10 Best Free Sites for Online Learning 2023/2024 in Design, Web Development

10 Best Free Online Learning Sites for Design, Web Design/ Development

In today's economy, web development has emerged as one of the most important skills. This is because a computer program that causes events to occur is hidden behind each mouse click. Yet learning to code is neither simple nor easy.

What is even more impressive is that they all provide courses—beginner or full—for free. Although some do request that you create a free account before you start so that you can track your progress and purchase more advanced courses later, you can obtain all the content for free.

With free online classes, you can go from a manager to a web designer at your own speed and in your own time. These are eleven online, free web design courses that can be used to advance your career.

What Qualifications Are Needed to Be a Web Designer?

University degrees and other hard traditional qualifications don't matter as much in web design as they do in other fields.

A degree from ten years ago doesn't guarantee you're a brilliant web designer today because the field is evolving quickly.

Instead, web designers are frequently evaluated based on the body of current work that is displayed on their portfolio website.

And your skills are not merely highlighted by the prior projects in your portfolio.

With the site itself, you may persuade potential customers that you have the required design and development abilities.

You can review prior award-winning projects on Awards to get inspired by real portfolio sites using cutting-edge front-end design and development components.

What are the free online sites for design, web design/ development in 2023/2024?

1. Udacity

Udacity - Photo: oto

Udacity offers great free online courses in partnership with such leading IT companies as Google, AT&T, Github, Amazon, etc. The course levels vary from beginner to intermediate to advanced as Udacity offers a variety of courses, from simple HTML5/CSS courses to compact web development courses with Javascript, Backbone.js, etc.

Anybody who has ever studied computer science or web development knows how important it is to emphasize practice, which Udacity does. All of the lessons are interactive, and there are videos and quizzes to test your knowledge and comprehension sometimes. The majority of the courses are also backed by a sizable, supportive student body. For an even more hands-on learning experience, several courses also include mid-course projects that must be built.

Since Udacity offers non-degree courses only, it doesn’t provide certifications.

2. Codeacademy

Photo: codecademy

Codecademy is like the Bible of web development newbies. Based on the 15 most popular development languages in the world, these free courses contain the core basic knowledge you need to get started. Most of the courses start at the zero level, defining variables and giving simple introductions to coding. I’d say if you’re looking to learn web development for free, this is the best option.

The JS classes come after the HMTL/CSS courses, and the more sophisticated Node JS courses come after the JS courses. Back-end courses, like those for Ruby or Ruby on Rails, are also available here.

Codecademy's courses are broken down into individual sections. Each portion is divided into manageable units, and each unit includes knowledge-testing supporting tasks. The majority of courses also feature a final exam to determine your proficiency.

Nevertheless, Codecademy only issues certificates to students who complete Pro Intensive programs; certification is not offered for the free courses.

Having said that, nowadays, education and experience are so priceless that they make certification irrelevant. My recommendation is to practice by enrolling in courses on Codeacademy, then improve your abilities by working on freelance jobs. If you're just starting off, don't charge much. You did learn web development for free, thus it is to be expected that your initial time investment will not yield a high return.

Read More: How to Create A Website: Step by Step for Beginners

3. MDN Web Docs

Photo: twitter

MDN Web Docs is a valuable online resource created by an open community of developers which is updated regularly by employees of Mozilla, Apple, Google, & Microsoft.

You can quickly find what you're looking for and fnd practical justifications from reliable experts. Even whole lessons for learning web programming are included.

Web developers can employ any functionality while building websites and applications today and in the future. Absolutely, if it is used by several browsers and is either approved as a standard or is moving toward standardization. It is still appropriate for inclusion but might not be viewed as a top priority for the writer's team to work on if it is still relatively experimental, not integrated across several browsers, and/or subject to change.

Their Hacks Blog is a fantastic resource for web developers as well.

4. WebFlow University

Photo: university.webflow

Ultimate Web Design Course is a free course offered by WebFlow university, an online learning platform hosted and developed by the CMS and design tool WebFlow.

It includes over 5 hours of video lessons and is a great introduction to all things web design.

Topics:

• HTML & CSS basics
• Web structure
• Buttons
• Typography
• Media elements
• Components
• Styling basics
• Layout basics
• Advanced layouts
• Responsive design
• CMS & dynamic content
• SEO

Pros:

• An up-to-date cutting-edge introduction to web design.
• Easy to follow instructions.
• Over 5 hours of video content (much longer actual learning if you go along).

Read More: 10 Best Free Online Learning Sites for Math, Data Science and Engineering

5. freeCodeCamp

Photo: topdev

In 2019, freeCodeCamp released a 4-hour introductory course to responsive design on their YouTube channel.

The course will teach you how to create a single, 3-page responsive website, as well as the basics of responsive design, CSS, and HTML5.

Topics:

• Responsive design basics
• Mobile-first design
• CSS units
• Em vs px vs rems
• Flexbox
• CSS styles
• Responsive containers
• Media queries
• Responsive navigation
• Page structure
• Widgets

Pros:

• Get a deeper understanding of how to create a proper responsive design with HTML and CSS in 2022.
• Get to know important CSS units and advanced HTML tags.
• Over 4-hours of neatly-divided video available for free (no signup) on YouTube.

6. Alison Online

Photo: hsewatch

A "new universe of free certified learning," according to Alison. It claims that its mission is to enable anyone to study anything for free, from anywhere, at any topic level. The website does, however, offer premium subscription options that open up extra capabilities because it is a for-profit organization.

The website is packed with a variety of courses, many of which result in test-based certificates. This can give your CV a fresh qualification. A certificate in a particular field can genuinely help you land a job or a freelance chance. Although there is no cost to enroll in any course on Alison, there is a fee if you want a certificate. Pricing for a digital certificate starts at around $20 and goes up to more than $100 for a framed diploma.

There are several free graphic design classes offered by Alison. That implies that there are choices to suit designers of any degree of experience. For instance, some graphic design courses, like this degree program in Visual and Graphic Abilities, concentrate on defining all the fundamental concepts and terms. Some courses, like this one on design principles, teach you how to put those principles into effect by giving you case studies and practice problems.

You can also take a variety of more specialized classes, like this one on Photoshop Essential Tools, to learn how to use the equipment and programs required for graphic design.

The majority of Alison's courses are slideshow presentations. Everything is divided up into manageable bits so that you don't have to scroll through a big page of information. The one drawback is that, unless you're ready to pay $9 per month for a premium membership, every time you go on to a new topic in a lesson, the page reloads and you have to sit through an advertisement for 8 seconds.

While it’s not perfect, Alison does offer a great free resource for those seeking to learn graphic design.

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7. W3Schools

Photo: hocspringmvc

You can genuinely learn web development at W3Schools and advance your career. Only online courses are offered by W3Schools. The 18 certifications this school offers instruction in are HTML5, HTML Developer Certification, and Frontend (HTML), which have received the most positive reviews. Depending on the qualification, this education program might take anywhere from 1 hour to 1 month to complete, with 1 week serving as the median duration.

W3Schools, however, might be very useful if you're a complete novice and are still trying to grasp the very fundamentals. There are tutorials for XML, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and BootStrap available.

Each instruction is written in a straightforward, non-technical style that even those with no prior knowledge in coding may grasp. A series of easy tasks that encourage the user to use their knowledge are added as supplements to the themes.

8. TheNewBoston

Photo: medium

TheNewBoston is for all those who prefer video classes. It’s a Youtube channel containing endless video courses of HTML, CSS, PHP, Node JS, Python, and other popular languages and frameworks.

However, it should be noted, that the videos of the channel are for beginners and mainly bear introductory nature.

Each video is a short, 3-10 minute on average, answer to a very specific question/topic, such as the installation processes, setting up code blocks, running the code, etc.

9. Coursera

Photo: cellphones

The web development course you're seeking for can be found with ease on Coursera, which has a sizable online course library. In collaboration with prestigious universities and educational institutions, the courses are created to meet the standards of the best professors and industry best practices.

The advanced filtering mechanism enables the student to select not only the sector and topic of the course, but also its degree and level, the school that offers it online, the language, length, etc.

From a straightforward HTML/CSS/JS education for beginners given by Johns Hopkins University to more in-depth Ruby on Rails and Angular JS courses for intermediates, the topics and levels range widely.

The final wonderful thing about Coursera is that you graduate with an online certificate that you can use to formalize your completion and include on your CV.

10. Udemy

Udemy - Photo: linkedin

Videos by independent teachers are available on Udemy, with pricing varying according to the field, length, and teacher. Udemy is essentially a marketplace for competitive classrooms. This implies that classes are rated, and ratings, like those on Yelp, shed light on the class's quality. On the website, there are usually sale specials, so keep an eye out for discounts on the lessons you choose. Also, many of the courses on Udemy are free.

Starting with the Introduction to Graphic Design is highly recommended. The design process, fundamental components, the five primary design principles, and how to see the design with fresh eyes are all covered in this online graphic design course. It seeks to educate participants on what real designers do and help them comprehend the qualities of good design. Students don't need to have any particular software or prior design skills, according to the course description.

After finishing the introduction, you can choose from a large range of other online graphic design courses that are offered on Udemy without charge. You may configure the search criteria on the website to just display free courses, which makes it simple to browse through them. They provide in-depth tutorials, advice for typical projects, and software recommendations, to name a few of the subjects they cover.

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