Top Free Online Course Platforms for History Teachers
Whether you are a History teacher looking to develop your own knowledge of a certain topic, or looking for online materials to enhance your teaching program, the following free online course platforms provide high quality open courses in History subjects.
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 History Teachers?
EdX offers over 100 free online courses covering a variety of history subjects from ancient to modern primarily geared towards high school and undergraduate levels of study. Topics include ancient Greek history, European art history, religion in history, human evolution and much more.
Many of the courses can be used for teachers' subject knowledge enhancement or to complement and build on your own 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 History Teachers?
Coursera offers over 60 online courses covering topics in History which are geared towards high school and college level students, but can equally be used for subject knowledge enhancement for history teachers or as teaching resources to enhance or build on teaching programs.
Topics covered include Ancient and Modern History, Human evolution, Religion in history, and more.
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 History Teachers?
FutureLearn currently offers over 30 free online courses covering subjects in History at senior high school and undergraduate level, and which are aimed at both students and history teachers.
Topics covered include Ancient and Modern History, Human evolution, Religion in history, Art & Literature in history and more.
Online Course Platforms
What's this?
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 History Teachers?
OpenLearn's History section features over 40 free open online courses covering history topics categorised by subject area including Classical Studies, Heritage, History of Art, History of Science, Technology & Medicine, Social Economic History and World History.
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 History Teachers?
Khan Academy offers free online courses covering World and US History aimed towards high school or first-year college students.
World History topics cover The 20th century, Enlightenment and Revolution, Renaissance and Reformation, Ancient and Medieval history and a Crash Course on World History.
US History topics cover Worlds collide (1491-1607), Colonial America (1607-1754), The road to revolution (1754-1800), The early republic (1800-1848), The Civil War era (1844-1877), The Gilded Age (1865-1898), Rise to world power (1890-1945), The postwar era (1945-1980), The modern era (1980-present), American civics and Surveys of history.
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 History Teachers?
Saylor Academy offers 3 free open online undergraduate level courses covering World History in the Early Modern and Modern Eras (1600-Present), Modern Revolutions and Global Perspectives on Industrialization.
Open Courseware
What's this?
University of Oxford Podcasts provides open content under a Creative Commons licence free for reuse, remixing and redistribution in education worldwide, and features public lectures, teaching material and interviews with leading academics.
All the material is arranged within a series of related talks or lectures and may be in audio, video or document format.
What's in it for History Teachers?
The University of Oxford Podcasts site hosts over 60 audio or video resources and lecture series covering a wide array of historical topics from Medieval to modern history.
Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. All lectures were recorded in the Yale College classroom and are available in video, audio, and text transcript formats. The integrated web interface allows users to audit Yale undergraduate courses if they wish to. It also gives the user a variety of other options for structuring the learning process, for example downloading, redistributing, and remixing course materials.
See a full review of Open Yale Courses
What's in it for History Teachers?
The History section of Open Yale Courses offers 7 undergraduate level open courses which cover modern US and European history, The Early Middle Ages and History of Medicine & Science. Students are required to study history from a variety of geographical, chronological, and methodological perspectives, utilizing source materials wherever possible.
Continued Professional Development
CPD Study Group for History 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 History Teachers provides a handpicked list of free online courses and resources selected specifically for the History 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 History teacher looking to develop your own knowledge of a certain topic, or looking for online materials to enhance your teaching program, the following free online course platforms provide high quality open courses in History subjects.
MOOC Platforms
What's this?
See a full review of EdX
What's in it for History Teachers?
EdX offers over 100 free online courses covering a variety of history subjects from ancient to modern primarily geared towards high school and undergraduate levels of study. Topics include ancient Greek history, European art history, religion in history, human evolution and much more.
Many of the courses can be used for teachers' subject knowledge enhancement or to complement and build on your own 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 History Teachers?
Coursera offers over 60 online courses covering topics in History which are geared towards high school and college level students, but can equally be used for subject knowledge enhancement for history teachers or as teaching resources to enhance or build on teaching programs.
Topics covered include Ancient and Modern History, Human evolution, Religion in history, and more.
See a full review of FutureLearn
What's in it for History Teachers?
FutureLearn currently offers over 30 free online courses covering subjects in History at senior high school and undergraduate level, and which are aimed at both students and history teachers.
Topics covered include Ancient and Modern History, Human evolution, Religion in history, Art & Literature in history and more.
Online Course Platforms
What's this?
See a full review of OpenLearn
What's in it for History Teachers?
OpenLearn's History section features over 40 free open online courses covering history topics categorised by subject area including Classical Studies, Heritage, History of Art, History of Science, Technology & Medicine, Social Economic History and World History.
See a full review of Khan Academy
What's in it for History Teachers?
Khan Academy offers free online courses covering World and US History aimed towards high school or first-year college students.
World History topics cover The 20th century, Enlightenment and Revolution, Renaissance and Reformation, Ancient and Medieval history and a Crash Course on World History.
US History topics cover Worlds collide (1491-1607), Colonial America (1607-1754), The road to revolution (1754-1800), The early republic (1800-1848), The Civil War era (1844-1877), The Gilded Age (1865-1898), Rise to world power (1890-1945), The postwar era (1945-1980), The modern era (1980-present), American civics and Surveys of history.
See a full review of Saylor Academy
What's in it for History Teachers?
Saylor Academy offers 3 free open online undergraduate level courses covering World History in the Early Modern and Modern Eras (1600-Present), Modern Revolutions and Global Perspectives on Industrialization.
Open Courseware
What's this?
All the material is arranged within a series of related talks or lectures and may be in audio, video or document format.
What's in it for History Teachers?
The University of Oxford Podcasts site hosts over 60 audio or video resources and lecture series covering a wide array of historical topics from Medieval to modern history.
See a full review of Open Yale Courses
What's in it for History Teachers?
The History section of Open Yale Courses offers 7 undergraduate level open courses which cover modern US and European history, The Early Middle Ages and History of Medicine & Science. Students are required to study history from a variety of geographical, chronological, and methodological perspectives, utilizing source materials wherever possible.
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 History Teachers provides a handpicked list of free online courses and resources selected specifically for the History 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