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To expand accessibility, the University of California, San Diego offers a plethora of its courses online through e-learning platforms edX and Coursera. It also joins many top colleges — including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, UPenn, Columbia, and Cornell — in making many of these online courses completely free.
Many of these courses offer optional, paid certificates of completion to add to your resume or LinkedIn. Additionally, UC San Diego also has several longer paid programs you can take online, from Coursera’s Big Data Specialization ($49 per month) and Object-Oriented Java Programming Specialization ($49 per month) to edX’s MicroMaster programs in Data Science ($1,260) and Algorithms and Data Structures ($1,080).
Whether you’re interested in pursuing some of these programs (and want to test-run a course first) or just wish to take a class for fun, we outlined some of the most popular courses you can take for free.
More than 2.8 million students have enrolled in Learning How to Learn, making it one of the most popular courses on Coursera. A collaboration between UC San Diego and McMaster University, the course covers the psychology of how we learn and memorize new information before sharing tools and tricks to help you conquer even the densest subjects.
Part of the edX Data Science MicroMasters program, this course teaches students how to use Python as well as tools like Pandas, Git, and Matplotlib to analyze, manipulate, and visualize complex data sets.
Part of the Big Data Specialization, this course provides an overview of the Big Data landscape, introduces a five-step data analysis process, and teaches students how to install and run a program using Hadoop. You can audit this course for free by clicking “enroll” and then “audit this course” at the bottom.
Part of the Object-Oriented Java Programming Specialization and Object Oriented Java Programming: Data Structures and Beyond Specialization, this intermediate course is great for those who already have some software development or computer science experience. You can audit this course for free by clicking “enroll” and then “audit this course” at the bottom.
As part of the Interaction Design Specialization, this course teaches you how to use design thinking to create products that customers and stakeholders actually love using fieldwork and effective mock-ups. You can audit this course for free by clicking “enroll” and then “audit this course” at the bottom.
If you’ve ever been interested in using programming skills in a scientific setting, this introductory course is for you. It shows you how to apply Python algorithms to solve different biological problems, such as finding hidden messages within DNA. For further learning, students can sign up for the Bioinformatics Specialization.
Part of the edX Data Science MicroMasters program, this course covers the fundamentals of probability, statistics, and machine learning, as well as teaches you how to use Python skills to gain insights from data.
Part of edX’s Professional Certificate in Virtual Reality (VR) App Development, this course breaks down the fundamentals of 3D graphics, teaches you how to write and develop programs to create 3D scenes, and covers the basics of graphics programming with OpenGL and GLSL.
Part of the edX Data Science MicroMasters program, this course explores the role machine learning plays in data analysis and decision-making, showing students how to create systems that learn from experience and build predictive models using data sets.
The first course in the edX Algorithms and Data Structures MicroMaster program, this class shows students how to design algorithms using basic techniques and solve different computational problems through hands-on practice.
This course is intended to debunk myths and opinions about best parenting practices, using science to help parents make informed decisions on factors like diet, sleep, discipline, learning, screen time, and even vaccination.
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