Santiago Mallea
Chief of Content at Gradehacker
Updated on July, 2023
Find our list of Udemy Free Courses in our video too:
If you are looking for online video courses to learn new skills, you’ll have many Udemy free courses as your best options.
But since Udemy is one of the biggest educational platforms, they have a long list of courses, making it hard to choose some of its most helpful courses for adults and college students.
And because its lessons can be too short or basic, you also need to know beforehand if what they offer is good enough for you.
Here at Gradehacker, the non-traditional adult student #1 resource, after many years of helping students grow academically, we know that college is not the only way you can learn valuable skills for your life and that nowadays, you can find information without paying a dime.
That’s why today we are sharing our curated list of the best free online courses you can find on Udemy.
How do Udemy Free Courses Work?
Because of its enormous collection of courses, which is over 185,000, we included Udemy as one of the best online learning platforms.
Even though Udemy grants certificate courses when you finish one of its paid courses, its free options don’t share all of these features.
Free courses don’t have a certificate of completion. Also, you can’t access the Q&A section or their direct messaging option with the instructor, and you only get to see all the relevant course content.
Plus, most of these Udemy courses don’t last longer than 2 hours. They work as introductory lessons that only give you basic knowledge of the topic and that you can continue learning about by paying for the premium course.
So if besides this platform, you want to see what other options you have, be sure to watch our video, where you’ll find the best available alternatives!
Tips To Choose The Best Free Courses
As you might know, there is a bast of options when it comes to studying for free, but the problem with this is their quality. It’s not as easy to find high-quality courses for free that cover all the knowledge you may be looking for, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
The tips you can have with you during this process are:
- Choose online courses with positive student feedback
- Check your instructor profile and search for them on Google
- Pick one from their ‘Recommended’ section
Udemy’s courses are a great choice if you want to learn a specific practical skill in a short time. They have a wide variety of courses about all types of subjects, and anyone can learn from them because of their simplified learning experience.
However, if you are looking for more robust classes that last longer and can help you gain more professional skills, we recommend you check out Coursera.
Alongside Udemy, they are one of the most popular learning platforms, and while their free courses don’t give you a certificate of completion either, you can get one later if you need it by paying for it.
Best Udemy Free Courses
Udemy has 32 pages that you can scroll to find the best free courses. It includes classes in different languages like Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, to mention a few.
Even though Udemy’s free courses can be too simple, this is the reason we recommend them.
If you are a busy student with an over-packed schedule and only have a few hours of free time per week, these short lessons will be the best way to learn something new without needing a huge time commitment.
From the hundreds of free courses they provide, these are the free Udemy courses we recommend:
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- Time to Completion: 1 hour
- Rating: 4.3/5
First, we have an excellent course for students who want to improve their writing skills.
The “Make Your Writing Stand Out” class is a brief course on writing that will tighten your prose by teaching you everything you need to know to communicate better.
Here, you’ll learn how to increase the effect of each sentence, build credibility, and persuade your reader.
Even though this course has only 1 hour of video on demand, its content is broken into four sections, each with two different strategies. These steps will guide you to improve your clarity, flow, structure, presentation, and overall writing results.
Once you’re done with each lecture, you’ll have a specific exercise to apply what you’ve learned.
However, you’ll have to test yourself since you can’t communicate with the class’ experienced instructors.
What You'll Learn Here
- How to write concise and activated sentences
- Optimization of word order
- Persuade your reader
- Develop healthy writing habits
- Time to Completion: 1 hour 52 minutes
- Rating: 4.5/5
If you are a college student who struggles when creating PowerPoint presentations for class and doesn’t have a clue on how you can make them better, then this course is for you.
Andrew Pach is a graphic designer with many courses in Udemy, and this one is intended for inexperienced designers who want to learn how to use Microsoft PowerPoint better. This course is a basic introduction to everything you need to know.
It’s a super beginner-friendly class where you’ll get familiarized with how this software works.
You’ll learn how to explore the interface, add slides, and edit shapes, texts, and pictures. Plus, you’ll see how to take your presentations to the next level by using transitions and animations.
Definitely, a great choice if you barely know how to use PowerPoint, but you should skip it if you already understand the basics.
What You'll Learn Here
- Basic PowerPoint usage
- PowerPoint animation
- Designing skills
- Time to Completion: 4 hours 53 minutes
- Rating: 4.5/5
Now, if you want to take your very first steps into the programming world, this course has what you are looking for.
It’s one of Udemy’s longest and most robust free options and is designed for complete beginners who want to learn how to create a website.
Because they know that the best way to learn these development skills is through practice, each section of the course will guide you on how to build a website step by step.
By the time you finish, you’ll gain a solid knowledge base of HTML and CSS, which will be more than enough to start your site from scratch and control how it looks and works.
What You'll Learn Here
- Basic HTML
- CSS stylesheets
- How to build a typical website
- Time to Completion: 37 minutes
- Rating: 4.4/5
If productivity is not your thing and you constantly struggle with setting tasks and meeting due dates, this brief course will show you the best tips for improving your time management.
It heavily focuses on productivity tips, as it explains how you can do 3 hours of work in 1 hour, points to the “traps” most people fall into, and shares helpful techniques to better manage your time, like the 80/20 rule.
What You'll Learn Here
- Increase productivity
- Avoid time management traps
- 80/20 rule
- Time to Completion: 30 minutes
- Rating: 4.6/5
If you’ve ever worked from home, you know that while it has its fair share of benefits, it also comes with some issues. Sometimes, working in the same space where you rest, eat, and sleep can be challenging.
But according to this course, there are many things you can do to stay productive while working from your place. This 30-minute class will be most helpful if you are new to working remotely or feel that you are not as effective as when you work in an office.
It’s a quick and easy guide to the best practices every remote worker should know
What You'll Learn Here
- Digital communication
- Productivity tools to work from home
- How to structure your day
- How to create a workspace
- Time to Completion: 57 minutes
- Rating: 4.5/5
If you are shy or don’t feel comfortable speaking to an audience, this course is for you.
Public speaking can be hard, and mastering your communication skills can be useful for your college and professional life. In this short class, you’ll learn how to tame your fear and take control of the room.
You’ll learn how to use your tone, the words you should use and avoid, and some of the most essential tips. Plus, there is a quick lesson about how to implement body language to take your communication skills to the pro level.
What You'll Learn Here
- How to speak to a crowd
- Communicate more effectively
- Speaking techniques
- Time completion: 31min
- Rating: 4.5
We all have different levels of productivity, and knowing how to balance it to keep achieving your goals is key.
SMART stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
This is ideal for anyone looking to achieve more using a very practical strategy. You can learn how to set your goals concisely-structured, never lose motivation and stay on track.
During the course, you’ll have detailed guidance with examples on how you can relate this technique to your current goals and be shown personal examples from the instructor and the most common mistakes people make during this process.
At the very end, you count on a bonus lecture about time management and an optional quiz about the science behind productivity.
The best thing about this is that you can mix what you’d learn in this course with different methods, such as The Pomodoro Technique for better time management or The Feynman Technique for quick and effective memorization.
And, of course, when it comes to productivity, there are many tips you can add to your routine, whether you’re following a method or not. You can find out all about it in less than 5 min with our video:
What You'll Learn Here
- Difference between having a vision, goal, and resolution.
- The downside of setting specific goals and when to do them
- Why use an Actionable approach instead of Achievable
- The importance of Action/Feedback loops
- How to manage multiple goals at the same time
- Time completion: 56min
- Rating: 4.2/5
No matter your financial situation, there’s never a bad time to learn how to manage your finances better! Especially as a student where college courses can be a huge investment.
This course will help anyone to pull up their management skills around money in the best way, with their 21 videos that last between 2 to 5 minutes long.
You’ll learn how to plan for any life events, from birthdays, vacations to monthly spending. They will also show you how you can keep your budget up to date realistically and plan future major purchases.
What You'll Learn Here
- Setting bill reminders
- Planning finances for the next 3 months
- How to plan your money on your phone
- Budgeting categories and how to do it
- Financial reconciliation
- Finding lost transactions and responding to alerts
- Making budgeting a habit
Learn a New Skill With Udemy Free Courses
And those are just a few of the varied free courses Udemy offers!
Even if these options aren’t certification courses, remember that the knowledge you gain can be more important than a piece of paper.
And if you need that certificate to grow in your professional career, you can always invest in it and pay for any of their premium courses, which do include diplomas.
We hope this list was helpful. If you want more tips on how to improve your life and learn new skills, check out our related blog posts:
Santiago Mallea
Santiago Mallea is a curious and creative journalist who first helped many college students as a Gradehacker consultant in subjects like literature, communications, ethics, and business. Now, as a Content Creator in our blog, YouTube channel, and TikTok, he assists non-traditional students improve their college experience by sharing the best tips. You can find him on LinkedIn.
