Lifelong learners, rejoice! Whether you’re looking to gift some knowledge or you just want to treat yo’self, here’s a guide to three of our favorite online learning communities.
Combining theory with practical how-tos, this popular site features lots of big names explaining the art of their professions. The unlimited pass gives you access to the entire Masterclass library, with courses taught by writers like Margaret Atwood and Shonda Rhimes; photographer Annie Leibovitz; actor Helen Mirren; conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall, plus many more. (You can even take a tennis lesson from Serena Williams!) While the names seem lofty, the advice they offer inspires even the beginners among us.
Gift options include a single class for $90, or $180 for an annual pass that makes the entire library your own. You don’t have to take the economics class to realize which is the better deal.
With more than 1,500 classes available, CreativeLive offers practical nuts-and-bolts instruction in almost any creative field. Categories include photography and video, money and life, art and design, craft and maker, and music and audio — phew!
Take photography, for instance. New camera for Christmas? You can choose from a Fast Start class that shows you what all the buttons do, a comprehensive course on the fundamentals of photography, even one on fine-art printing. The same type of A-to-Z offerings exist in nearly every category.
Free classes are posted online every day, while per-class prices are affordable (and frequently discounted). The annual pass is $299, which allows you to download any course you’d like.
Your public library
A library card is your ticket to free online learning communities that others pay hundreds of dollars to use. Most if not all local libraries provide free access to popular sites such as Brainfuse, which offers one-on-one tutoring in math, reading, science and writing for kindergarten through university students; lynda.com, a video-based service with more than 2,000 courses in software applications, and creative and business skills; and Mango Languages, which hosts modules in 50 languages. And these are just a few examples.
While it’s difficult to wrap a library, we do believe wholeheartedly that library cards make great stocking stuffers.