Top Free Online Course Platforms for Geography Teachers
Whether you are a Geography teacher looking to develop your own subject knowledge, or looking for online materials to enhance your teaching program, the following free online course platforms provide high quality open courses in Environmental Science 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 Geography Teachers?
EdX offers over 50 courses in Energy & Earth sciences as well as Environmental Studies covering areas such as climate change, energy sustainability, environmental science, natural resource management, environmental policy and civic ecology.
The courses are geared towards High School and Undergraduate levels of study and can be used for teachers' own subject knowledge enhancement or can be integrated into a teaching program.
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 Geography Teachers?
With over 50 open online courses to choose from in Environmental Science and Sustainability, Coursera provides another excellent resource for geography teachers to deepen their knowledge in topics such as conservation, environmental policy, agriculture, sustainability, pollution, and climate change. As with all MOOCs, the courses can also be used to enrich and build upon topic-based teaching programs.
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 Geography Teachers?
FutureLearn currently offers over 30 free online courses covering various subjects in their "Nature & Environment" category, such as Sustainable Development, Climate & Weather Science and Environment & Ecosystems.
The courses are geared towards High School and Undergraduate levels of study and can be used for teachers' own subject knowledge enhancement or can be integrated into a teaching program.
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 Geography Teachers?
OpenLearn offers over 50 free open online courses and course extracts in Environmental Science and Geology covering topics in Climate Change, Sustainability, Energy, Volcanoes, Rock Analysis and much more.
Ireland-based Alison is one of the world's largest free online learning websites and offers courses geared at enabling people to gain basic education and workplace skills with a strong learner base located in the developing world. Over 750 free courses are offered at Diploma or Certificate level with subjects ranging from touch typing, to English grammar to Diplomas in Business and Finance. The course format includes PowerPoint type slides & some videos, quizzes & tests. Some courses have assessments throughout; most have just one at the end.
See a full review of Alison
What's in it for GeographyTeachers?
With a category dedicated to Schools Curriculum, Alison offers a number free online certificate and diploma level courses covering environmental topics, including Environmental Science, Sustainable Development, Renewable Energy, Ecology and more.
Continued Professional Development
CPD Study Group for Geography 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 Geography Teachers provides a handpicked list of free online courses and resources selected specifically for the Geography 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 Geography teacher looking to develop your own subject knowledge, or looking for online materials to enhance your teaching program, the following free online course platforms provide high quality open courses in Environmental Science subjects.
MOOC Platforms
What's this?
See a full review of EdX
What's in it for Geography Teachers?
EdX offers over 50 courses in Energy & Earth sciences as well as Environmental Studies covering areas such as climate change, energy sustainability, environmental science, natural resource management, environmental policy and civic ecology.
The courses are geared towards High School and Undergraduate levels of study and can be used for teachers' own subject knowledge enhancement or can be integrated into a teaching program.
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 Geography Teachers?
With over 50 open online courses to choose from in Environmental Science and Sustainability, Coursera provides another excellent resource for geography teachers to deepen their knowledge in topics such as conservation, environmental policy, agriculture, sustainability, pollution, and climate change. As with all MOOCs, the courses can also be used to enrich and build upon topic-based teaching programs.
See a full review of FutureLearn
What's in it for Geography Teachers?
FutureLearn currently offers over 30 free online courses covering various subjects in their "Nature & Environment" category, such as Sustainable Development, Climate & Weather Science and Environment & Ecosystems.
The courses are geared towards High School and Undergraduate levels of study and can be used for teachers' own subject knowledge enhancement or can be integrated into a teaching program.
Online Course Platforms
What's this?
See a full review of OpenLearn
What's in it for Geography Teachers?
OpenLearn offers over 50 free open online courses and course extracts in Environmental Science and Geology covering topics in Climate Change, Sustainability, Energy, Volcanoes, Rock Analysis and much more.
See a full review of Alison
What's in it for GeographyTeachers?
With a category dedicated to Schools Curriculum, Alison offers a number free online certificate and diploma level courses covering environmental topics, including Environmental Science, Sustainable Development, Renewable Energy, Ecology and more.
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 Geography Teachers provides a handpicked list of free online courses and resources selected specifically for the Geography 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