The post-COVID era came with a lot of reality checks. One of them is the fast way in which the world is moving digitally with a whole lot of people getting new life-changing skills from the comfort of their homes. You can now take numerous free short online courses with certificates that would be beneficial to you.
However, one interesting aspect of free online courses is the ability to learn from the very best tutor in that particular course without spending a dime.
In addition, you don’t only get the knowledge and skills that come with the courses but you get certificates that can be updated in your CV or resumé.
Moreover, all you need to partake in any free online courses is a stable internet service, great battery life for your gadgets, and most importantly your time, patience, and dedication. With all these, you can get as many important courses, get certified, and upscale the digital world.
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Things You Should Know about Free Short Online Courses
Below are the things you should know about short online courses:
- They are not listed in any order but are listed for easy access.
- As a student or working-class citizen, you can learn and work at your own pace with the use of these online courses. The courses have been programmed in a very flexible manner for everyone.
- They are short and straight to the point, so you don’t have to be worried about spending a lot of time in a bid to learn a course.
- Some of the free online courses are professional courses and some are for startups seeking basic knowledge. However, each course comes with various certificates.
List of Free Short Online Courses With Certificates
Below is a list of the free short online courses with certificates:
- E-commerce essentials
- Hotel Management
- Digital Marketing
- Leadership and Management skills for business
- Financial engineering and Risk management
- SEO: Keyword strategy
- Marketing for small business
- English for career development course
- Introduction to Psychology
- Android Basics; User Interface
- Anatomy- Human
- Leadership and Management
- The Genius Matter
- Free Marketing
- Introduction to Genomic technologies
- Coasts and Communities
- Machine learning
- Data Science
- Portfolio Management, The Governance, and the PMO
- Design thinking and Creativity for Innovation
- Introduction to C++
- Amazon Web Service
- CS5O’s Introductory course on AI
- Useful Excel for beginners
- Quantitative Method for Biology.
25 Free Online Courses with Certificates
1) E-commerce Essentials
- Platform: Skillshare
On the Skillshare platform, there are so many worthwhile free short online courses you can take. One of them is the E-commerce essentials on how to start a successful online business. The course is majorly on how to start and effectively run a digital business.
In this course, students can learn how to map out a good marketing strategy, identify viable marketable products online, start an online business, and most importantly build a long-lasting and successful business.
2) Hotel Management
- Platform: Oxford Homestudy
Oxford University is one of the most popularized and best schools in the world. The University provides a free short online course on its Homestudy platform. One of the most sought-after courses is the Hotel Management course.
This course is available for anyone interested in the Hospitality industry. The Hotel Management course involves learning hotel management techniques, administration, marketing, housekeeping, and so on.
3) Digital Marketing
- Platform: Google
A lot of people use the Google platform to make research on different topics and people, but not many know that Google offers various free short online courses on its portal or through Coursera.
One of these free short courses on google is the Fundamentals of Digital marketing. The course is fully accredited by two bodies namely: The Open University and The Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe.
The course comes with 26 modules that are fully stacked with realistic examples, solid theoretical examples, and practical exercises that help students uncover and grasp the basics of digital marketing and its usefulness in either their business or career.
4) Leadership and Management Skills for Business
- Platform: Alison
At Alison, you are offered a wide range of free online courses like the Management skills for business course.
Students undergoing this free online course on management for business are duly trained on managing crises in business, character development, project management, and meeting management. As a business owner or startup, you would need these skills for your advanced growth and business development.
5) Financial Engineering and Risk Management
- Platform: Columbia University (Coursera)
The Financial Engineering and Risk management free online course from Columbia University is available on Coursera. The course varies on simple random models, asset allocation, and portfolio optimization to assess how assets affect the economy and financial crisis.
However, Financial Engineering is a theoretical development in finance, while Risk management is the process of identifying and controlling threats in an organization.
6) SEO: Keyword Strategy
- Platform: LinkedIn
Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is a keyword strategy online course. It is made available on the LinkedIn learning platform. It is a course where you learn how to use keywords to market products or services.
This course helps you optimize your website through the use of keywords strategy. It has the effect of boosting your product or services on search engines.
7) Small Business Marketing
- Platform: LinkedIn
With the help of the LinkedIn marketing for small business course, you would learn how to successfully grow and cater to your small business through multiple solid marketing plans.
Students who use this free online course learn varying tips and tricks on how to fully utilize available resources to market a product or service.
Furthermore, it helps small business owners in knowing how to manage and upscale their businesses.
8) English for Career Development
- Platform: University of Pennsylvania(Coursera)
As a non-English speaker seeking roles or degree programs in countries where the lingua franca is English. You would need to learn the English language and one way you can do that is through this free course available online on the University of Pennsylvania’s platform.
Fortunately, this is a free online course that helps broaden one’s knowledge of English vocabulary.
9) Introduction to Psychology
- Platform: Yale University (Coursera)
Introduction to Psychology is a free online course made available on Coursera by Yale University.
This course aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. This course also explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, persuasion, emotions, and social behavior.
10) Android Basics: User Interface
- Platform: Udacity
Android Basic User Interface is a free online course for frontend mobile developers who are interested in android.
The course is made available on Udacity and is taught by experts. Moreover, it is a course that requires zero knowledge in writing programs or coding.
11) Human Neuroanatomy
- Platform: University of Michigan
For physiology students who want to understand and gain in-depth knowledge of Human Anatomy, this free online course is made available on the Michigan online course platform.
The course is centered on Human Neuroanatomy. Learn about the brain and the central nervous system: how it works, how sensory information gets to the brain, and how the brain relays the message to the part of the body.
12) Leadership and Management
- Platform: Oxford Home study
The Leadership and Management free online course from Oxford was created by learned academicians and seasoned experts. Moreover, the course is available on the Oxford Home Study Platform.
You get to learn about leadership from different perspectives, learn new skills including hard and soft skills, and improve generally as a person seeking to be a great leader.
13) The Genius Matter
- Platform: Canvas Net
This course help in understanding proven unique value in your school and in the world at large. This gives you the knowledge to establish and run a productive team as well as help people around you to find their authentic voice, their inspiration, an increased sense of belonging, and their genius.
The Canvas net free online course on the Genius Matter also helps you as a student to develop your leadership p skills.
14) Developing a Winning Marketing Management
- Platform: The University of Illinois (Coursera)
Through the Coursera platform, the University of Illinois at Urbana-champaign offers students free marketing management online courses. The course elaborates on the elements of marketing and how to utilize them to create value for clients.
It is a three-way course that is based on understanding buyer behavior, creating and discussing processes to add value to the marketing campaign, and then reporting findings through data that is useful to the manager(s).
15) Introduction to Genomic Technologies
- Platform: John Hopkins University (Coursera)
The John Hopkins University offers an Introductory free online course with a certificate on Genomic Technologies through Coursera.
Students get the opportunity to learn and observe the concepts of modern Genomic biology, and the different parts of it. This includes computing data science and Molecular biology. Using these, you can learn how to measure RNA, DNA, and Epigenetic patterns.
16) Coasts and Communities
- Platform: University of Massachusetts, Boston
Through Open Education by Blackboard, the University of Massachusetts in Boston offers a free online course in coasts and communities.
The whole purpose of this course is centered on giving students the opportunity to extensively learn how humans and natural systems like the coastal systems interact with each other.
This course enables students to gain the capability in creating stellar solutions to environmental issues.
17) Machine Learning
- Platform: Standford (Coursera)
The University of Standford offers a free online course on Machine learning. This course is made available on Coursera.
The course is centered on the different fundamental statistical and algorithmic concepts involved in machine learning, the various tools and techniques, and how to apply them in fields like biology, medicine, engineering, computer vision, and manufacturing.
18) Data Science
- Platform: University of Notre Dame
This is a free data science course that is made available on the University of Notre Dame online learning platform
Moreover, this is a wonderful choice of an online course for students seeking to grasp data science knowledge, despite their mathematical and programming knowledge.
The course helps you identify your strength in core aspects of Data science which are Linear Algebra, Calculus, and Programming.
However, you can decide to further your studies in this field after the successful completion of this short online course.
19) Portfolio Management, The Governance, and The PMO
- Platform: University of Washington(edX)
A well-compiled free online course on Portfolio Management, The Governance, and the PMO by the University of Washington.
Apart from tutoring students on different governance techniques to cater to projects, it also teaches about the Project Management Office(PMO) and how to maintain a healthy project portfolio.
20) Design Thinking and Creativity for Innovation
- Platform: University of Queensland
Innovation and Design thinking is a free online course made available by the University of Queensland on edX
It is a motivational, and well-equipped course that encourages students to fully utilize their ideas and be confidently innovative and creative. It is a gradual process made easier with the tutelage of experts in order to field the next generation of strong entrepreneurs.
21) Introduction to C++
- Platform: Microsoft edX
This is an introductory course to the C++ language used for programming and coding. It explicitly explains how to write credible programs effectively.
However, it is quite an interesting course and by learning C++, you can create applications that will run on a wide variety of hardware platforms.
22) Amazon Web Service
- Platform: Udemy
The Udemy online learning platform is one of the go-to platforms for free short online courses. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a free online course available on Udemy.
The course is valid for anyone with an existing background in IT/Tech as well as computer networking. In this course, you will learn how to incorporate AWS with the cloud model as well as Create an AWS WordPress Web server.
23) CS5O’s Introductory Course on AI
- Platform: Harvard University (HarvardX)
There are literally tons of free online courses available on the Harvard University platform, known as HarvardX. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the numerous free online courses available on HarvardX.
Moreover, CS50’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence explores the concepts and algorithms at the foundation of modern artificial intelligence. This course dive into the ideas that give rise to technologies like game-playing engines, handwriting recognition, and machine translation.
24) Useful Excel for Beginners
- Platform: Udemy
Udemy provides one of the best and most educative free short online courses on Excel. The course is made available on the Udemy learning platform.
However, you will learn the fundamentals of Microsoft Excel and become effective in formatting, organizing, and calculating data in a spreadsheet. You will also learn how to use software like Excel, and data analysis in analyzing and organizing data.
25) Quantitative Method for Biology.
- Platform: Harvard(edX)
Harvard University provides numerous free online courses on edX. A quantitative method for biology is a course that introduces the basics of MATLAB and basic biological and medical applications.
This is definitely a nice free online introductory course for students who wants to gain knowledge in biology, medicine, and the application of programming.
FAQs on Free Short Online Courses with Certificates
1) Do I get certificates after completing any of these courses?
Yes, you will get a certificate after completing any of the above-listed courses. However, you are required to pay a small fee for these certificates.
2) Are these courses available for all regions?
Of course, the courses are available for all regions. As long as you have stable internet and a stable power supply for your learning gadgets, you can easily access these free courses online from wherever you are located.
3)What is the best free online platform?
There are numerous online learning platforms. However, Udemy, edX, Coursera, Semrush, Udacity, and LinkedIn learning are among the best online learning platform with access to free courses..
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Conclusion
The best thing that could happen is having to learn from the comfort of your home or while working. These short free online courses have been super reliable and effective despite not being as fully intensive as normal courses.
Moreover, if you are looking for free online courses with certificates, the course listed above are free and come with certificates upon completion.
You can choose to apply for any one of them.