7 free University of Toronto courses you can take online even if you're not a student

These online courses are open to anyone in Canada. 📚

university of toronto sign in front of trees on campus

University of Toronto sign.

Spiroview Inc. | Dreamstime
Senior Writer

There are free courses offered by the University of Toronto that you can take online.

You don't have to be a student or live in Ontario to enroll in these classes.

U of T is one of a few Canadian universities that has courses available through the online education platform Coursera.

If you're looking to learn something new or further your knowledge on topics you're already familiar with, there are a lot of classes to choose from.

You don't need a university or college education or to have taken any post-secondary classes to enroll in these courses because they don't have prerequisites.

Also, the classes are beginner-level, so previous experience with and knowledge of the subject aren't required.

These online courses are available to anyone in Canada. You don't have to be a current or former University of Toronto student to take a class.

You can enroll in these University of Toronto courses for free, which is sometimes referred to as an audit or a trial. That means you'll be able to learn from the course materials at your own pace without spending any money.

If you want assignments graded by a professor and a shareable certificate at the end of the session, you might have to pay a fee, depending on the course.

So, here are some of the free online courses offered by the University of Toronto.

Introduction to Psychology

In this course, you'll learn about the brain, human development, mental illnesses and treatments, and psychological studies.

It covers psychological experiments, cognitive abilities like memory, learning, attention, perception and consciousness, and how the behaviour of others affects our thoughts and behaviour.

Enroll Here

Learn to Program: The Fundamentals

This course introduces the building blocks of programming. It teaches you how to write programs that are fun and useful with the Python language.

There are lessons on design, variables, mathematical expressions, functions, and Python data types.

Enroll Here

The City and You: Find Your Best Place

This course explores what cities do, why they matter, what shapes urbanization and how to choose the right city for you.

It teaches you about the importance of cities and how cities affect our lives, so you can identify why cities are economic drivers, the implications of urbanization, the key characteristics of creative and innovative cities, and social divides in cities.

At the end of the course, you'll complete an exercise to assess your own community and find the best place for you.

Enroll Here

The Arts and Science of Relationships: Understanding Human Needs

This course provides an introduction to basic concepts of the Strategies and Skills Learning and Development System and their relevance for everyday relationships.

You'll learn about building and managing relationships through communication, the transformation and termination of relationships, and love, sexuality, intimacy and relationship problems.

It teaches these lessons through relationship management case studies.

Enroll Here

Learn to Program: Crafting Quality Code

In this course, you'll learn about writing quality code that runs correctly and efficiently.

You'll also design, code and validate programs while learning how to compare programs that are addressing the same task.

Enroll Here

Managing Your Health: The Role of Physical Therapy and Exercise

This course focuses on the concepts and benefits of physical therapy and exercise.

With these lessons, you'll learn about the importance of physical activity, common sports injuries, and how exercise relates to cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, cancer and arthritis.

Enroll Here

Introduction To Swift Programming

This is the first course in a four-part specialization series that provides you with the tools and skills to develop an iOS app.

Lessons include basic concepts of Swift programming, advanced principles, image processing, and more topics.

By the end of class, you'll be able to demonstrate intermediate application of programming in Swift and be proficient with syntax, object-oriented principles, memory management, functional concepts and more.

Since Swift programming is for iOS apps, this course requires you to have a Mac computer and, ideally, an iPhone or an iPad.

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 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!

University of Alberta has free courses you can take online that have interesting subjects

You can learn about dinosaurs, black holes, mountains, the arctic, and more!

I left Toronto for Vancouver and nobody warned me about these 9 culture shocks

We might be in the same country, but it doesn't feel like it sometimes.

I moved to Toronto and here's what locals don't realize about their own city

Torontonians... bag milked is not a thing anywhere else.

Truck in Air Canada plane crash had no transponder

Watchdog report confirms truck involved in Air Canada plane crash had no transponder

Ontario Lotto Max winners got an $80M jackpot and checked the numbers with pen and paper

This is the biggest Lotto Max jackpot that's ever been won in Ontario!