Online Education and the Solopreneur

Amber Bradley .

As a Solopreneur, you may find that you’ve been too busy to take that business class at the local college you have been meaning to take. It’s been on your self-improvement list for a while, but you just haven’t been able to get to it. Don’t feel like you are missing out. On today’s interweb, many sites and apps have been developed for busy people like you. They offer different types of online courses that you can try to help build those pesky skills you’ve been intending to learn someday.

Here are some of the best sites and apps to help you squeeze some learning into your life.

Video-based Learning

Video-based learning sites offer lecture style courses in a video format. These are generally pre-recorded by a professional or an instructor providing content based on a certain topic. For a nominal fee or site subscription videos are generally “on-demand,” so you can view them on your own schedule. Udacity or edX have collaborated with companies or universities to develop some of their course content, where other sites such as Udemy or Skillshare allow anyone to become an instructor, develop their course, and post it to their site for purchase.

Additional Sites: Coursera.com, MediaBistro.com, Lynda.com

Learning to Code

If you’re looking to hone your coder skills, there are many options to find courses specific to helping you learn to code. Code School has created a unique way of learning by adding entertaining content and a sense of gaming to their courses. Other sites include Code Academy, Free Code Camp, or W3Schools.

Apps

Another great way to fit in learning is to use an application. iTunes U has one of the best collection of free courses out there. They offer a varied mix of courses from a standalone class to a series of courses about a topic. You will find that much of the content is from actual Universities and many of the courses include lecture notes and homework.

Extended Education from Universities

Several universities have extended their courses online, offering individual courses, certifications, or even microMBA’s.

MIT, Yale, UCLA, Stanford, Berkley, Harvard.

Free Online Courses or Email

Free courses for any topic can be found online. You can find lists of free courses by utilizing education portals like the Study.com. They do a lot of the research for you by curating lists of free courses. Certain sites of interest may provide email lessons, such as My Copyblogger, which sends you an email on a weekly basis for learning how to write marking content.

Conclusion

No matter what route you go with for online learning, be it just taking an odd course here or there to building your own MBA curriculum with free courses like Laurie Packard did with her No Pay MBA; there are countless options to choose from that provide first-rate content. All it takes is a little research or following some of the options provided in this article, and you are on your way!