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Summary

Canadian universities have these free courses you can take online even if you're not a student

Classes include Indigenous Canada, How to Code, Dino 101, and more!

building on university of toronto campus. right: trees and buildings covered in snow at university of alberta

University of Toronto building. Right: Snowy University of Alberta campus.

Senior Writer

Canadian universities are offering so many free online courses.

You can take the classes even if you're not enrolled as a student.

The University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Alberta have these courses through EdX and Coursera.

You can enroll for free, which is referred to as auditing, and learn from the provided course materials at your own pace.

If you want to get your assignments graded by a professor and a certificate at the end of the session, you have to pay a fee.

There are no prerequisites to enroll, so you can take these courses even if you've never been to university or college.

Also, you don't need to be currently enrolled as a student at these universities to take any of the courses.

So, if you want to learn something new, here are a few free university courses you can take online.

Indigenous Canada

This course from the University of Alberta explores histories and contemporary perspectives of Indigenous peoples living in Canada.

It will teach you about the complex experiences Indigenous peoples face, highlighting national and local Indigenous-settler relations.

Topics of the course include the fur trade and exchange relationships, land claims, environmental impacts, political conflicts and alliances, Indigenous political activism, and contemporary Indigenous life and art.

Enroll Here

The City and You: Find Your Best Place

In this University of Toronto course, you'll learn what cities do, why they matter, what shapes urbanization and how to choose the right city for you.

It explores the importance of cities and how cities affect our lives.

At the end of the course, you'll apply what you learned in an exercise to help you assess your own community and find the best place for you.

Enroll Here

Introduction To Swift Programming

This course from the University of Toronto is the first installment of a four-part specialization for developing an iOS app.

You'll learn to program in Swift and how to be proficient with syntax, object-oriented principles, memory management, functional concepts and more with Swift.

It's required that you have a Mac computer to take part in this course and, ideally, an iPhone or iPad.

Enroll Here

Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology

With this University of Alberta course, you get an overview of non-avian dinosaurs.

It focuses on the anatomy, eating habits, locomotion, growth, environmental and behavioural adaptations, origins and extinction of dinosaurs.

Online lessons are delivered from museums, fossil-preparation labs and dig sites.

Enroll Here

Excel for Everyone: Core Foundations

This University of British Columbia course teaches essential Excel skills.

Topics includes simple data wrangling, managing spreadsheets, and the foundations of business data analysis.

Enroll Here

Astro 101: Black Holes

In this course from the University of Alberta, you'll explore the concepts behind black holes and the basic ideas of astronomy, relativity, and quantum physics.

You'll learn how to compare black holes in popular culture to modern physics, recognize different types of stars, distinguish which stars can potentially become black holes and more.

Enroll Here

Introduction to Psychology

With this University of Toronto course, you'll learn about the brain, human development, mental illnesses and treatments, and psychological studies.

Topics include experiments within the field of psychology, cognitive abilities like memory, learning, attention, perception and consciousness, and how the behaviour of others affects our own thoughts and behaviour.

Enroll Here

How to Code: Simple Data

This course from the University of British Columbia focuses on a systematic programming method rather than a programming language.

It will help you program in any programming language.

You'll learn how to develop program requirements, produce programs with a consistent structure that are easily modified, and make your programs more reliable by building tests into the programming process.

Enroll Here

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.

  • Senior Writer

    Lisa Belmonte (she/her) is a Senior Writer with Narcity Media. After graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), she joined the Narcity team. Lisa covers news and notices from across the country from a Canada-wide perspective. Her early coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic earned Narcity its first-ever national journalism award nomination.

Canadian universities offer free courses and you can learn online without being a student

There are classes about marketing, coding, psychology, dinosaurs, and more!

These Canadian universities have free courses and here's what you can take online

You don't need to be a student to take classes on marketing, coding, astronomy and more.

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