40 great websites where you can learn something new every day
A few decades ago, when you wanted to learn something new it
typically meant spending a couple of evenings a week at a local school, taking
a photography or bookkeeping class from a bored night school instructor.
Today, the worlds of
learning and personal or professional development are literally at
your fingertips.
The open learning movement has made the
opportunity to get smarter in your spare time completely accessible to anyone
with an internet connection, and it's exploded in recent years.
On one of the more popular online learning
sites, Udemy, there are over 30,000 courses available ... and that's just on
one site!
So here's what I want you to do: Challenge
yourself to learn something new every day. It can benefit your career, your
personal life, and your mental well-being, making you a happier and more
productive person overall.
To help you get started, here are 40 amazing
places to learn something new:
1. Lynda: Where over 4 million people have already taken courses.
2. Your favorite publications: Make time to
read and learn something new every day from your favorite
blogs and online magazines.
3. CreativeLive: Get smarter and boost your creativity with free
online classes.
4. Hackaday: Learn new skills and facts with bite-sized hacks
delivered daily.
5. MindTools:
A place to learn leadership skills (see more great
places to learn leadership skills online here).
6. Codecademy: Learn Java, PHP, Python, and more from this
reputable online coding school.
7. EdX: Find tons of MOOCs, including programming courses.
8. Platzi: Get smarter in marketing, coding, app development, and
design.
9. Big Think: Read articles and watch videos featuring expert
"Big Thinkers."
10. Craftsy: Learn a fun, new
skill from expert instructors in cooking, knitting, sewing, cake decorating,
and more.
11. Guides.co: A massive collection of online guides on just about
every topic imaginable.
12. LitLovers:
Practice your love of literature with free online lit courses.
13. Lifehacker: One of my personal favorites!
14. Udacity: Learn coding at the free online university developed
by Sebastien Thrun.
15. Zidbits: Subscribe to this huge collection of fun facts, weird
news, and articles on a variety of topics.
16. TED Ed: The iconic TED brand brings you lessons worth sharing.
17. Scitable: Teach yourself
about genetics and the study of evolution.
18. ITunes U:
Yale, Harvard, and other top universities share lecture podcasts.
19. Livemocha: Connect with other learners in over 190 countries
to practice a new language.
20. MIT open
courseware: To learn introductory coding skills; plus, check out these
other places to learn coding for free.
21. WonderHowTo: New videos daily to teach you how to do any
number of different things.
22. FutureLearn: Join over 3 million others taking courses in
everything from health and history to nature and more.
23. One Month: Commit to learning a new skill over a period of one
month with daily work.
24. Khan Academy: One of the biggest and best-known gamified
online learning platforms.
25. Yousician: Who said when you learn something new it has to be
work-related?
26. Duolingo:
A completely free, gamified language learning site (find more
language learning sites here).
27. Squareknot: Get creative with other creatives.
28. Highbrow: A subscription service that delivers five-minute
courses to your email daily.
29. Spreeder: How cool would it be to be able to speed read?
30. Memrise: Get smarter and expand your vocabulary.
31. HTML5 Rocks: Google pro
contributors bring you the latest updates, resource guides, and slide decks for
all things HTML5.
32. Wikipedia's Daily Article List: Get Wikipedia's daily featured
article delivered right to your inbox.
33. DataMonkey: The ability to work with data is indispensable.
Learn SQL and Excel.
34. Saylor Academy:
Offers a great public speaking course you can take online, and see more free
public speaking courses here.
35. Cook Smarts:
Learn basic to advanced food prep and cooking techniques.
36. The Happiness Project: Why
not just learn how to be happy? I'd give five minutes a day to that!
37. Learni.st: Expertly curated courses with the option of premium
content.
38. Surface Languages:
A good choice if you just need to learn a few phrases for travel.
39. Academic Earth: Offering top quality university-level courses
since 2009.
40. Make: Learn how to do that DIY project you've had your eye on.
There's no reason you can't learn something
new every day, whether it's a work skill, a fun new hobby, or even a language!