Many of you probably heard about online courses, more formally known as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). These online resources can serve as a great way to learn more about the STEM field you are interested in, beyond what is taught in the average high school class. Not only that, but online courses can also show your passion and dedication to the admission officers when filling out your application, whether that’s for a summer camp or university.
There is an extensive list of MOOC websites available online, and we can’t hope to cover them all. In this blog, we’ll focus on some of the most popular ones, namely edX, Coursera, MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), and Udemy. During the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to try out each of these at some point in time, completing over 120 online courses summed across them. With that said, they all have their own advantages and disadvantages that we’ll cover. And considering the ease of accessing all of these resources, I’d strongly recommend trying multiple and seeing which ones you like best.
1. edX
EdX was initially created as a collaboration between Harvard University and MIT back in 2012 as a non-profit. Over the years they’ve greatly expanded and eventually in 2021 by U2. EdX offers a very wide range of MOOC categories, namely: Professional Certificate Program, MicroBachelors, MicroMasters, XSeries, Short Courses, and Master’s Degrees. You can see the full breakdown and comparison here. But let’s break it down quickly as well.
What’s common across these course categories is that they all provide you with a certificate upon completion. Depending on the type of course, these can even be used for college credit later on. Firstly we have the Professional Certificate Programs, which tend to be rather expensive (starting at $299), aimed at developing professional and directly applicable skills. The advantage of this category is that they are highly sought after by employers, but they have the rigor to match. Secondly, we have the MicroBachelors and MicroMasters, the name sounds rather fancy, doesn’t it? These also start at around $400 per course, and these come with college credits that can be applicable at certain institutions. You should check with your specific university if you’re planning on going down this path. And lastly, there are the XSeries and Short courses. These ones are priced much friendlier, starting around $99 per course. XSeries are designed as a series of courses aimed at gaining deep insight into a particular topic. And Short Courses are usually taken as one ‘section’ of the XSeries, giving you a briefer look at a topic.
Advantages of edX:
- All courses are done by reputable universities.
- Free access to preview courses.
- Broad range of subjects.
2. Coursera
Coursera is considered the biggest MOOC platform currently, priding itself with over 100 million registered users. Coursera also offers a wide range of subjects like edX, however, their catalog tends to be aimed a bit more at professional skills. Whereas edX focuses mostly on content done by universities, Coursera includes courses done by universities and by big companies (Google, Meta, and others). This can be considered quite advantageous as having courses done by companies brings more hands-on applicable professional skills, beyond the pure classroom experience.
The pricing plan of Coursera is also different, whereas edX charges a fixed price per course; Coursera adopts a monthly ‘subscription’ model. The prices per course usually range from $20 to $60 per month, and a majority of the courses are made to last about 1-2 months. Worth mentioning is the Coursera Plus plan. If you’re someone who knows they’ll take a larger number of online courses, you can choose to pay $399 per year and have unlimited access to over 7000 courses. Personally, I chose to go down this path as I took over 70 online courses on Coursera to this day, and only extremely rarely do I encounter a course that is excluded from Coursera Plus.
Some Coursera courses can also be used for college credit at selected universities. And they also offer quite a large number of available degree paths, either Bachelor's or Master’s. However, signing up for these can be more involved as they require a similar admissions process as if you’re applying to the actual degree program at the university, but usually, at the very least it’s your transcripts and proof that you completed your previous education level. However, you don’t have to complete a full degree. Coursera offers its “specializations” as well. Similar to the XSeries offered by edX, specializations are aimed at giving you a deeper insight into a particular field.
Advantages of Coursera:
- Wide range of courses, including more “hands-on” professional ones.
- Ability to save money with Coursera Plus for frequent users.
- College credit or online degrees at eligible institutions
3. MIT OpenCourseWare
As the name suggests, MIT OCW is the open learning initiative created by MIT. OCW gives you the ability to attend a wide variety of actual MIT classes. Everything from first-year undergraduate to graduate-level classes. OCW is completely free to use as much as you want. However you should watch out when selecting the courses, there is a wide range of formats available. Some courses only provide video recordings of lectures, some only PDF versions of lecture notes, some only homework assignments, and other varieties. Luckily these are all things you can filter within their dashboard.
It’s worth mentioning OCW’s “little brother”, MIT Open Learning Library. Open Learning Library offers only a small number of courses, only about a few dozen, but keeps growing. Why am I mentioning this? Open Learning Library offers much more polished content, as well as interactive exercises compared to OCW. It can be compared to using edX or Coursera, the classes on Open Learning Library include video lectures, notes, and quizzes. However, unfortunately, same as with OCW, you don’t have the ability to gain a certificate.
MIT OCW or Open Learning Library are both free resources you can use. Making them a great place to start your journey to see if online learning is something for you. Although compared to our two previous MOOC platforms, you can’t gain a certification, potentially making your effort go unnoticed when it comes to the professional world (such as when building up your CV). But they can be an absolute gold mine of knowledge to use.
Advantages of MIT OCW:
- Completely free to use.
- Large number of actual MIT classes and assignments.
- Interactive experience of Open Learning Library
4. Udemy
Topping off our list is Udemy. Their courses aren’t done by universities or corporations like our previous contestants, this is why they are oftentimes omitted from any MOOC list. But no matter how contemptuous calling them a MOOC might be to some people, we still believe they belong on our list. So let’s dive right into them and see what it’s about.
As we mentioned before, courses on Udemy aren’t usually done under the guise of any institution, but rather self-elected instructors. The disadvantage of this approach to things is that the quality of courses can have much greater variance. However, the ability to preview individual courses greatly helps reduce this risk. Having a low barrier to entry allows Udemy to have a large number of courses from a wide range of topics, even more, niche topics than the more official MOOC platforms. But you can forget about any college credit from these types of courses.
The majority of courses on Udemy have a fixed price per course somewhere between $40 and $130. With that said, Udemy runs huge sales very often, usually every two weeks you can see their discount wave come in. During these, usually a few days, you can find the majority of courses for around $10.
Advantages of Udemy:
- Potentially more niche course topics.
- More affordable during generous discount periods.
- Higher frequency of courses being published.
Closing thoughts
No matter what platform you choose for your online learning, they’re a great way to expand your horizons. Not only that, but you can also get a real-world taste of what you might be doing at university or beyond. Arming yourself with that can give you the confidence in choosing the right field of study. Even if you’re not sure yet, that is perfectly okay. Online courses can be a great place to start, try out a few topics from different subjects, and see if something sticks. And lastly, as I mentioned before, not only can they be a great place to learn, but they also provide an easy way to stand out in your applications. Hope you found this article insightful, and stay tuned for the next one!
