8 Free MOOC Courses For Beginners in 2024

With so many free online courses available, there's no excuse not to learn something new. Here's a list of the best free online MOOC courses that are available right now.

8 Free MOOC Courses For Beginners in 2024

Free online certifications are certainly the best way to expand your skills and make you more marketable to prospective employers. Additionally, they enhance the quality of your resume. Take advantage of these free online courses to learn from industry leaders without spending a dime. The major MOOC platforms (Udemy, Coursera, and edX) have changed the model for certifying so that the courses are free, but the certificates cost money. However, there are plenty of free online courses with certificates from reputable providers. Nonetheless, not every course covers the subject matter in-depth or has industry-relevant content.

Globally, MOOCs serve for various reasons, including career development, career changes, college preparations, supplemental learning, lifelong learning, and corporate eLearning & training. Therefore, we have compiled a list of the top free MOOC courses for students across the globe!

List of Free MOOC Courses

  1. DevOps: Foundations and tools

  2. Data Science

  3. Introduction to Cloud Computing

  4. Digital Marketing

  5. How Git Works

  6. Programming with Google Go

  7. Introduction to Java Programming: Starting to code in Java

  8. Swift Fundamentals

1. DevOps: Foundations and Tools

Learn essential Linux & Unix to efficiently manage applications from the command line.

Find out how to manage source code with Git and Github. In addition, examine the pillars of DevOps like Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment, Infrastructure as Code, and containerization as a means of CI/CD pipeline assurance.

In this course, you will:

  • code version management with industry standards.
  • become familiar with the needs and context for implementing DevOps concepts.
  • learn to deliver applications efficiently and flexibly using container technology.

Learn the basics of DevOps culture in this MOOC. In this course, you'll run scripts and check logs in Linux. Additionally, we will discuss the pillars of DevOps like Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment, the paradigm shift in systems management with Infrastructure as Code, and the creation of containers to assure the CI/CD pipeline.

Software developers will particularly benefit from this MOOC as it will help them manage software development effectively on a team or an individual basis.

Upon completing this course, you will learn to manage software from a Linux system; we will focus on the Ubuntu distribution, but the concepts can also be generalized to other distributions. Similarly, you will learn how to use various commands that will help you manage a DevOps project. Furthermore, you will be able to manage multiple software versions either on your own or as part of a team.

Duration: 4 weeks (6-8 hours per week)
Certificate: Certificate on completion

View course

2. Data Science

Take the first step in your data science career. A ten-course introduction to data science developed and taught by leading academics.

From asking the right questions to making inferences, and then publishing the results, this specialization covers all the concepts and tools necessary for the entire data science process. By building a real-world data product, you'll apply the skills learned during the course. After completing the course, students will have a portfolio demonstrating their mastery of the material.

In this course, you will:

  • use GitHub to organize data science projects.
  • navigate the entire data science pipeline from data acquisition to publication.
  • use R to clean, analyze, and visualize data.
  • perform regression analysis, least squares, and inference using regression models.

By completing every course and completing the hands-on project, you'll earn a Certificate you can show prospective employers.

Course rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 ( 37,649 Ratings total)
Certificate: Certificate on completion

View course

3. Introduction to Cloud Computing

Master the core concepts in Cloud Computing, from service and deployment models to cloud architecture, security, new technologies, and possible careers.

Learn the fundamentals of cloud computing in this course. From both a business and a practitioner perspective, you will gain the foundational knowledge needed to understand cloud computing.

In this course, you will learn:

  • the most popular cloud service providers include IBM Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Alibaba Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, etc.
  • cloud computing's unique characteristics and benefits, such as pay-per-use.
  • concepts in cloud security, encryption, and monitoring.
  • the most common cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and deployment models (Public, Private, Hybrid).
  • career options, cloud-related professions, and their required skills.
  • a survey of emerging cloud technologies - covering Hybrid MultiCloud, Containers, Microservices, Serverless, Cloud Native, DevOps, and Application Modernization.
  • the components of cloud infrastructure (regions, availability zones, data centers, virtualization, VMs, bare metal, networking, and types of cloud storage (direct-attached (ephemeral), persistent - file storage, block storage, object storage, and so forth.)

This course will introduce you to the definition and characteristics of cloud computing, its history, current trends, and its business implications. In addition, you will learn about the different types of cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and deployment models (Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud), as well as the key components of cloud architecture (Virtualization, VMs, Storage, Networking, Containers).

In addition, you will learn the latest trends associated with the cloud, such as Hybrid Multicloud, Microservices, Serverless, Cloud Native, DevOps, and Application Modernization. Further, we will look at basic Cloud Security concepts and introduce you to some case studies and career opportunities related to cloud computing.

View course

4. Digital Marketing

Master strategic marketing concepts and tools to address brand communication in a digital world.

During this specialization, students will study digital marketing analytics, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and 3D printing, among other topics related to the new digital marketing environment.

In this course, you will :

  • get insight into the reasons behind how marketing professionals collect and analyze data.
  • discover frameworks and approaches to measuring consumer digital behavior.
  • learn to evaluate and choose the right web analytics tools and techniques.
  • become familiar with the unique measurement opportunities and challenges presented by New Media.

Through the Digital Marketing Specialization, you will gain a deeper understanding of the foundations of the new digital marketing landscape, as well as a new set of stories, concepts, and tools to help you create, distribute, promote, and price products and services online.

Course rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 ( 15,462 Ratings total)
Duration: 160 h
Certificate: Certificate on completion

View course

5. How Git Works

Learn about Git in this course designed for developers and system administrators. You'll gain the knowledge you need to become a Git master even if you've just started using Git or have been working with it every day for months.

The topics in this course include:

  • Git Is Not What You Think
  • Branches Demystified
  • Rebasing Made Simple
  • Distributed Version Control

In this course, we will peel back the layers of Git to uncover its conceptual core. You'll notice that things you've been doing every day with Git will become simpler and easier once we examine each layer.

Course rating: 8,721 Ratings total
Duration: 1h 56m

View course

6. Programming with Google Go

Advance Your Computer Programming Career. Develop efficient applications with Google's innovative programming language, Go!

There are three courses in this specialization:

  • Getting Started with Go
  • Functions, Methods, and Interfaces in Go
  • Concurrency in Go

In this course, learners will gain an overview of the Go programming language from Google and an introduction to its unique features. Upon completing the three-course sequence, students will have gained the knowledge and skills necessary to develop concise, efficient, and clean Go applications.

Course rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 ( 1,877 Ratings total)
Duration: 36 h
Certificate: Certificate on completion

View course

7. Introduction to Java Programming: Starting to code in Java

Learn to program with Java in an easy and interactive way!

The purpose of this Java introductory course is to introduce you to powerful concepts such as functional abstraction, object-oriented programming (OOP), and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). To implement simple programs by yourself or collaborate with peers, examples and case studies will be provided in this course.

In this course, you will learn:

  • basic knowledge of algorithms and Java programming
  • develop programs with conditionals and loops
  • design and implement recursive algorithms
  • understand basic mechanisms of the OOP paradigm
  • use and interpret the API of some of the most common Java classes
  • develop simple programs in Java

Certificate: Certificate on completion

View course

8. Swift Fundamentals

Swift is a fast, safe, and modern programming language quickly becoming the first choice for developing iOS and macOS applications. Among the topics covered in this course are core syntax, best practices, working with data, and more.

Topics in this course include:

  • A Few More Reasons to Learn Swift
  • Piece by Piece: What Your Data Means
  • Shaping the Path: Controlling the Flow of Your Code
  • Constructing Code: Who Does What? - Creating Functions
  • Taking Data Types Further: When to Limit, Describe, and Collect
  • Making Sense of Closures
  • Using Classes and Objects in Swift
  • Introducing Protocols

In Swift Fundamentals, you will become proficient and comfortable with this concise and powerful language. With this course, you'll study how this language works with data, expand your control flow knowledge to closures and extensions, and finally, learn how to adopt the mindset of protocol-oriented programming to take advantage of the huge amount of functionality already available in Swift.

Upon completing this course, you will have a solid foundation in Swift that will help you when you move on to developing apps for iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Certificate: Certificate on completion

View course


Hey! We hope you have found this Online MOOC Classes list helpful and intriguing. Since you've made it this far then certainly you are willing to learn more and here at Coursesity, it is our duty to enlighten people with knowledge on topics they are willing to learn.

Here are some more topics that we think will be interesting for you!