80+ Best MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) Providers List

MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is a new form of education for students who want to advance their skills at any level and/or cannot access traditional education due to time, financial problems, geographic accessibility, disability, or other reasons.

Massive: Availability of a large amount of educational material and global reach through the internet.

Open: Available for anyone worldwide at no cost, as long as they have an internet connection. Some providers offer optional certification exams for a small payment.

Online: These courses are based on videos, articles, games, social learning, quizzes, assignments, and other proprietary methods, which can be conveniently accessed at any time, from anywhere.

This is the most comprehensive list of 80+ hand-picked providers of MOOC courses.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Nelson Mandela

List of best MOOC course providers

edX

Owned by MIT & Harvard University. It’s one of the largest providers of MOOC education internationally. Topics include biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, finance, electronics, engineering, food and nutrition, history, humanities, law, literature, math, medicine, music, philosophy, physics, science, statistics, and more.

NovoEd

Founded by Stanford University professor Amin Saberi and Ph.D. student Farnaz Ronaghi. Unlike any other MOOC provider, students can collaborate in small teams with students worldwide and submit assignments here.

Udacity

Offers proprietary “Nanodegree” programs for learning technology skills that matter by doing projects employers value without leaving your current job.

Udemy

Mostly known for its collection of paid courses, but they have many great courses available for free, such as:

• Build Your First Website in 1 Week with HTML5 and CSS3
• Become an iOS Developer from Scratch

Coursera

The most popular provider of massive open online courses globally. Coursera has more than 10 million users in 890 courses from 117 institutions.

Harvard Open Courses

Under Open Learning Initiative (OLI), Harvard has launched many free courses for everyone worldwide. Topics covered – art, humanities, museum studies, business studies, management, computer science, engineering, mathematics languages, journalism, literature, speech, writing, pre-medical studies, science, environmental studies, social sciences, and study skills.

MIT OpenCourseware

Large-scale online publication of MIT course materials. It includes many free courses available to anyone, anywhere.

Khan Academy

Learning from their micro-lectures and practice exercise is quite engaging. Their motto is “A free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere”.

Acumen Academy

Offers free learning material for social change leaders and entrepreneurs.

Academic Earth

It offers a curated collection of free courses from the world’s top universities, such as Harvard, MIT, Princeton, UC Berkeley, and Yale.

Acamica

An Argentina-based free learning platform for students unsatisfied with their formal education system. They use videos, interactive games, simple guides, and gamification techniques to stimulate learning.

“My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.”

Maya Angelou

Alison

It aims to enable every person to gain basic knowledge, education, and workplace skills. Offering more than 600 certified courses in more than 10 languages. Their slogan is “A new world of free certified learning.”

Allversity

Helping users learn, teach, and connect using free digital courses and tools in mathematics, science, and history.

ApnaCourse

They give training and certifications online, which helps employees internationally. Targeted towards working professionals who want to gain skills and climb the corporate ladder.

Aquent Gymnasium

Provides courses focused on most in-demand creative and technical skills such as responsive design, jQuery, UX, and coding for designers.

C++ Institute

Advanced e-learning program with milestones, motivational tools, and skills verification in C++.

Canvas Network

It offers open, online courses taught by educators anywhere in the world. It collaborates with educators, institutions, and technologists to cut educational barriers.

Carnegie Mellon University

Open Learning Initiative – CMU offers more than 20 courses that give you targeted feedback. This system helps you know if you are mastering the topic or need more practice.

Commonwealth of Learning

The only inter-governmental organization solely concerned with developing open learning, distance education, and knowledge. It provides resources and education to Commonwealth’s 54 member states.

Complexity Explorer

Dedicated to online courses and other educational materials related to complex science systems. Developed in collaboration with Santa Fe Institute and Portland State University.

Digital Business Academy

Empowers learners with the business skills to start, run or join a digital business. “When and how to start a digital business.” and “Developing digital products and marketing and branding.” are among the eight free courses offered.

Duke University

A leading pioneer in education is providing many courses for free. Subjects such as healthcare, chemistry, human physiology, astronomy, neuroscience, data analysis, and more are covered.

EduKart Open

A platform developed by an India-based distance learning and online education company; to deliver information about free MOOCs globally.

ELD Initiative

An initiative by The Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) to provide free education based on land degradation, water prevention, environment, and health.

First Business MOOC

Offering best practices of business in various languages.

FutureLearn

Owned by The Open University, England provides step-by-step free online courses on science, technology, art, humanity, spiritual science, and business.

FX Academy

Founded by DailyForex.com, which has monitored and reported the Forex market since 2006. FX Academy is a comprehensive learning platform to learn about Forex trading anytime, anywhere.

Grovo

It’s an innovative learning platform that offers a micro-learning system that manages 4,800 video lessons covering more than 160 subjects. Its focus is to enhance the skills of users and businesses on internet tools, cloud systems, and other professions.

George Washington University (GW Online)

GWU started offering free open courses to the public on select topics to provide worldwide thought leadership and access to education.

IAI Academy

The Institute of Art and Ideas offers philosophy, science, and politics MOOCs.

Investoo

A free online tool to practice Forex trading. It was featured on Equities.com, MoneyWeek.com, and TraderPlanet.com.

Iversity

Iversity is a winner of the “MOOC Production Fellowship” held in early 2013. Their courses include critical thinking, public speaking, idea generation, and business analysis.

Janux

In collaboration, the University of Oklahoma and NextThought developed various courses for free. Made available through Janux.

“Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.”

Chanakya

Learning by Giving Foundation

MOOCs focus on philanthropy for people who want to make a difference in the community. “Giving With Purpose” – To help the non-profit organizations of your choice. Backed by Warren Buffet and his family.

Leuphana Digital School

Leuphana University offers various digital courses free of charge, and participants get an opportunity to obtain a university certificate after successful completion.

Marist College’s FOLD (Fashion Online Learning Domain)

Educate yourself on the communication and art of fashion from a global perspective.

MongoDB University

It offers in-depth classes with hands-on experience with MongoDB case studies based on years of field experience.

The PLACE

Courses on research-based models of professional development and learning through project-based learning, collaboration, and peer-supported learning, rather than tests and grades.

One Month

Self-paced courses can be finished in 30 days with just 15 minutes daily. Ruby on Rails, HTML & CSS, growth hacking, iOS, and web security are some topics covered.

Open English

Through Open Education, readers are exposed to subjective and objective looks at various issues facing professional systems today.

The Open University

It’s the largest academic institution based in the UK and a world leader in flexible distance education. It provides many free courses in various subjects.

Open Yale Courses

Yale University provides free access to its introductory courses through this platform.

Open2Study

Backed by Open Universities Australia (OUA). It offers more than 45 free courses for anyone around the world.

OpenCourseWorld

Their courses are structured in the same way as seminars and lectures in major universities. There is a start and an end date for every course.

openHPI

Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany’s highest-ranked computer science institute, provides in-depth knowledge-based courses on multi-faceted topics in information technology.

OpenLearning

A MOOC platform that allows anyone to create, run and enroll in any course from anywhere.

openSAP

Information Technology (IT) based MOOCs provided by SAP and HPI, Germany. It has been awarded “Innovation in Learning Bronze Award 2014” at The Learning Awards 2014 and “Best in Extended Enterprise Learning Program.”

OpenSecurityTraining

Training resources for computer security and other security topics that can be learned in a day.

OpenUpEd

Their vision is to reach every learner interested in participating in online higher education, irrespective of their needs and particular situation. A large number of courses are available in various languages.

P2PU

Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) allows students to organize and participate in courses and study groups about any specific topic.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Polimi OPEN KNOWLEDGE

Bridging the gap from high school to university, from bachelor of science to master of science, and from university to job.

Saylor.org

Saylor Foundation offers free and open classes of college-level courses with certificates upon completion of each course.

SDG Academy

Educational materials from the world’s leading experts on sustainable development.

Sobat.org

School of Business and Trade (SoBaT) offers free computer accounting education.

SoundviewPro

It provides video courses on critical business skills, such as “Leveraging the strategic power of visuals.”, “People skills that create success.”, “Crisis management in business.” and more.

UNINETTUNO OpenupEd

“University without boundaries.” Their courses are available in Italian, English, Arabic, and French in engineering, communication, law, psychology, economics, and literature.

UoPeople

University of the People “World’s first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited, online academic institution.” It provides undergraduate degrees in business administration and computer science.

UP2U

Currently, they are offering courses based on WCAG and Adlab.

The Virtual Linguistics Campus (OER)

Platform to learn both theoretical and applied linguistics through certified linguistic courses and materials.

“You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”

Oscar Wilde

WizIQ

A platform to provide systems for comprehensive training and teaching.

The Writing University

As the name suggests, they provide open courses on writing – fiction, poetry, and songs.

---

Major Non-English MOOC Providers

Fundación Didáctica, Miríada X, Neodemia, TareasPlus, TV des Entrepreneurs, Universarium, Universiteplus, UPV, Veduca & Edraak.

Did I miss any great providers? This list will be updated regularly. Stay tuned, and don’t forget to share the wealth of knowledge you have just discovered.