With physical distancing orders in place to prevent further spread of COVID-19, you might find yourself wondering what to do with all the time indoors. If you’re looking for ways to make money from home, you can check our list of 39 websites here.
However, educational institutions are offering a wide range of free options to help you explore new opportunities from the comfort and safety of your home. Whether you’re looking to find a new job, pivot or advance in your current career, upskilling helps you gain a competitive advantage with marketable or niche skills.
Our team has put together a list of free options you can search based on your area of interest. We’ll keep adding, so make sure you bookmark this page!
Business, Finance, and Economics
Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies
Where: Harvard University
When: April 21, 2020 until October 23, 2020
Length: 6 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: An understanding of concepts to evaluate opportunities, an awareness for entrepreneurship opportunities in fast-growing markets, and an appreciation for the types of problems that need entrepreneurial solutions
Stock Trading Tutorial: Learn Market Investing for Beginners
Where: Udemy
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 15 lessons
Credit or Certification Available: No
What You’ll Learn: How to interpret the complexities of the stock market, gain confidence in investing virtual money, and how to talk about the stock market
Where: Duke University
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 3 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: Economic models of consumer behaviour, theories on how consumers make errors in financial decisions, biases in predictability, and how to avoid errors and mitigate biases for better outcomes
Where: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
When: Begins April 15, 2020, with no set end date
Length: 15 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes, $281 extra
What You’ll Learn: How to apply basic probability models in supply chain management, statistics, basic analytical methods, and formulating and solving optimization models
Marketing
Marketing Fundamentals: Who Is Your Customer?
Where: BabsonX
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 4 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes, $281 extra
What You’ll Learn: How to acquire customers with segmentation, targeting, and positioning methods, how to use the marketing mix, and how to leverage market data for growth
Learn What Content Marketing Is and How to Do It
Where: Hubspot Academy
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 12 lessons
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: How to produce effective content on a consistent basis using content marketing frameworks, how to create and repurpose content that appeal to customers and search engines, and how to be a more strategic content marketer
Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content
Where: The Wharton School
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 4 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: How products and ideas become popular, the concepts behind viral marketing, and how to make ideas stick
Where: Hubspot Academy
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 9 lessons
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: How to create contact management strategies and understanding what makes high-performing emails
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Where: University of California, Davis
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 5 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: How to create influencer relationships and optimize website content for the best search engine ranking, how to complete competitive analyses of SEO recommendations, and how to align SEO with business strategies
Technology
CS50: Introduction to Computer Science
Where: Harvard University
When: Now until December 31, 2020
Length: 11 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes, but for $127 extra
What You’ll Learn: How to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently, a broad understanding of computer science and programming, familiarity in languages like PHP, C, Javascript, SQL, HTML, and CSS, and concepts like abstraction, data structures, security, software engineering, and web development
CS50's Introduction to Game Development
Where: Harvard University
When: Now until December 31, 2020
Length: 12 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: Principles of 2D and 3D graphics, basics of game design and development, animation, sound, and collision detection, Unity, LÖVE 2D, C#, and Lua
Plural Sight Rock Your Azure Role
Where: Pluralsight and Microsoft
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: Varied
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: 200+ courses, 40+ Skill IQs and 8 Role IQs, focus time on understanding strengths and skill gaps and learn Azure. Each Azure Role IQ contains courses that cover all the skills you need to be prepared for Azure role-based certifications
Where: deeplearning.ai
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 4 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: Common AI terminologies, what AI can and cannot do, how to apply AI in your organization, how to build an AI strategy and work with an AI team in your company, and how to navigate the ethical discussions surrounding AI
CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python
Where: Harvard University
When: Now until December 31, 2021
Length: 14 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: Graph search algorithms, reinforcement and machine learning, artificial intelligence principles, how to use AI in Python programs, and how to design intelligent systems
Where: Harvard University
When: Now until June 30, 2020
Length: 5 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: How to apply Python research tools (e.g., NumPy and SciPy) in practical settings and reviewing Python 3 programming basics
Where: Harvard University
When: Now until June 30, 2020
Length: 8 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: How to communicate data-driven findings, ggplot2, data visualization basics, and why you should avoid weak plots
Where: Harvard University
When: Now until June 30, 2020
Length: 8 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: How to perform operations in R (sorting, making plots, data wrangling), foundational R programming concepts, and basic R syntax
Data Science: Machine Learning
Where: Harvard University
When: Now until June 30, 2020
Length: 8 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: Popular machine learning algorithms, how to build recommendation systems, regularization, and how to perform cross-validation to avoid overtraining
Design and Art
Where: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 5 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: How artists represent place, environment, and identity, and how cultural, social, and political issues of the time affected art
Where: General Assembly
When: No set date, you will be emailed with the platform the day of the event
Length: 1 livestream workshop
Credit or Certification Available: No
What You’ll Learn: Why User Experience (UX) design matters, how to create clickable prototypes using InVision, what tools professional designers are using, and how to continue learning about UX
Where: General Assembly
When: No set date, you will be emailed with the platform the day of the event
Length: 1 livestream workshop
Credit or Certification Available: No
What You’ll Learn: Understanding what makes a successful design, what skills matter most for an effective design, and what tools or resources you can use to get started
Soft Skills
The Arts and Science of Relationships: Understanding Human Needs
Where: University of Toronto
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 6 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: Core competencies in relationship management application, the Strategies and Skills Learning and Development (SSLD) framework, the relevance for everyday relationships, problem translation, and Needs, Circumstances, Characteristics, and Capacity (N3C)
Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills
Where: University of Michigan
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 4 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: How to create negotiation strategies and key tactics for successful negotiation
Where: University of California, Irvine
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 3 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: Active learning skills to deal with conflict, appropriate communication tactics, and plans for managing conflict
Health
Positive Psychiatry and Mental Health
Where: University of Sydney
When: Now, with no set end date
Length: 5 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: Evidence-based treatments in the form of exercise, stress recovery, identifying strengths, attachment theory, social connections, common conditions such as anxiety, depression, and addictions, and interventions for recovery
Stanford Introduction to Food and Health
Where: Stanford University
When: Begins April 6, 2020, with no set end date
Length: 5 weeks
Credit or Certification Available: Yes
What You’ll Learn: How social and cultural shifts have changed how we associate food with our health, how to support our health with different food choices, food processing and trends, and future directions with food
Please note that the information provided in this article might have changed since the time of posting. Refer to the institution's website for relevant updates on courses, prices and availability.
The Bottom Line
Increasing your earning potential is always a positive step to helping you manage your finances. If you aren’t already a member, sign-up free in less than 3 minutes and get personalized advice, tools and access to your credit report.
Trusted by over 3 million Canadians, Borrowell provides free weekly credit scores and report monitoring, personalized financial product recommendations and affordable tools to help you build your credit. Sign up for your free Borrowell account today on borrowell.com, or download the mobile app for Android or iOS.