Top Free Online Course Platforms for Computer Science Teachers
Whether you are a Computer Science teacher looking to develop your own knowledge in computer science, or looking for online materials to enhance your teaching program, the following free online course platforms provide high quality open courses in computer science, or teaching computer science.
MOOC Platforms
What's this?
EdX offers interactive online classes and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) from the world’s top universities, colleges and organizations. With more than 90 global partners, EdX currently has 2,300+ faculty and staff teaching over 950 courses. Courses are free with the exception of professional education courses. The course format includes tools, videos and game-like labs. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is a non-profit initiative created by founding partners Harvard and MIT.
See a full review of EdX
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
EdX offers over 300 computer science courses covering important topics in artificial intelligence, cyber security, software engineering, big data and programming skills.
The courses ranging from beginners to advanced levels are all provided by top Universities and organisations and are a great resource for teachers to enhance their own subject knowledge or to build on teaching programs.
In addition, EdX offers over 65 online education courses covering a broad range of topics from educational policy and history to curriculum design and teaching techniques.
Coursera is the largest MOOC platform partnering with top universities and organizations to offer free online courses. With the most diverse course selection of all the MOOC providers, Coursera currently has over 17 million students and 1,800+ courses from 146 partner institutions across 29 countries. The course format usually involves short video lectures, interactive quizzes, peer graded assessments, and connecting with fellow learners and instructors. Coursera is a for-profit company founded by computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University.
See a full review of Coursera
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
With over 300 open online courses to choose from in Software Development, Mobile and Web Development, Algorithms, Computer Security and Networks and Design, Coursera provides an excellent resource for computer science teachers to deepen their knowledge in a particular area or to complement their own teaching programs.
FutureLearn is the first UK platform offering a diverse selection of courses from leading universities and internationally renowned organisations from around the world. Courses are delivered one step at a time via video, audio and reading material, with short quizzes and assignments. It is a private company owned by the Open University, with the benefit of over 40 years of their experience in distance learning and online education.
See a full review of FutureLearn
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
FutureLearn currently offers a free online course that aims to help teachers teach the primary and secondary computer science curriculum.
With a mixture of subject knowledge and teaching and learning practice, the course is aimed at both subject specialists and primary teaching non-specialists. FutureLearn have also partnered with Raspberry Pi to offer two courses for educators around the world, focusing on teaching computing and computational thinking.
Online Course Platforms
What's this?
Codecademy offers free coding classes covering the core programming concepts and syntax in HTML & CSS, Javascript, jQuery, PHP, Python and Ruby. Users can also learn the web developer skills needed to build professional websites and applications. All courses on Codecademy are self-paced allowing learners to progress at their own rate with a focus on learning through actively coding.
See a full review of CodeCademy
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
In addition to the free coding classes Codecademy also provides resources to help instructors teach computer science to students of all ages and backgrounds, including free lesson plans for the new Primary and Secondary computer science curriculum and a teaching tool allowing you to create accounts for your pupils and track their individual performance.
Code.org® is a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Their mission is to have every student exposed to computer science. Courses are available in 30+ languages and focus primarily on school age kids, although some courses are suitable for all ages.
See a full review of Code.org
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
Code.org's course content is primarily geared towards children from ages 4 to 18 years, making it particularly suited to teaching school aged children. In addition, the site offers professional learning programs for teachers to help with teaching computer science across K-12 grades.
The CodePlayer offers a slightly different approach to learning to code by playing code like a video, helping people to learn front end technologies like HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, Jquery easily, quickly and interactively. The free video “walkthroughs” demonstrate in real-time how others have created a particular effect, element, page or app from scratch. For example, you can see how to code a 3D HTML form, or create a Matrix style rain animation simply by viewing the code or playing a video walkthrough of the code being written in real-time.
See a full review of The CodePlayer
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
In addition to seeing code being used to create in real-time, the video walkthroughs can be used as a basis for classroom projects to test previously learnt coding topics in a fun way.
Khan Academy is one of the leaders in free online education, with a primary focus on K-12 level education. It offers a personalized learning resource for all ages with practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. delivering. Khan Academy is a non-profit US-based company that relies on a community of thousands of volunteers and donors.
See a full review of Khan Academy
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
Khan Academy offers Computer Science courses covering topics in Computer programming, Computer science, Hour of Code and Computer animation. The courses can be used to brush up on your own knowledge, or be used as an integral part of your teaching program.
Continued Professional Development
CPD Study Group for Computer Science Teachers
The above list of online platforms offer a fantastic selection of free online courses to enhance your knowledge or to enrich your own teaching programs. But it takes precious time to search through their course lists to find the ones that are relevant to you.
To save time searching for the right courses across all these different platforms, MoocLab's CPD Study Group for Computer Science Teachers provides a handpicked list of free online courses and resources selected specifically for the Computer Science teacher. By joining the Study Group, you also get to meet and interact with other teachers with similar goals and interests from across the world. Learning from each other's experiences is also a great way to develop as a teacher. Join now
Whether you are a Computer Science teacher looking to develop your own knowledge in computer science, or looking for online materials to enhance your teaching program, the following free online course platforms provide high quality open courses in computer science, or teaching computer science.
MOOC Platforms
What's this?
See a full review of EdX
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
EdX offers over 300 computer science courses covering important topics in artificial intelligence, cyber security, software engineering, big data and programming skills.
The courses ranging from beginners to advanced levels are all provided by top Universities and organisations and are a great resource for teachers to enhance their own subject knowledge or to build on teaching programs.
In addition, EdX offers over 65 online education courses covering a broad range of topics from educational policy and history to curriculum design and teaching techniques.
See a full review of Coursera
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
With over 300 open online courses to choose from in Software Development, Mobile and Web Development, Algorithms, Computer Security and Networks and Design, Coursera provides an excellent resource for computer science teachers to deepen their knowledge in a particular area or to complement their own teaching programs.
See a full review of FutureLearn
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
FutureLearn currently offers a free online course that aims to help teachers teach the primary and secondary computer science curriculum.
With a mixture of subject knowledge and teaching and learning practice, the course is aimed at both subject specialists and primary teaching non-specialists. FutureLearn have also partnered with Raspberry Pi to offer two courses for educators around the world, focusing on teaching computing and computational thinking.
Online Course Platforms
What's this?
See a full review of CodeCademy
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
In addition to the free coding classes Codecademy also provides resources to help instructors teach computer science to students of all ages and backgrounds, including free lesson plans for the new Primary and Secondary computer science curriculum and a teaching tool allowing you to create accounts for your pupils and track their individual performance.
See a full review of Code.org
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
Code.org's course content is primarily geared towards children from ages 4 to 18 years, making it particularly suited to teaching school aged children. In addition, the site offers professional learning programs for teachers to help with teaching computer science across K-12 grades.
See a full review of The CodePlayer
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
In addition to seeing code being used to create in real-time, the video walkthroughs can be used as a basis for classroom projects to test previously learnt coding topics in a fun way.
See a full review of Khan Academy
What's in it for Computer Science Teachers?
Khan Academy offers Computer Science courses covering topics in Computer programming, Computer science, Hour of Code and Computer animation. The courses can be used to brush up on your own knowledge, or be used as an integral part of your teaching program.
Continued Professional Development
The above list of online platforms offer a fantastic selection of free online courses to enhance your knowledge or to enrich your own teaching programs. But it takes precious time to search through their course lists to find the ones that are relevant to you.
To save time searching for the right courses across all these different platforms, MoocLab's CPD Study Group for Computer Science Teachers provides a handpicked list of free online courses and resources selected specifically for the Computer Science teacher. By joining the Study Group, you also get to meet and interact with other teachers with similar goals and interests from across the world. Learning from each other's experiences is also a great way to develop as a teacher. Join now