Top Free Online Course Platforms for English Language Teachers
Whether you are an English Language teacher looking to develop your own subject knowledge, or looking for online materials to enhance your teaching program, the following free online course platforms provide high quality open courses in teaching and learning English Language.
MOOC Platforms
What's this?
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 English Language Teachers?
FutureLearn currently offers a number of free online courses covering aspects of the English Language and the teaching of English Language, including a professional development 3 course program focusing on the practices of English Language teaching as well as courses for EFL and ESL teachers.
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 English Language Teachers?
Coursera offers over 80 open online courses covering both the learning and teaching of English with a strong focus on TESOL and courses geared towards the non-native learner wishing to improve their English knowledge and skills for both academic and business purposes.
For English Language teachers, in addition to enhancing subject knowledge, many of the courses can serve as a classroom resource to integrate into their own teaching programs or simply to get some teaching tips by observing the delivery of the courses.
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 English Language Teachers?
EdX offers a number of free open courses covering English Composition, English grammar and English for Journalism geared towards High School and Undergraduate levels of study and can be used for teachers' own subject knowledge enhancement or can be integrated into a teaching program.
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.
Online Course Platforms
What's this?
Saylor Academy provides free, open, university-like classes in partnership with colleges, universities, and businesses. The Academy provides over 300 standard and college credit-aligned courses at the K-12, university, and career levels. All courses are self-paced and are designed to mimic actual college courses, offering free-to-share and free-to-reuse materials whenever possible. The courses are made up of curated collections of materials openly available on the web – webpages, videos, downloadable documents, assignments & quizzes, culminating in a final exam.
See a full review of Saylor Academy
What's in it for English Language Teachers?
Saylor Academy offers 4 free open online undergraduate level courses covering Pre-college English, English Composition and Technical Writing. The courses are suitable for English Language teachers to enhance or refresh their own knowledge or can be used as a classroom resource to prepare students for undergraduate study.
OpenLearn is the Open University's access point for its open and free online resources, with the aim of providing free online education, open to anyone, anywhere in the world. The courses are geared towards an undergraduate level of study, and operate on four levels - introductory, intermediate, advanced and masters – and include interactive tools, video, games, podcasts, articles and quizzes. Many of the free courses are based on Open University course materials, and others are written specifically for OpenLearn.
See a full review of OpenLearn
What's in it for English Language Teachers?
OpenLearn offers a number of free open online courses and course extracts covering reading, writing and communication skills including English grammar, paraphrasing, critical reading, business English and more.
Ireland-based Alison is one of the world's largest free online learning websites and offers courses geared at enabling people to gain basic education and workplace skills with a strong learner base located in the developing world. Over 750 free courses are offered at Diploma or Certificate level with subjects ranging from touch typing, to English grammar to Diplomas in Business and Finance. The course format includes PowerPoint type slides & some videos, quizzes & tests. Some courses have assessments throughout; most have just one at the end.
See a full review of Alison
What's in it for English Language Teachers?
Alison's free open online courses can serve primarily as a supplementary classroom resource for English Language teachers with their collection of courses covering all aspects of English grammar. The courses can also be used to observe ways and methods of teaching English grammar.
Continued Professional Development
CPD Study Group for English Language 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 English Language Teachers provides a handpicked list of free online courses and resources selected specifically for the English Language 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
See also the English Language Teaching Study Group featuring a course pathway in the practice of English Language Teaching
Whether you are an English Language teacher looking to develop your own subject knowledge, or looking for online materials to enhance your teaching program, the following free online course platforms provide high quality open courses in teaching and learning English Language.
MOOC Platforms
What's this?
See a full review of FutureLearn
What's in it for English Language Teachers?
FutureLearn currently offers a number of free online courses covering aspects of the English Language and the teaching of English Language, including a professional development 3 course program focusing on the practices of English Language teaching as well as courses for EFL and ESL teachers.
See a full review of Coursera
What's in it for English Language Teachers?
Coursera offers over 80 open online courses covering both the learning and teaching of English with a strong focus on TESOL and courses geared towards the non-native learner wishing to improve their English knowledge and skills for both academic and business purposes.
For English Language teachers, in addition to enhancing subject knowledge, many of the courses can serve as a classroom resource to integrate into their own teaching programs or simply to get some teaching tips by observing the delivery of the courses.
See a full review of EdX
What's in it for English Language Teachers?
EdX offers a number of free open courses covering English Composition, English grammar and English for Journalism geared towards High School and Undergraduate levels of study and can be used for teachers' own subject knowledge enhancement or can be integrated into a teaching program.
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.
Online Course Platforms
What's this?
See a full review of Saylor Academy
What's in it for English Language Teachers?
Saylor Academy offers 4 free open online undergraduate level courses covering Pre-college English, English Composition and Technical Writing. The courses are suitable for English Language teachers to enhance or refresh their own knowledge or can be used as a classroom resource to prepare students for undergraduate study.
See a full review of OpenLearn
What's in it for English Language Teachers?
OpenLearn offers a number of free open online courses and course extracts covering reading, writing and communication skills including English grammar, paraphrasing, critical reading, business English and more.
See a full review of Alison
What's in it for English Language Teachers?
Alison's free open online courses can serve primarily as a supplementary classroom resource for English Language teachers with their collection of courses covering all aspects of English grammar. The courses can also be used to observe ways and methods of teaching English grammar.
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 English Language Teachers provides a handpicked list of free online courses and resources selected specifically for the English Language 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
See also the English Language Teaching Study Group featuring a course pathway in the practice of English Language Teaching