Last Updated on May 17, 2022
This is a list of the Best Online Learning Platforms in 2022.
Online Learning is on a boom. Social distancing has ignited distance education.
According to the National Center For Education Statistics, alone in America, close to 35% are enrolled in some form of distance education.
You will seldom find someone today who isn’t online or hasn’t consumed information through the internet.
The penetration of the world wide web to distant parts of the world has brought a revolution in almost every sector of society.
The education industry is no exception to this. Not only has education become more accessible but far more affordable than it ever was.
People are using the power of the internet for anything and everything they can.
Online Learning is one such thing. It’s the face of modern education.
Also, the amount of variety in the content on the internet is mind-blowing.
You think of a topic and you’ll find hundreds of results for it on the web.
The only downside to it is that the information is often scattered into bits and pieces and can become challenging to extract meaningful data from the lot.
This is where the online education platforms shine the brightest.
Online Teaching Platforms enable you to learn about your favorite topics/subjects from the best teachers in the world whenever you want and wherever you want.
E-learning websites give the control of your academics back in your hand as you can now learn things at your own pace, own schedule, and re-wind the content multiple times to better understand a topic.
Also, the knowledge shared on these e-learning platforms in the form of courses, classes, and video sessions, is high-quality, detailed, and in-depth.
Not only a virtual learning platform is effective in academics but is also used for learning new professional skills or upgrading the current ones.
Now let’s quickly talk about these platforms.
Here’s a list of the Best Online Learning Platforms in 2022.
1. Udemy
First on our list is Udemy. It is one of the most popular online course marketplaces we have around the web. It hosts well over 40 million students and a further 50,000 instructors not to mention other subject matter experts who create the content.
The platform cheapens the creation of courses by just about anyone along with the likelihood of acquiring new skills.
To make that possible, the platform provides a wide range of online learning materials such as PDF documents, video content, texts, and PowerPoint presentations, along with many others.
Also, it is open to the instructors for free joining and commencement of the teaching exercise. Nonetheless, it costs a lot more to enroll as it exerts great control over the pricing and the discounting practices.
2. Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a not-for-profit educational platform that is great at sharpening core academic skills. Most importantly, it aids the children to do their homework well.
The academy provides free online courses, relevant learning resources, history subjects, and a testing preparation on the STEM subjects for young children through to young adults.
Its STEM offering comprises highly accessible readings, interactive quizzes, and video lectures. Some of these courses are provided by Salman Khan, the founder of the academy.
Other in-house instructors comprising former teachers and industry experts handle the remaining courses. It grants you the ability to track your progress via the included “Mastery System” that dishes out the points on the basis of the different skills.
Wrapping it all up is the issuance of the badges as a mark of achieving some skill challenges. If you want to gain the most from them, you have the pleasure of checking out the distance learning guides of the Khan Academy along with the free Zoom fatigue in case remote learning is too much of a hassle for you.
3. Coursera
If you are seeking university-level educational resources, Coursera is the one to look up to. Indeed, the e-learning platform provides university-level courses as well as certificate programs which makes it a site similar to Skillshare.
The courses are inculcated by the instructors from the top companies and the universities like Princeton, Yale, and Stanford.
An individual course costs $29-$99. Nonetheless, thousands of courses that possess the Audit options do exist. They enable you to take this course free of charge.
If you opt to audit the course, you will not pursue the graded assignments, or receive certificates or bonus materials. Most courses also are administered via a combination of lectures, group discussions, projects, reading materials, and assignments.
Also, these courses are available in many languages. Examples of these are Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, German, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and of course, English.
Some of the topics pursued in these courses are Personal Development, Math and Logic, Health, Information Technology, Data Science, Computer Science, Business, and Arts and Humanities. Each of them takes around 4-6 weeks to tackle.
If you are desirous of mastering a specific skill set, you may enroll in a specialization. This is a series of online courses that take roughly 4-6 weeks to conclude. Upon completing the specialization, you will obtain certification to enrich your resume.
As you do this, you obtain a 7-day free trial prior to enrolling in your own subscription. If on the other hand, you want to alter your present career and start it out with a new one, you may enroll in a professional certification program.
Just like the case with the specialization, the professional certificates are also a series of courses. They differ though in the sense that a certificate of completion is handed out by the company that crafted the course upon its completion.
Lastly, there exists an online degree course that is granted by world-class and accredited universities. The most significant advantage of obtaining an online degree is that it is cheaper than the on-campus courses. Moreover, you may also study at your own pace and complete the degree faster.
In case you intend to pursue many courses at a go, you may have to enroll in the Coursera plan. This is an annual plan that confers to you unlimited access to well over 90% of the courses as well as specializations and personal certifications.
While at it, you may pursue as many courses as you so wish and obtain a course certificate for each course you successfully pursue.
4. edX
Generally, this online learning platform has a high-end pedigree. edX was established by graduates from both MIT and Harvard University.
Its course marketplace is edX.org. The marketplace is largely the same as the Open-edX source content management system and is one of the best alternatives to Skillshare.
Real college courses that are generated and taught by real college tutors are available in a vast array of topics and fields. They have a slight leaning toward the Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Engineering fields.
Nonetheless, there are plenty of topics in the humanities, arts, and languages as well. By partnering with the universities, this course provides professional degree certificates as well as the “micro” degree programs at both the bachelor’s and the master’s levels. In this sense, they largely serve as tools for professional development.
Courtesy of a partnership with Arizona State University, this platform provides the “Global Freshman Academy” that confers to the scholars some transferable undergraduate credits for select courses.
Its class offerings are largely similar to that of real online courses. As you pursue these courses, you will come across the lectures, quizzes, discussions, assignments, and reading materials, among others.
Perhaps the greatest selling point of this platform is that most of its course offerings are free of charge. There is a catch, however. If all you are intent on is enriching your own learning experience, this version is probably the best for you.
If on the other hand, you want some formal verification that is driven by professional purposes, you may want to pursue the ‘verified certificate’ option that goes for as low as the $49 per class.
Each course has an official start date that repeats itself over and over again. However, upon starting the course, each student may proceed at his own pace.
5. Skillshare
Whereas many online class platforms do confer college-style classes, Skillshare is not formal and is mainly targeted at boosting creative skills.
Some business and marketing classes exist on this online education platform. Most of the courses though tend to have a focus on the creative fields and are administered by practicing experts in various fields. Common examples of these fields are interior design, visual arts, animations, films, and photography.
They mainly focus on inculcating practical skills that the students may leverage to create their own projects. Most of these courses entail the use of a series of video lessons in combination with the assignments for the sake of letting the students practice their skills.
Skillshare operates a subscription model instead of the ‘per course’ payment model. Thus, it enables the students to sign up and pursue as many courses or as few courses as they personally want. Currently, the subscriptions are priced at about $19 per month or approximately $99 per annum, a figure that boils down to around $8 monthly.
Having stated that, Skillshare does provide a bunch of free classes, ranging from the short 20-minute video clips to the longer tutorials that exceed an hour or so. These are not as in-depth but are nonetheless great ways of attempting potentially interesting topics of study.
6. LinkedIn Learning
Formerly called Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning is an educational platform that confers professional course training in the fields of technology, business, creative fields, and technology-related areas mainly in the form of videos.
The online learning marketplace is largely available as a premium service for the users of LinkedIn and has so far provided well over 16,000 courses in a whopping 7 languages. Its focus is mainly to aid individuals in investing in their professional development.
It so far has well over 1,000 business courses that touch on topics like digital marketing, web development, and project management. All of these are great for those professionals who would wish to maintain their skills up to date.
Moreover, they also provide certifications that you may incorporate into your LinkedIn profile. In that case, you get to showcase your expertise while at the same time boosting your online resume.
7. MasterClass
Even though the MasterClass provides much more than just the creative courses, its marquee offerings are the kinds that place the musicians, artists, writers, and the A-list actors in the teacher’s seats.
These are not the one-off talk style lessons though. Many comprise around 20 lessons like the traditional varieties. In this manner, you get to delve too deep into the topic of your liking and choice.
In case you would wish to learn more about these oft-opaque professions, you have no better avenue to do so than to get the same directly from the persons who have already attempted the same successfully.
All the courses on this online training platform are offered via video medium. They contain practical pieces of advice and demonstrations that are mixed with straightforward class discussions, workbooks, and lectures.
You may also obtain TV writing advice from the Shonda Rhimes, teach yourself to cook from Gordon Ramsay, take some film classes from Martin Scorsese, or take some creative leadership classes with one, Anna Wintour.
Given that MasterClass is a subscription-based platform, you are free to pursue as many lessons as you so wish per month. The monthly subscription price is a paltry $15, which grants you access to unlimited options. Students nevertheless have to sign up for a year at a time.
8. Pluralsight
On the whole, Pluralsight focuses mainly on technology. It hence provides courses for individuals, students, educators, and business teams in subjects like data security, information technology, and software development.
Just if you are already studying to gain certification examination in your field, it also provides practice exams. This site makes all of its expert-led videos available free of charge for the month of April. The personal subscription plans typically begin at around $29 per month.
On the whole, all of the videos on this online learning platform are designed with professionals in mind. They span the contents and fields like cybersecurity, information, data science, and software development.
It provides the students the ability to pursue individual courses but strongly encourages them to enroll in one of its paths. These ‘paths’ work much the same way as the mini-degrees. They are a series of interconnected courses in more specific areas of expertise.
Examples of these are software creative skills, security certifications, and individual programming languages. They take the guesswork out of the pursuit of knowledge and also let you set the same to your unique level of expertise, a fact that adds more customization.
The course library incorporates well over 7,500 individual classes spread out across multiple paths. In the event that you are not ready to take a full-length pack, you have the leeway to attempt individual courses that are a few hours long.
Irrespective of the number of classes or paths you intend to pursue, you will still part with the same amount of money, which stands at about $29 each month for the personal plan, or roughly $299 per annum at a slight discount.
A premium option also exists though. It costs around $449 per annum and incorporates all the normal features and the courses as well as many other interactive courses and industry-standard practice examinations necessary for various professional certifications.
9. Codecademy
Codecademy is a professional online course marketplace that offers virtual classes from some of the world’s leading companies and universities like Stanford, Duke University, and the University of Michigan.
The instructors here teach some of the courses at the world’s leading institutions of higher learning. These courses last around 4-6 weeks and include the community discussion forum, peer-reviewed assignments, and video lectures.
In a nutshell, this is an online education platform that presently caters to roughly 23 million users. It is on the whole dedicated to the provision of high-quality online training courses the world over.
It does this while partnering with world-class businesses and universities. Thanks to this awesome partnership, it also confers the students the leeway to obtain certifications from outstanding institutions as soon as they join the paid courses.
Codecademy avails individualized, specialized, and degree courses that lend support to the on-demand video lectures, peer-reviewed assignments, homework exercises, and community discussion forums.
10. FutureLearn
FutureLearn is yet another general online learning platform. The site provides numerable tiers of classes in just about any kind of subject out there. These include but are not limited to personal life skills, humanities, computer sciences, information technology, history, healthcare, media, business, and the arts.
Its free plan provides access to a bunch of courses at no cost at all on your part throughout the entire duration plus another 14 days thereafter. You also have the option of upgrading the class to gain access to any test to secure a certificate for yourself.
Its unlimited annual subscription provides you with the flexibility you need to pursue whichever course of your interest at your own pace. That also assures you of the test and the certificates you may need thereafter.
Most of its courses are hosted by university organizations and many businesses all over the world. These institutions label their courses clearly as per the number of weeks necessary and the number of hours per week you need to invest in them.
This lets you know well in advance the amount of time you may have to invest to obtain the relevant qualification.
11. Udacity
Udacity is generally better known for its provision of nano-degree programs. A nano-degree program is one that is based on the skills and projects to inculcate the learning processes.
Each nano-degree comprises a set of topics like data science, business, mobile programming, robotics, coding, and artificial intelligence.
Most of these programs last around 3-6 months. These courses also provide one-on-one technical mentorship to all the students that pursue the nano-degrees.
Indeed, this platform is the name to look up to in matters to do with innovation while pursuing online learning and education. If and when you choose to enroll in one of its programs, you are up to your chances of getting a job immediately upon completing the course.
Udacity is not an accredited university but its skills are relevant to any student. They are the in-demand skills that employers are constantly on the lookout for.
When its offerings are weighed against those of the competing platforms, this is quite expensive. Its average cost of the nano-degree is somewhat around $1,200-$2,400. You also stand to accrue a discount in case you pay up several months in advance.
This platform also provides Executive Programs for the business leaders who would wish to grasp complicated concepts such as Artificial Intelligence and put them in action without their companies for the shortest duration of time possible, typically after a few weeks.
The Executive Program costs a paltry $1,500 monthly and incorporates the project reviews from the leading industry experts, personal career coaches, technical mentor support, and a unique learning plan that lets you read at your own pace.
All these features are available at an affordable price tag. This stands at about $399 per month or $339 for those who opt to purchase the full package at one go.
12. Shaw Academy
Shaw Academy is a virtual learning platform that confers to the students some professional and accredited courses via the online platforms. To make use of this platform, the students sign up for the academy and gain access to all the long-form courses thereafter.
The platform provides courses under three distinct classes. These are entrepreneurs, professionals, and hobbyists.
For instance, in the “For Professionals” category, Shaw Academy provides a globally-recognized digital marketing course. The course incorporates 32 videos and lasts around 16 weeks, or so.
13. Treehouse
Treehouse is both friendly and collaborative. It is one of the top online learning platforms to choose from if you want to code. A course pursued via its platform assures you of a great job in the tech industry upon completion.
Learning here is undertaken via a network of thousands of hours of on-demand videos. These cover all things spanning the web design and coding up to and including the mobile and game developments.
All these are geared towards the n00b and the advanced programmers. You also have the freedom to test the subjects you are already familiar with, which is truly great if you have already internalized the fundamentals. You simply do not have to regurgitate the contents.
This platform confers two tiers of membership. These are the $30 per month that grants you unbridled access to the included community forum alongside the collections of disparate courses and tracks. These are largely mini-programs that comprise a number of classes administered per particular skill set.
To gain access to a more intense learning experience that encroaches deeper into a given topic of study, you may choose to pursue a project-based and self-paced boot camp-style “Techdegree” for just $200 per month.
Students who enroll in these programs also gain exclusive access to the slack community of Treehouse via which they may build a network of professional contacts.
This network lets them access live chat support, partake of weekly office hours, obtain guided learning paths, and gain certificates upon graduation.
At the time of drafting this article, Treehouse offered degrees in front-end web development, UX design, Python design, PHP development, JavaScript, and the full stack.
What is an Online Learning Platform?
An Online Learning Platform is an information system that confers a safer learning environment via which students may access online courses.
It is invariably called the online course marketplace as it enables the learners the leeway to seek and pay up for the online courses directly.
Typically, this is a website or app that gives the students the opportunity to study some topics of interest in whole online or from a remote locale.
For a large part, these platforms are targeted at adult professionals who have already completed their traditional education.
Quite a number may offer full certification or even degree programs. Some still may only focus on inculcating individual courses.
Online Learning Platforms vs. Online Course Platforms
When all is said and done, an online learning platform stresses and showcases the perspectives of the learners whereas an online course platform takes that of the instructor or the teacher.
These two names unfortunately are often interchanged. The real difference however arrives from the person leveraging the platform and the conversation’s context.
From the perspective of the student, a learning platform is a place to gain the educational content, search or purchase educational content, and whole programs. From the perspective of the educator though, it is the place to provide the knowledge.
Online learning platforms are often leveraged to point out potential marketplaces for the course offerings or education. They include the Lynda, Udemy, and the Coursera. Platforms on the other hand refer to software in use for the job of creating the learning environment like the LearnWorld, Teachable, and the Thinkific.
Making do with an online platform requires lots of hard work in coming up with an audience, sales, and marketing. You also lose control over pricing, branding, and user data in the process.
In the course of utilizing the online course platforms, you have access to a greater degree of flexibility and freedom in managing your learning resources. Additionally, you also get to determine the design and the looks of the entire website that plays host to the online courses and the course on its own (how it is represented and showcased).
What you choose ultimately rests in the unique requirements you have.
Conclusion – Best Online Learning Platforms
So these were the most popular online learning platforms in 2022 where you can learn about the topics of your choice.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a great catalyst for the shift from OTT platforms to virtual classrooms. It also inspired the search for innovative solutions within a short while.
This shift to the online platform has certainly generated newer and more efficient means of educating the students.
Many of the online course platforms do pay attention to great skills like critical thinking and great adaptability, both of which are crucial for future successes. These key factors are also important insofar as the success of these online learning platforms is concerned.
We foresee the emergence of new learning methods like live broadcasts and virtual reality experiences. They are poised to replace the in-person classroom learning undertakings.
In this way, they are to make learning a more habitual and daily routine. What is your opinion regarding the emergence of online learning platforms? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section hereunder.
I hope you found the list of the best online learning platforms in 2022, useful.
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