Disclaimer: This article is not a sponsored article. I have experience with these platforms, so I wrote based on 100% of my opinion.
The internet helps us in our daily lives by teaching us more strategic and manageable ways to get things done faster. One benefit is learning anything from anywhere (as long as the internet is accessible). I’ve been self-studying with several open online courses to hone my skills and even learn new ones. Self-study is beneficial because it allows me to learn at my own pace and without supervision. This method, however, can be challenging for some people because we must hold ourselves fully accountable for the commitment and the results. There are numerous online resources where we can take courses. Those courses come in various difficulty levels, prices, and teaching styles.
I completed a few courses from different platforms during quarantine and remote work, which improved my understanding of subjects. I want to share my thoughts and experiences with them to save you some time.
Please leave a comment if you have any recommended online course platforms. I want to give them a shot.
Udemy
I have been using Udemy for years. Udemy is an online learning platform on-demand at an affordable price. They offer many categories which cover exciting topics. If you don’t know which course to take, type the subject you want to learn on the search box, and Udemy will provide many results for you, which can be filtered based on difficulty level, language, duration, or ratings.
Through Udemy, I can find subjects I want to study, from introductory to advanced. The price ranges from $11.99 to $199.99. Sometimes, they have flash sales so that costs can be more affordable than those higher ranges. If you don’t like to take a paid version, you can try their free courses, too. It varies from beginner to advanced level.
Also, when you access your learning tab, it will provide you with categories such as My Lists, Wishlist, Archived, and Learning tools to monitor your progress.
I do a few things before deciding to buy a course on Udemy:
1) Filter based on ratings
It is essential to see the quality of content by reading previous students’ testimonials and feedback for the course. Reading ratings will provide me with an overview of students’ experiences and my decision-making. Besides that, I found out the instructor profile that will teach the subject.
2) Check the course content
I can easily find the course content and its total length when I click the title. I need to ensure that the contents listed on the course are topics I search for. I usually watch several video previews, which are helpful before purchasing the course.
3) Budget
Finally, after checking reviews, course content, and the instructor, I check the price and make sure I have enough room within my budget to buy the course. Sometimes Udemy offers discounted prices, which makes it very affordable for me.
If the course you purchase is not what you expected, Udemy has a 30-day refund policy that you can request only through their website, not the app. Refunds will not be eligible after 30 days from your purchase date. Check out their website to see how to submit a refund request that falls within their policies.
Coursera
Another resource I use for online learning is Coursera. According to the 2021 impact report, Coursera has 92M learners with 189M enrollments. Coursera is a big platform that offers courses and specialization, degrees, and master track certificates. Also, it partners with +175 universities, so the university verifies the certificate you get from courses. Sounds great, right?
Coursera covers 11 subjects which are:
1) Data Science
2) Business
3) Computer Science
4) Information Technology
5) Language Learning
6) Health
7) Personal Development
8) Physical Science and Engineering
9) Social Sciences
10) Arts and Humanities
11) Math and Logic
Each subject has various topics that you can explore and learn based on the skills you need. In Coursera, those subjects are taught by instructors from different institutions. In addition, to get hands-on practical experience of a new skill, you can also take guided projects which vary from beginner to advanced levels with complete step-by-step guides. I took one guided project on the topic of Project Management, and it took me only two hours to complete the course. The instruction was easy to follow and gave me practical experience on it.
If you do not know which subject your course is, type the keywords in the search box, and the result will appear with the relevant courses you are looking for.
Although Coursera has offered a range of pricing for their courses, free courses are also available. Just click Explore → Take a free course. It will show you +1K free courses that you can filter when you want your targeted courses to appear based on Language, Level, Duration, Subject, Skills, Partner, and Learning Product. However, it will not provide a certificate at the end of the course unless you pay for it. A free course is enough if you simply want to upgrade your knowledge base. It’s like taking an audit course version.
What I like about Coursera:
- Financial Assistance is available for those who cannot afford to pay for a course or certificate. I used it during difficult financial times, and it assisted me to be able to take a course that I would have otherwise not been able to afford. Financial Aid will require you to fill out an application containing your educational background, annual income, employment status, why you are applying for Financial Aid, and how the course will help your career. I suggest you draft your answer carefully because you must explain your reasons and explanation with a minimum of 150 words. The process took 15 days, and I got a notification on my account and email confirming my Financial Aid was approved.
- A course is divided into several weeks, and each week will require you to submit assignments, answer quizzes, and participate in room discussions. You can study at your own pace without missing the lectures. On the course page, the section “About Course” describes the course summary with discussed topics to learn. The section “Skills You Will Gain” gives you the course objective that will be useful for you when deciding to take the course. The section “Syllabus” shows each week’s breakdown with each subject and learning resources such as videos, reading materials, and quizzes. The section “Reviews” will help you read past learners’ feedback, pros and cons, and even the quality of the course.
- I can add the certificate to my LinkedIn profile. It has a URL that others can access once they click your certificate credential. I can also mention the course on the resume to show hiring managers that you have gained new skills, especially for people going through a career switch.
LinkedIn Learning
I am sure you know the social media for professionals, LinkedIn. LinkedIn Learning is an included service from LinkedIn if you pay for their premium subscriptions. It offers over 13,000 on-demand courses you can access via the website or mobile app. I can use this platform because I have paid for the premium account.
Like other online course platforms, you can learn at your own pace on LinkedIn Learning. It gives me the flexibility to learn and an option to share my certificate directly to my LinkedIn account.
What I don’t like about LinkedIn Learning:
- You must pay for a premium account to access courses on LinkedIn Learning. The premium account is quite pricey. It costs around $29.99 monthly or $239.88 yearly.
- The certificate you get by finishing the course is only a certificate of completion and is not verified by institutions or universities like Coursera.
- It does not offer free courses. Once you sign up, you will only get a 1-month trial of the premium account, in which you can have unlimited access to the courses on LinkedIn Learning.
If you only want to access the courses without upgrading to a premium account, you can purchase the courses individually. LinkedIn also gives a 30-day refund guarantee, so don’t forget to check on the unlocked videos of a course before committing to buy it.
Instead of buying the courses individually, it is better to subscribe to the premium account. You do not only benefit from courses but also optimize given premium features for your career development.
Datacamp
Datacamp is an online learning platform that specializes in data skills. It could be a good resource for you if you plan to develop your data skills. I recently used Datacamp as one of my study resources. In my opinion, Datacamp is suitable for beginner learners because of its exciting courses and hands-on projects. In addition to taking courses individually, it serves as a skill tracker and skills path map. Skill Track will provide you with a certain number of studies to learn the skill, while Career Tracks will let you pursue a specific skill set for a particular career. These two tracks have different amounts of learning hours. If you pick one of them, make sure to allocate enough time to finish the course series at your own pace.
Datacamp offers well-structured content, easy instructions, and solutions or hints within the exercises. The courses are 100% online and have no deadlines. We can also download course videos to learn in offline mode. Besides a clean and easy-to-use dashboard, I like Datacamp’s learning methodology. The method consists of:
· Assess your ability to measure your skill level and discover learning recommendations.
· Learning new skills from courses, video explanations, and short exercises.
· Practice the skills you are learning (to reinforce the concept and sharpen the skills) and apply skills to real problems with hands-on projects.
About the price
A free account limits access to only learning courses in the first chapter. I tried a few courses to see the content quality and learning experience, then decided to move into premium plans.
Datacamp has two plans, personal and business. For personal plans/individual learners, the basic account costs $0 per month, and the premium costs $15 per month. If you pay for a yearly subscription, the cost will be $14.42. Datacamp sometimes offers flash sales for up to 70% off subscription plans, so I believe it is worth buying.
About certificates
Datacamp does not provide an accredited certificate like Coursera but a free Statement of Accomplishment after completing a course. You can share it on your LinkedIn profile or resume as evidence of your learning journey.
