Whether you’re seeking to improve your brain or just learn interesting new subjects, you want to find the best educational websites for adults. There are plenty for kids, but it seems much harder to find similar websites if you want to learn about law, technology and engineering. While they might be hidden, the good news is that these websites do exist. Here are a few websites that cater to older visitors.
Best Free Educational Websites
OpenCulture
OpenCulture is one of the biggest educational websites for adults. It links to a massive number of free audiobooks, educational materials and interesting tutorials. Most of the courses deal with engineering and law, but there are many other subjects that you can look through. This website also links to many colleges.
For example, you can find free videos and ebooks from Ivy League colleges. Many colleges offer an open program that you can read for free, but OpenCulture helps you find the best ones that you are interested in. Perhaps the only problem with this website is that it’s a little difficult to search because it links out to many websites, but this shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Wikiversity
Do you want the college experience without the fee? The problem with online education is that most people find themselves clicking many different links. While this allows you to find a lot of information, it’s often unorganized and difficult to absorb.
Wikiversity changes that by giving you an organized course that is free and entirely online. There are currently many courses, such as technical writing, astronomy and Web design. Not only that, but most courses have a community professor. These are people who work for free to help answer questions, grade quizzes and tell you how well you’re doing.
Google Books
Books are great for learning information, but they can get expensive if you’re always hungry for knowledge. Google Books currently has over 10 million books scanned into its database so that you can read them for free. There are significant novels that have affected literary history, educational books and how-to guides. While you can download the books as PDFs, it’s suggested that you stay on Google Books to read the information because downloading the information to your hard drive might be illegal if the book isn’t in the public domain. It’s like having a personal library available whenever you need it, and the number of books is always growing.
University of the People
This website is very similar to Wikiversity, but there are some differences. The major difference is that there aren’t as many courses, but you can find programs in art, science, business administration and computer science. You also have to pay for the courses, but the fees are almost trivial. You have to pay about $10 to $50 initially for processing, and $100 extra at the end of the course.
Here’s the best part: University of the People offers real degrees. You can get a two-year or four-year degree for less than $200. While the online college isn’t accredited yet, they are seeking accreditation. This means that the degrees are useful for seeking employment, but you may have a hard time transferring the credits to another college. If you really can’t pay the processing fees, then there is a scholarship platform where you can apply for a scholarship to waive the fees.
GCF Learn Free
GCF Learn Free is a large resource that has many free guides and books that will help you learn numerous subjects. While there are many subjects about science, careers and business, the majority of the guides cover software and hardware. If you’re having a hard time with Excel, Word or PowerPoint, then you can easily find a guide that will show you every feature and function. Most Microsoft programs are covered, and a number of guides for Apple programs are also featured. There are also guides for mobile technology so that you can understand your iPad or similar devices.
Conclusion
Educational websites are great, but finding free learning websites for adults can be difficult. Most of these websites will give you the structure needed to delve deep into any subject, but some will give you the freedom to roam about different subjects that you are curious about. Aside from University of the People, all of them are free.
Karen Smith is a education and lifestyle writer, and writes educational articles at Classroomchronicle.com.
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