Are you feeling a bit lazy today? Great! Stay in bed and get smart at the same time!

Having a bachelor and two masters, I can say I’ve had my fair share of studying. But with getting older (and forgetting 50% of what I learned at Uni), I sometimes feel the need to learn a bit more and develop my skills. For those moments I’m grateful the internet exists.

There is YouTube, with its millions of tutorials – which I love. Thank you people for taking the time to explain a new product, software or passion. But if you want to go a bit more professional, hook these sites below up. They are my favourites and help you to broaden your skill set and get smart (again). Easy lifelong education!

1. Creative Live
First of all I love the simplistic lay-out, but that’s not why I visit this site. The classes are great. They have experts who give workshops on photography, video, design, business, audio and music. The courses are divided in five subjects: Photo&Video, Art&Design, Music&Audio, Craft&Maker and Money&Life. As their business name tells, it is a lot about the creative side in life.

The live classes are free, but to download the classes and course material on your computer, you pay. For me the live classes work just fine, if you really want you can take notes. To check which classes are on at the moment, click on the top of the page “Watch now for free”. The workshops are in the US, so the timing isn’t always convenient. I speak from personal experience.. Because I live in New Zealand, I once had to get up at 4am for a course. As you see, there has to be some dedication on your side.

So far, I’ve attended 2 workshops, one about blogging (it was 4 days long) and one about shooting video documentary (6 hours long) and loved it. It is super detailed, it is interactive and the speakers are super motivated and their excitement rubs off on you.

Interested? https://www.creativelive.com/

2. Coursera
Coursera has a huge catalog of courses. It is an educational platform that partners up with top universities and organisations worldwide. The courses are free, but if you want an official certificate you do pay money, from 50 to 150 dollars.

I followed a course on the History of Rock (I love rock), and learned a lot. It is more ‘schoolish’ than Creative Life, but also very detailed and interesting.

Interested? https://www.coursera.org

3. EdX
“Experience the best courses, whenever and wherever you want”, that’s what they preach. EdX offers interactive online classes and MOOCs(Massive Open Online Course) from the world’s best universities, colleges and organisations. They have an extensive list of courses, going from Math in Sports to Marketing for Non-Marketeers and The Greatest Unsolved Mysteries of the Earth.

On each course page you find a small box with important details. It gives you the level, length and effort for the course. I have the feeling the commitment level is a bit higher than on the other sites.

Interested? www.edx.org

So if you’ve always wanted to learn a bit more about a topic or you want to impress your friends on the next diner with some smart facts, hook one of these sites up! You keep on learning, wherever and whenever you want. Even in your pyjamas in bed!

ps: those weird colourful pants I’m wearing are called PolyPros and are super popular in New Zealand. I couldn’t miss out on this trend, right?