There are plenty of e-learning courses available for free in Nigeria. You can access them from your home computer, or even from a mobile device. There are there for learners of all disciplines, from languages to skills to academic lessons, there is not one subject you will not find its free online course.
Anyone can access them as long as they are connected to the internet. There are free online courses made for professionals as well as ones made for beginners, and there is e-learning for kids. In essence, anyone is welcome to join, and if you are having second thoughts, you shouldn’t.
As long as you sign up for the best free online course, you will learn and gain a lot from it. Most of these courses are offered by experts in their field, by people with a broad knowledge of the subject.
Free things are often underrated for obvious reasons, from the assurance of quality to reliability, but what you will find online may come as a bit of a surprise to you, some free online courses have high-quality content, usually because the owner wants something in return like your email or free traffic, etc.
So the free online course is sometimes a means to an end, but nevertheless, you get your quality lesson for free and they get what they want in return. It’s a win-win.
Why Should I Join Free Online Courses?
It is possible you want to sign up for a free online course in your free time, for a private study or tutoring, here are the reasons why you should.
1. To Further Your Education
You can be a medical student, an engineering undergraduate, or an art student, and want to further your studies beyond what is taught to you in the classroom, and you may not want to incur extra charges upon your school fees.
In this case, you can join a free e-learning program, it can help you further your studies in any particular subject or discipline. There are online courses for those studying medicine, engineering, nursing, computing, history, etc. And in the process, you can use your school’s free WiFi for the online course.
The good thing about an elearning program is that you can study during the holidays and after school hours. It is not restricted by time.
2. Learn New Skill
You can learn a new skill with free online courses. There are thousands of marketable skills out there that you can choose to acquaint yourself with. You can learn and master them in a very short period of time with the help of online courses.
And best of all, you can get most of them for free. For example, you can find freelance writing courses for beginners without spending a dime, there are lots of them in fact, you can select from a great variety of choices, and also learn to become a freelance writer in no time.
But it’s not only freelance writing, you can acquire the skills to become a graphic designer, copywriter, web developer, etc., by signing up for a free online course, and so much more.
With the skill you learn, you can monetize it and start earning money. Sometimes however, learning a new skill is not necessarily to start earning money, but to let you advance in your career by diversifying your knowledge base.
3. Free Subscription
Of course, this is the biggest advantage of free online courses. They are free. Everything you are going to be learning shall require no fee or payment from you.
Your Nairas are safe where they are, you can use that instead to find other resources, buy goods, and pay for services.
4. Take As Many Times As You Want
One of the greatest takeaways with a free online course is that you can take the lesson as many times as you want. You can come back to it years later to revise or retake the course entirely.
Although most paid online courses allow you access for a lifetime once you pay, free online courses are not paid for in the first place.
This is a big advantage, knowledge you can reach at any time, anywhere you are, and how often you want, is essential if you want what you learned to stick.
5. Learn A New Language Free
Language is the gateway to a new culture, tradition and sometimes a completely different way of life. It is also essential if you find yourself traveling to a foreign land that doesn’t speak either Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, or one of the many languages we speak here in Nigeria.
There are free online courses that can help you learn a new language and even become a virtuoso in it. There are online language courses for beginners, for intermediate speakers, and for advanced speakers.
You can learn to speak French, Portuguese, Arabic, English (itself), Farisi, Indian, Mandarin, and so on. Mandarin is the Chinese language, it is one of the most popularly learned languages in the world.
You get to learn all of them for free on e-learning websites or using language apps. There are some really excellent android apps for learning a new language, they are well structured and provide high-quality learning content. One of such apps is Duolingo, very popular in Nigeria and across the world.
6. There Are Many Subjects Available
It is almost impossible to find an academic subject, a skill, a language, or a hobby, that someone has not covered extensively online. You will come across a free online course on fishing, knitting, gardening, Turkish history, ironworks, “Youtubing”, and so on and so forth.
Think of anything in this world, whether academic, taught in schools, or non-academic, taught in the market/industry, you will most likely find a detailed online course about it for free.
There are ‘How to’ online courses, such as how to start a business, there are courses that specialize in giving you tips, such as tips on gardening, and there are free online courses in Nigeria that tutor the learners on a particular subject, such as a maths tutorial, or biology tutorial.
Conclusion
Free online courses in Nigeria are common, and very useful. It has both its merits and demerits, but the merits far outweigh the demerits. So it is worth a shot if you have the time to pursue a free e-learning course.