Free online courses — also called Massive Open Online Courses — have quite a year.
It’s been seven years since these courses rose to prominence, when a few Stanford professors decided to offer their courses online free. Since then over over 900 universities have launched over 11,000 courses.
And in its seven years these Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) have achieved new milestone: 100+ million learners!
And I’ve been keeping track of these courses the entire time over at Class Central, ever since they rose to prominence. Class Central is a search engine, discovery platform, and review site for MOOCs. More than 18 million people have used Class Central to find their next course.
At the end of every year, I do an extensive analysis of the MOOC space. To help me with analysis, I send the top MOOC providers a set of questions, one of them being the top enrolled courses of 2018.
The list below contains the top enrolled courses from the major MOOC providers: Coursera, edX, Udacity, and FutureLearn. Combined, these providers represent a big chunk of the MOOC learners (70+ million!).
You can also find this list on Class Central which I built using Class Central’s newest feature: Custom Lists. We just launched this a few days ago to help you organize your learning. You can build lists of courses for learning different topics, then share these lists withs friends, family, and the interwebs.
Without further ado, here are the most popular free online university courses of 2018:
- Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects from University of California, San Diego ★★★★★(5923)
- Machine Learning from Stanford University ★★★★★(338)
- The Science of Well-Being from Yale University ★★★★★(4)
- Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python from Massachusetts Institute of Technology ★★★★☆(119)
- CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science from Harvard University ★★★★★(73)
- Intro to Computer Science from University of Virginia ★★★★☆(71)
- Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance from Monash University ★★★★★(82)
- Algorithms, Part I from Princeton University ★★★★★(58)
- English Grammar and Style from University of Queensland ★★★★☆(28)
- Financial Markets from Yale University ★★★★☆(26)
- Introduction to Cyber Security from The Open University ★★★★☆(20)
- Introduction to Psychology from University of Toronto ★★★★★(19)
- Start Writing Fiction from The Open University ★★★★☆(19)
- Chinese for Beginners from Peking University ★★★★☆(18)
- Understanding IELTS: Techniques for English Language Tests from British Council ★★★★☆(17)
- Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies from Princeton University ★★★★☆(16)
- Exploring English: Language and Culture from British Council ★★★★☆(13)
- Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Excel from Microsoft ★★★★☆(13)
- Data Science: R Basics from Harvard University ★★★★★(5)
- Introduction to Data Analysis using Excel from Microsoft ★★★★☆(5)
- English for Career Development from University of Pennsylvania ★★★★★(5)
- An Introduction to Screenwriting from University of East Anglia ★★★★★(4)
- Learn to Program in Java from Microsoft ★★★★★(3)
- TOEFL® Test Preparation: The Insider’s Guide from ETS ★★★★★(2)
- IELTS Academic Test Preparation from University of Queensland ★★★★☆(2)
- Basic English 1: Elementary from King’s College London ★★★★☆(1)
- Introduction to Python: Absolute Beginner from Microsoft ★★★★★(1)
- Developing Android Apps
- Android Basics: User Interface from Google
- Java Programming Basics
- Programming Foundations with Python
- Cómo hacer una tesis from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
- English for the Workplace from British Council
- Inside IELTS: Preparing for the Test with the Experts from Cambridge English Language Assessment
- English in Early Childhood: Language Learning and Development from British Council