Online education courses are a good way to learn new skills, expand your understanding of classroom technologies, and work toward increased responsibilities. In some cases, our chosen courses may also be appropriate for parents, administrators, and others for whom education is important. Whether you’re looking to advance your career or taking a class for personal enrichment, the five best online education courses have something to offer you.
- Coursera — Learning to Teach Online — Top Pick
- Coursera — The Teacher and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Specialization — Best Multi-Track Course
- Coursera — Assessment in Higher Education: Professional Development for Teachers — Best Advanced Course
- Udemy — Quality Curriculum & Pedagogy for Educators of 21st Century — Best Short Class
- Udemy — The Art of Storytelling (Early Childhood Educators) — Best for Parents
Our Ranking Criteria
We started by reviewing the 25 most popular courses operating today on various platforms, including Coursera, Alison, and Udemy. Our goal was to find the courses offering the most value for the money for their intended audience.
Basic ranking criteria
We looked at basic elements such as how long each course took to complete and whether the classes were available on a flexible schedule. These four factors helped us judge the first round of courses.
Time to complete. All our chosen classes can be completed in six months or less. Your time is valuable, and although you want to learn everything the course has to teach, you don’t want to waste your time on fluff.
Prerequisites required. A few of our courses are targeted to a specific group, such as higher education instructors. Most are accessible to anyone interested in education, including parents and students studying to become teachers.
Flexible schedule. We prefer courses that allow you to start whenever it’s convenient or have regular starting dates. We reasoned that potential students lead busy lives and have personal and professional commitments that make a flexible schedule necessary.
Certificate of completion. Those taking a class for personal enjoyment may not be interested in a certificate, but for those looking to advance their career, the ability to add a certificate or diploma to their resume or LinkedIn profile can be a plus.
Advanced ranking criteria
Next, we developed a series of advanced criteria and placed these against each class to see how they fared.
- The course covers the full spectrum of information related to its topic.
- Instructors are working educators with the appropriate credentials.
- Instructors are engaging, interesting, and able to keep students’ attention.
- The course doesn’t require any specialized software or hardware.
- The course uses the most up-to-date research and thinking on its topic.
- Whenever possible, the course provides exercises, quizzes, or other materials to allow students to assess their progress.
- If appropriate, there is the opportunity for group discussion, a chat room, or other peer-to-peer communications.
5 Best Online Education Courses
Coursera
Learning to Teach Online
Intelligent Award: Top Pick
Offered by the University of New South Wales in Australia, this course helps educators develop a working knowledge of how to structure their courses for online delivery, using practical and easily adapted strategies for each teacher’s situation. The course is taught by Dr. Simon McIntyre, an associate professor and associate dean at the university, and Dr. Negin Mirriahi, a lecturer in the school of education. With the rise of online education, many teachers find themselves hampered by a lack of understanding of the technology involved and how to use it to benefit students. This course promises to help you find an approach that best supports your students.
- Price: Free ($49 with certificate)
- Time to complete: 17 hours
- Prerequisites required: None; best for practicing teachers
- Flexible schedule: Yes
- Includes verified certificate of participation: Yes
Who should take this course? The rapidly rising popularity of online instruction means that every teacher can benefit from learning more about this topic.
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Based on an award-winning educational resource developed by the instructor | Certificate only available at a cost |
| Flexible deadlines |
Coursera
The Teacher and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Specialization
Intelligent Award: Best Multi-Course Track
Social and emotional learning, or SEL, is relatively new but is becoming a popular way to understand education and human development. It looks at how people acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes and use them to develop healthy identities, achieve goals, and manage their emotions. SEL programs focus on five student competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. This five-course specialization examines SEL programs at a higher education level, and the four instructors are from the University of Colorado at Boulder. They examine K to 12 SEL programs and conclude the series with a capstone project allowing students to practice what they’ve learned.
- Price: $49/month
- Time to complete: 2 months (10 hours of work a week)
- Prerequisites required: None
- Flexible schedule: Yes
- Includes verified certificate of participation: Yes
Who should take this course? This series would benefit educators who are interested in incorporating SEL qualities into their classroom lessons.
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Instructors at the top of their field | Topic is limited |
| Practice quizzes and graded assignments | |
| Two capstone project options |
Learn more
Coursera
Assessment in Higher Education: Professional Development for Teachers
Intelligent Award: Best Advanced Course
If you teach in higher education, you already know assessments play a big role in your work. This course will teach you to design an assessment that is aligned with course objectives, analyze assessment results, and formulate future improvements to your assessments. It was developed by a group of professors and advisors at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Lectures are spread out over a suggested five-week period and include video lectures, readings, and quizzes. Each week tackles one topic like the role of assessment, the assessment plan, feedback and grading design, assessment construction, and assessment analysis and evaluation.
- Price: free ($59 with certificate)
- Time to complete: 18 hours
- Prerequisites required: higher education teacher
- Flexible schedule: yes
- Includes verified certificate of participation: yes
Who should take this course? This online learning course is targeted at those currently teaching in a college or university who would like to sharpen their skills at assessment.
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Financial aid available | Certificate available for a fee |
| Flexible deadlines | Exams can be challenging |
| Chance to create your assessment plan |
Udemy
Quality Curriculum & Pedagogy for Educators of 21st Century
Intelligent Award: Best Short Class
This course serves as a cheerleading squad for teachers who need to be reminded of why they went into education in the first place. It emphasizes the need to have a winning attitude and helps you discern why you went into teaching, and what you can get out of it. The instructors, Nikki and Wesley Ace, are both experienced teachers who co-founded the “Be a Winner” movement, which helps educators develop a positive mindset, as well as to learn strategies for responding to the myriad situations that may crop up in the classroom.
- Price: $94.99
- Time to complete: 2 hours
- Prerequisites required: none
- Flexible schedule: yes
- Includes verified certificate of participation: yes
Who should take this course? This class would be useful for new teachers who are struggling to find their place in the academic world or educators who have gotten discouraged by the day-to-day challenges of teaching.
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Lifetime access to course | High cost for a two-hour class |
| Enthusiastic and informed instructors |
Udemy
The Art of Storytelling (Early Childhood Educators)
Intelligent Award: Best for Parents
Everyone loves a good story, but children, in particular, resonate with and learn from stories told to them. This short course discusses the importance of storytelling in enhancing listening, literacy, and creative skills, shares techniques for telling engaging stories, reviews how to make props for stories, and more. Your instructor is Veenu Gupta, an educator who has taught at the early childhood level in both India and the U.S. In addition to appealing to educators or student-teachers, parents and caregivers may find this an appealing class to enhance their storytelling abilities, which can help strengthen their relationship with their children.
- Price: $44.99
- Time to complete: 1.5 hours
- Prerequisites required: None
- Flexible schedule: Yes
- Includes verified certificate of participation: Yes
Who should take this course? This course is geared toward early childhood and primary educators, parents and caregivers of young children, and students of early childhood education.
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Lifetime access to the course | The course is too short to go into much detail |
| Includes article downloads |
Online Course Comparison Chart
| Course | Price | Features |
| Coursera — Learning to Teach Online — Best Online Platform | Free ($49 with certificate) | ✓ No prerequisites required
✓ Flexible schedule ✓ Includes verified certificate of participation |
| Coursera — The Teacher and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Specialization — Best Multi-Course Track | $49/month | ✓ No prerequisites required
✓ Flexible schedule ✓ Includes verified certificate of participation |
| Coursera — Assessment in Higher Education: Professional Development for Teachers — Best Advanced Course | Free ($49 with certificate) | X No prerequisites required
✓ Flexible schedule ✓ Includes verified certificate of participation |
| Udemy — Quality Curriculum & Pedagogy for Educators of 21st Century — Best Short Class | $29.99 | ✓ No prerequisites required
✓ Flexible schedule ✓ Includes verified certificate of participation |
| Udemy — The Art of Storytelling (Early Childhood Educators) — Best for Parents | $44.99 | ✓ No prerequisites required
✓ Flexible schedule ✓ Includes verified certificate of participation |
Tips for Succeeding in an Online Education Course
1. Consider the cost
How much do online education classes cost?
Costs vary for online education classes. Our five top picks range from free to $49 per month. Free courses generally don’t offer a certificate or any interaction with the instructors. You may also have limited access to downloads and other course materials.
Will my employer pay for me to take the course?
It’s definitely worth a discussion with your supervisor or HR director. If your course gives you additional skills you can use on the job, you can make a case that it benefits your employer for you to take it.
2. Get your tech squared away
None of our chosen courses require specialized equipment. You’ll need a computer with a fairly up-to-date system, such as Windows 7 or higher for PCs and Mac OS X 10 or higher for Apple computers. You should have a good internet connection with a download speed of at least 1 Mbps and an upload speed of 0.5 Mbps. If you are using Chrome, consider downloading the Video Speed Controller app, which allows you to speed up or slow down video lectures and rewind or fast forward.
3. Use the right study resources
There are thousands of excellent resources for teachers, and a Google search for “teacher resources” will give you a wealth of information. Here are a few we particularly like.
- www.edutopia.org: The website of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, Edutopia focuses on innovative educational solutions for K to 12 classrooms. It offers excellent articles on the most cutting-edge strategies and best practices for teachers and administrators.
- www.teacher.org: Created by teachers for teachers, this website is packed with information on how to become a teacher, careers in education, lesson plans, and scholarships for teachers.
- www.pinterest.com: Pinterest offers far more than recipes and interior design ideas. Resources for teachers abound on the site, from virtual field trips to sample slides that can be used for online teaching.
Frequently Asked Questions About Online Education Courses?
What jobs can you get after completing an online education course?
In the U.S., teachers must have a bachelor’s degree, and some states require a master’s degree. You can earn these degrees online, depending on the college you’re working with. You can also work as a teacher’s assistant after taking one or more of our recommended classes since this job doesn’t always require a college degree. The median pay for a teacher’s assistant is $35,550 a year.
Are there free online education courses?
Several of our chosen courses feature a free option. However, if you are taking a course for professional development purposes, you should be aware that free courses do not usually offer a certificate of completion. This is true, for example, with many courses on the Coursera platform.
How long is the average online education course?
Online education courses offer a wide range of time commitments. They may be a single, stand-alone lecture, or they may extend for several months.
Can I earn a teaching degree online?
Some colleges and universities offer both bachelor’s and master’s degree programs online and may have education programs at the primary or secondary level. In some cases, you will still need to do an in-person student teaching experience. You can learn more by talking to an admissions counselor at the college of your choice.
What are the best online courses for teachers?
That depends on what kind of teacher you are and what you hope to learn. For example, if you are a preschool teacher looking to expand your classroom skills, you might learn the most from a class like The Art of Storytelling on Udemy. If, on the other hand, you’re a college professor, you might benefit most from Assessment in Higher Education on Coursera.
Interested in a degree instead?
Learn more about online degrees, their start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.