Online Learning: The New Tutorial

No more benches, classes or old school buildings. Gone are the days when we used to attend one class after another in our pursuit of knowledge. The ever-growing technology and some fruitful initiatives by a bunch of talented people, has brought the entire gamut of learning and skill development to a click of a button. Learning doesn’t stop. It’s a journey- a life-long one. And thanks to these initiative, to make it so easy today.  

Learn something every day, every hour with these sites, to develop and hone your personal, professional or social skills, the whole lot at your fingertips:

BigThink believes that success is about knowing the ideas that allow you to manage and master this universe of information. With a network of 2,000 Big Think fellows and guest speakers, the editorial team of the group sources ideas from the top thinkers and doers around the globe. The team then gets down and goes through every idea with an aim of extracting its essence in simple criteria of Significance, Relevance, and application which qualifies them to appear on Big Think.

Craftsy.com was founded in 2010 by four tech guys who wanted to create a new approach to online learning. Craftsy offers classes on skills like quilting, cake decorating, knitting and sewing. The founders created a convenient education platform that captures the magic of a live classroom, including interaction with an expert instructor and fellow students.

CreativeLive provides enough options that would interest a creative soul. The website aims to empower learners by unleashing their hidden talent. CreativeLive features workshops in photography, video making, designing, business, audio, music, crafting, and software training. Anyone can watch the live online workshops for free and interact with instructors in real time.

Hackaday, with talented contributors on sleeves, believes that Hacking is an art form that uses a thing in a way in which it was not originally intended. Hackaday serves fresh hacks every day from the world of the Internet which can be highly specialized or totally original.

Codecademy is an education company that aims at rethinking education from the bottom up approach. Founded by Zach Sims, Codecademy has revised nearly everything - commerce, social networking, healthcare, and more. With the help of Facebook and Zynga, the team tries to create an engaging educational experience.

EdX offers the best quality courses from global institutional partners like Berkeley University, Australia National University, Boston and many more. The EdX, founded by Harvard University and Massachesuttes University in 2012 provides free access to everyone who wants to learn anything ranging from computer science, languages, engineering, psychology, writing, electronics, biology, or marketing.  

Memrise- We make learning languages and vocabulary so full of joy and life, you’ll laugh out loud. The tagline says it all for the app. Memrise was founded by Ed Cooke, a Grand Master of Memory, and Greg Detre, a Princeton neuroscientist specializing in the science of memory and forgetting. The online learning tool is mainly for learning languages but is also used for other academic and non-academic subjects.

Lynda.com,  founded in 1995, is a leading online learning company that helps one to learn business, software, technology and creative skills to accomplish personal and professional goals. The company also provides German, French and Spanish language content under the video2brain brand name. Through individual, corporate, academic and government subscriptions, members can have access to the lynda.com video library and courses taught by known industry experts.

WonderHowToDo offers to learn about everything that comes under the category of Arts, Science and Tech, Lifestyle, and Gaming. Founded by Stephen Chao, the team interacts with diverse voices to create wonderful tutorials and share that knowledge with the world. WonderHowToDo provides more than 170,000 how-to-do videos & articles spanning into 35 vertical categories and 424 sub-categories.

Onemonth.com was founded by Mattan Griffel with a mission to change people's lives all over the world by delivering high-quality educational content at a fraction of the cost of traditional universities. The team believes that you can transform your life in a minute, a day, and a week. So much can change in just one month by learning skills that actually matter. The web features technology-based courses with outputs that include measuring and defining student's progress.

LiveMocha is made up of language enthusiasts who are teachers, language experts, learners, or native speakers proud of their language and heritage. At LiveMocha, community members help each other learn in a multiple of ways: they leave comments in response to practice exercises, build mini-lessons with exercise feedback,  have practice conversations via text, video or audio chat,  provide language practice and culture tips, and give much-needed encouragement. After a learner has observed how the conversation is performed and learned the vocabulary and grammar components, they can then engage in a series of exercises with the native speakers in the Livemocha community. It's all about learning, practicing and communicating.

DataMonkey, founded by Ilya and Leonid, share their vast experience in data analysis and development with the learners.

Platzi.com provides Professional courses on web and app development, online marketing, interface design, and server administration. With live and recorded classes, the platform offers guides, tutorials, and videos by expert teachers.

Yousician believes that we are all born musicians. The musical website, formerly known as Ovelin was founded in 2010. Their mission is to make the world a more musical place by changing the way people learn to play musical instruments. Games by Yousician make the learning process itself fun and entertaining. They have a passionate team of business professionals, guitar teachers (and amateurs), game developers, musicians, visual designers, and visionaries.

Futurelearn believes that learning should be enjoyable and should be treasured as a social experience. The web with more than 84 partners around the globe offers a diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions. These are delivered one step at a time, and are accessible on mobile, tablet and desktop, so you can fit learning in your life. It also offers learners the opportunity to discuss what they’re learning with others, helping them make fresh discoveries and form new ideas.