Below we’ve listed 12 awesome skills to learn for free online compiled from across the web. If you have any relevant links yourself then please do comment below and exchange your experiences with online learning and education.
1. LEARN A LANGUAGE
With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.
2. START READING FASTER
Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, they claim to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://www.spreeder.com” window=”_blank”]Use Spreeder[/button]
3. LEARN HOW TO CODE
Highly recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://www.codecademy.com” window=”_blank”]Code Academy[/button] [button color=”green” text=”white” url=”https://www.edx.org/course/harvardx/harvardx-cs50x-introduction-computer-1022″ window=”_blank”]EDX Course[/button]
4. LEARN PSYCHOLOGY
Knowing the basics of psychology will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://academicearth.org/courses/introduction-to-psychology/” window=”_blank”]View Free Lectures[/button]
5. START PRACTICING YOGA
Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio). If you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlo has a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://www.yogaglo.com” window=”_blank”]View Yogaglo[/button] [button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://yogameditationhome.com” window=”_blank”]View Yoga Meditation Home[/button] [button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://www.yogatailor.com” window=”_blank”]View Yoga Tailor[/button]
6. START DRAWING
All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://www.drawspace.com” window=”_blank”]Try Draw Space[/button]
7. MAKE A MOBILE GAME
If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could try this course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience!
8. IMPROVE YOUR PUBLIC SPEAKING
You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll hopefully be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”https://www.edx.org/course/uwashingtonx/uwashingtonx-comm220uwx-introduction-1234″ window=”_blank”]View EDX Public Speaking Course[/button]
9. MAKE YOUR MUSIC
Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar
Free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music. Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song. Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://justinguitar.com” window=”_blank”]Free Guitar Lessons[/button] [button color=”green” text=”white” url=”https://www.berkleemusic.com/welcome/free-voice-lesson” window=”_blank”]Free Voice Lessons[/button] [button color=”green” text=”white” url=”https://www.coursera.org/course/songwriting” window=”_blank”]Free Song Writing[/button] [button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://lifehacker.com/the-basics-of-music-production-the-complete-guide-514079132″ window=”_blank”]The Basics of Music Production[/button]
10. LEARN TO NEGOTIATE
Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=” http://academicearth.org/courses/the-art-of-negotiation/ ” window=”_blank”]The Art of Negotiation Course[/button]
11. LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY
Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://lifehacker.com/5815742/basics-of-photography-the-complete-guide” window=”_blank”]View Life Hacker Course[/button]
12. LEARN HOW TO USE PHOTOSHOP
Tutorials are the best way to learn in my experience. Choose even the outcomes you don’t like and you’ll learn a wider selection of techniques and tools.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D19BCF9D57320E03″ window=”_blank”]View Photoshop Course[/button] [button color=”green” text=”white” url=”https://www.udemy.com/photoshoptraining/” window=”_blank”]View Photoshop Course 2[/button][title subtitle=”Choose a skill and get started”]Start the Experiment[/title] [separator type=”thin”]
“All life is an experiment, the more experiments you make the better” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
We challenge you to get involved and explore through experience.
We’ve written about how you can learn any skill in 20 hours. So, choose a skill/topic you’ve been putting off learning and dedicate 45 minutes a day to it. Do this for one month and let us know how you get on. Deciding for yourself, through your own experience whether a new skill can be learnt in just 30 days.
Already tried this experiment?
Are there any tips that have worked for you? What’s your experience with this technique?
Thanks for reading.
