Learning new things changes lives.
However, money is a huge barrier to accessing quality education, especially for young students. We often believe paid courses are the way to learn something effectively.
But this is wrong.
In the last few years, I studied and learned many topics:
Programming.
Machine learning.
German and English.
Computer vision.
Writing.
Communication skills.
Etc.
I literally spent 0 USD.
These are my favorite resources to learn anything for free:
1. MIT Open Course Ware
Do you know MIT has lectures available on its website?
It’s called MIT Open Course Ware, and its objective is to give full access to MIT lectures and resources so anyone can learn for free. You can have access to:
Programs.
Video or audio lectures.
Slides.
Exams.
Etc.
Moreover, you can find courses about anything, from biology and neuroscience to computer science and economics—all for free and from some of the best universities in the world.
What are you waiting to learn about that topic you have always wanted to learn? :)
2. Coursera
This is my favorite platform.
Coursera offers thousands of high-quality courses from some of the world's most prestigious universities and companies, such as Stanford, Duke, LMU, Yale, Google, and IBM.
These are some of my favorite ones:
Google’s Data Analytics Professional Certificate.
Machine Learning Specialization by Andrew Ng (Stanford University).
Deep Learning Specialization by Andrew Ng (Stanford University).
Circadian clocks: how rhythms structure life by LMU University.
Medical Neuroscience by Duke University.
Most of them are free (you only pay for the certificate).
Others require a subscription.
However, you can apply for up to a 90% discount if you can justify why you can’t afford the total price of the course.
I prefer Coursera over MIT Open Course Ware because it has tests and exercises and is super well structured.
3. EdX
Similar to Coursera.
EdX contains courses from giant universities like MIT and Harvard. Like the previous platform, you can audit them for free and only pay for the certificate.
EdX is also well structured and contains hundreds of exercises.
My favorite courses are:
CS50’s Introduction to Neuroscience by Harvard
Fundamentals of Neuroscience by Harvard
Molecular Biology by MIT
What I loved about EdX was that their courses were challenging.
I highly recommend them.
4. YouTube
We underestimate this platform.
YouTube contains thousands of excellent, 100% free courses. You can find educational resources for any topic. Programming courses, for example, became super popular after the pandemic.
Some of my favorite channels to learn are:
Freecodecamp: hundreds of programming courses.
Crashcourse: many courses about many topics.
MIT Open Course Ware: recorded MIT lectures. You can find anything.
I chose those three because they contain an insane number of courses.
However, many people also offer resources on video editing, music, dog training, robot building, learning another language, and a very very long etc.
I invite you to search your favorite topic + “tutorial” in the search bar.
You are one step away from your learning revolution.
How to study?
So now you have the resources.
Next, you learn them. This is the hardest part. Because only a few know the science of effective learning (how to avoid the illusion of learning, effective vs ineffective study strategies, learning systems, habits, etc.).
Learning how to learn effectively should be your next step.
Replace this:
Rereading
Highlighting
Rewatching
With this:
Retrieval
Spaced practice
Learn by doing
Can anyone have access to these free resources?
We might be tempted to say yes.
But the brutal truth is that not anyone has access to the internet.
Nearly one billion students lack internet access or cannot afford it.
This makes them miss education, online jobs, healthcare, and equal opportunities.
52% are girls.
I realized this after reading blogs and watching videos about people struggling to study using these free resources. This led me to get in touch with Giveinternet, a heartful charity program that helps students around the world gain access to the internet and education to people.
Why do I support it? Because I believe in the power of self-taught learning.
I created the Super Learning Lab newsletter to help people learn how to learn for free. So, if you want to help students around the world like me, especially in these times, consider donating. Every dollar you give will be matched and doubled by one of the founding members of this charity—at no extra cost to you!
Any cent helps a lot.
I receive nothing more than cute giveinternet’s Tshirts for this :)
I hope this charity resonates as much as it did with me.
Ultra-learning saved my career.
It helped me learn anything without overstudying or overworking. But remember, each person has a different life. Perhaps you work full-time and also study. Or maybe you have a family, etc.
Be reasonable, and don’t fall into toxic productivity.
Here are some last recommendations:
Don’t compare yourself with others. Take your time.
This is not a competition. This is about you. Make it fun and healthy.
Please take care of yourself. That’s the most important thing!
Now it is your turn.
What are you going to learn next?
Until the next time,
Axel
