6 Websites Offering Free and Affordable Courses

Exploring Online Classes for Seniors

For many older adults and seniors, lifelong learning is an enjoyable hobby. With so much free time after retirement, why not learn something new? Now, it’s easier than ever to take online classes for free, or for low, affordable prices.

Whether you want to take accredited college courses, purse a new hobby or take part in daily exercises classes, there are plenty of options to choose from.

Now, let’s look at a few sites that offer great online courses for seniors either for free or low cost.

Some offer accredited courses and others offer courses that are simply for general interest. Most courses are offered according to skill level, so you can choose to start from beginner or beyond.

1. edX

edX is a global non-profit that was started by Harvard and MIT. It’s the perfect platform to get a simple certification or a master’s degree if you’re up for the challenge. edX is affiliated with 160 member universities; all their courses are free of charge and there are over 3,000 courses to choose from.

With so many options available, you can learn about arts and culture, electronics, design, history, literature, music and more.

2. Coursera

Partnering with 275 universities and learning institutions, Coursera offers an almost unlimited variety of courses and degrees. The sky is the limit with all the free courses they offer.

If you’d like to improve your personal development, then The Science of Well-being might be for you. Or if you want to learn another language there is a free First Step Korean language course. If you’d like to finally write that book you’ve been meaning to put on paper, then Academic English: Writing Specialization would be the course for you.

Take your time browsing through the options and find something that interests you.

3. Duolingo

Duolingo is catered for all ages and is an excellent app to use if you’d like to learn a new language. It is easy to use and adapts according to your skill level, personalizing your learning experience.

They’ve made this app fun to use by making it like a game, which motivates you to keep up with daily lessons. Immediate grading is given as you work through each lesson, and they have now developed the app so that you can also practice the language with other users.

Duolingo offers over 40 languages, is free to download and can be used on a laptop and on your smartphone.

4. Shaw Academy

The Shaw Academy doesn’t offer every course free of charge, but many options are still quite affordable.

One of the more popular courses they offer is interior designer. This four-week diploma will get you equipped to be an interior design pro – whether it’s to redecorate your own home, use it as a hobby or make a career of it. This course will teach you how to create and manage your own interior design projects and go over what you can expect as an interior designer.

5. Alison

Since 2007, Alison has provided free education as a non-profit organization. The courses offered at Alison are free of charge, but if you’d like to do a diploma, there is a fee.

Alison offers over 4,000 online courses, with topics ranging from IT, health, languages, personal development, teaching and academics, engineering and more. There are many courses available for hobbies and interests if you don’t necessarily want to do a formal course.

Like Coursera, take some time to explore the options and find something that interests you.

6. YouTube

YouTube is the last on our list but well-worth mentioning. While many people use YouTube to watch entertaining videos and viral content, there are also numerous educational channels available. While there are subscriptions available to remove ads before and during videos, you can still watch for free.

There are literally millions of “how-to" videos available and watching them is free of charge. Whether you want to learn a new instrument, complete a DIY project at home, learn yoga or listen to someone explain quantum physics in an engaging way, you can find videos on YouTube.

If you find a channel you particularly enjoy, be sure to subscribe so you can get notifications whenever they post new videos.