be more drawn to this online learning platform.
Udemy
One of the most active online learning platforms Udemy has been helping online learners since 2010. These professional online courses are available both for adults and students. Moreover, Udemy is considered to be one of the most diverse online learning platforms as they offer their courses not only in English but also in many other languages which helps them to get viewers from all parts of the world. This has become one of the reasons for it being one of the most successful MOOCs in the market today. They offer professional courses to their audiences for improving their job-related skills and they also let you obtain certificates for completing the courses. Similar to the previously mentioned MOOC sites, Udemy is also a subscription-based online learning platform. It offers more than 7000 training courses on subjects like entrepreneurship, business, technology, health, and fitness as well as on categories like art, music, language, and many more.
The contents are delivered by highly skilled instructors from renowned institutions of the world through videos, PDFs, presentations, audios, and zip files. They also have live classes which allow their audiences to attend from anywhere on the globe. Several courses are offered free of cost depending upon the instructors. The learners can get access to the classes and the contents through their mobile application or desktop browser. To get access to all the contents of the site, the user must be subscribed. On subscription, the user is allowed to interact with the instructors through discussion which is done via online boards of the site.
Another very popular online e-learning platform, Skillshare, offers numerous courses for you. This platform not only offers you courses ranging from topics of science to IT programming but also courses like writing, music, illustration, and many more. They allow you to complete your courses according to their own pace that helps them to enhance and prepare their skills and career accordingly. Skillshare has become more popular after it started conducting lectures by several notable instructors including Seth Godin, Susan Orlean, Marc Ecko, and many more. The lectures are delivered through pre-recorded videos and will let you interact with the instructors instead of just listening.
This online learning platform focuses mainly on the practical skills of the learners and lets them have experience in hands-on learning projects. Skillshare is also an open-source platform where every individual is allowed to create their courses and teach people. Similar to other MOOC sites mentioned in the article, Skillshare is also a subscription-based online learning platform. Further, you can also have access to free classes with a free account on this website. It has also a very well-developed navigation system and interfaces which is very user-friendly and helps the audience to use it with ease.
