20 Free Online Resources, Courtesy of Reddit (2024)

News aggregate reddit bills itself as the “front page of the Internet,” collecting information and stories for its users to read and respond to. Recently, a member asked the community at large what free things everyone on the Internet should use—and the response was overwhelming.

The original conversation is worth checking out, if you'd like to wade through hundreds of varied responses. But if you'd rather get an overview, I've gleaned what I think are the top 20 free resources you can start using today.

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
Providers

If you want to expand your mind—either professionally or personally—with free classes to take at your convenience, these are the sites to bookmark.

• Khan Academy: Khan Academy’s mission is “to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere" through MOOCs, a specialized learning dashboard, and practice exercises. Subjects run from the arts to the STEM subjects, and partners are as impressive as NASA, MIT, and The Museum of Modern Art.
• Coursera: Similar to Khan Academy in that it offers MOOCs for anyone, anywhere, at no cost, but has a greater focus on higher education partnerships. You can pay about $50 for “Signature Track” courses, which verifies both your identity and your work, offering a “statement of achievement” (SOA) at completion. Known for a fairly diverse MOOC topic range.
• Udacity: This MOOC provider emphasizes courses that teach programming and other computer science skills. If students desire to work toward their “Nanodegree” certification, it’ll cost $200/month.

• 

  edX

  : Free MOOC provider. Free courses available online covering a myriad of topics, with an optional “Verified Certificate of Achievement” attached to certain courses for a $50 or $100 fee. Classes are taught and released on an academic semester schedule.
• Open University on iTunes U: iOS app-database that allows members to download podcasts and lessons from university professors around the world.

Foreign Languages

Did you study Spanish in high school and dumped the vocab as soon as the test was over? Or have you always wanted to learn Chinese but don't have time for an in-person class? These resources can revive your polyglot dreams.

• 

  Duolingo

  : Provides free online instruction in several foreign languages through writing, listening, and speaking exercises via your device's microphone. An independent study by the City University of New York and the University of South Carolina has found that 34 hours of study using Duolingo equals—on average—a semester of college-level foreign language instruction.
• Livemoucha: Also provides language lessons for those on a budget, with the added benefit of a large, international community to practice with.
• Codecademy: Uses in-browser applications to teach users to program and write code in a variety of computer "languages," from Python to HTML.
• Memrise: An online flashcards program with thousands of prebuilt decks, users can study a variety of subjects (and over 200 languages) for free. If they like the platform, a paid subscription of about $5/month will provide added analytics and difficult word/concept targeting for increased retention.

Fundraising

For those times when you have to find the funds to pay for life's problems—or support a good cause—you can use, well, this site. (Sorry, I tried to find more!)

• 

  Amazon Smile

  : An optional program run by the ubiquitous online shopping retailer, Amazon Smile donates 0.5% of qualified purchase prices to a charity of your choice at no additional cost to you. Plus, you can arrange for your non-profit organization to receive donations made by program participants! (Currently, I help support Doctors Without Borders.)

Online Libraries

If you're looking for wells of information or just plain good stories, might I suggest these?

• OpenLibrary: An online catalog of thousands of printed books. You can download out-of-copyright books and “borrow” in-copyright texts.
• LibriVox: Takes public domain books and—through the power of volunteerism—makes them available as free-to-download audiobooks.

• 

  Project Gutenberg

  : Like OpenLibrary, Project Gutenberg provides thousands of free e-books to download. Project Gutenberg curates its content through volunteer proofreaders and requires texts to be published by “bona fide publishers” prior to inclusion in the collection.
• Documentary Heaven: A repository of free, feature-length documentaries on a variety of subjects, ranging from crime and economics to environmentalism and technology. (There’s even a section devoted to subtitled films!)

Life Enhancers

These resources make your day-to-day life better. What more can I say?

• A Soft Murmur: A white noise generator designed for those who need non-distracting sound to focus while studying, working, writing, etc. (I generally use a movie soundtrack while I'm writing, so lyrics don't creep into the copy, but I've heard good things from those who use this app.)
• Mint: A free personal budgeting tool that tracks expenditures and bills through pre-linked accounts.
• f.lux: Automatically adjusts screen brightness to a “natural” setting based on the time of day. (For people who can’t get to sleep but can’t stop reading books on their cellphones, this could really be a lifesaver.)
• smallpdf: An online app for all of your .pdf conversion, compression, split, merge, and unlock needs.

• 

  Authentic Weather

  : A blunt, foul-mouthed weather app that tells you exactly what the weather's gonna do for the next three days. Entertainment factor aside—mine currently reads "Cloudy with a chance of... You thought I would say meatballs right? Stupid"—I've found the app to be more accurate than The Weather Channel or local weather blogs.
• Buffer: For those of us who find lots of fun things to share with social media connections but don't want to overwhelm them with fifty links in five minutes, there's Buffer. A free Buffer account allows you to schedule up to 10 posts at a time for Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I have a paid one at $8/month for extra scheduled slots, and it's a lifesaver when I'm trying to "unplug" on the weekend but I still want to stay relevant with my connections.

What free resources have I missed? Do you use any of these now? I'd love to know!

A version of this article originally appeared in ISM's Monthly Update for Division Heads & www.ashleystryker.com.

Banner image copyright: icetray/123RF
edX image from Wikimedia Commons
Duolingo image from flickr
Amazon Smile image from the River Eves Education Foundation
Project Gutenberg image from TeleRead
Authentic Weather image from Low End Mac