Best Online Learning Platforms Compared For Any Professionals (Learner’s Guide)

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is formerly known as Lynda.com, an industrial leader in online learning. With more than 20,000+ online courses taught by real-world professionals and industry leaders. It is a learning platform that focuses on career development.

LinkedIn Learning

Best for Professionals

A.C.

Range of Courses

Affordability

Ease of platform use

Course Recognition

Instructor’s Quality

Summary

LinkedIn Learning let you gain access to in-demand online courses highly recognized by recruiters and employers. Students who completed their courses can add a Certificate of Completion and skills to their resume and their unique feature of letting you share your learning achievements in your LinkedIn profile gives you an edge during your job search or getting recruited by headhunters.

4.1

Reason To Start In A Glace

• As low as USD$19.90 per month for an annual subscription (Offering 1-month free trial).
• >20,000 Courses – Each course is taught by industrial professionals.
• Unlimited Library Access – Gain insight into unlimited courses and make the most value from your subscription.
• Multi-Language support – English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin, and Portuguese
• Short Bite-Sized Lessons – Break down into short videos for ease of learning
• Certification & Learning Achievement Available for LinkedIn Profile
• Apps Available on iOS and Android – Letting you learn anytime anywhere.

How LinkedIn Shine

Compared to other online learning platforms, LinkedIn Learning focuses on skills required by real-world working professionals who are looking for a promotion, job search, or career switch.

At the time of writing, LinkedIn Learning has 180+ course categories and sub-categories with each category and sub-category falling under the 3 main topics Business Creative, and Technology.

With this learning platform, you can have the opportunity to learn from industrial instructors with real-world experience that isn’t taught in any schools. With most of the instructors being thought leaders and practicing experts in various fields, each instructor is vetted by their credentials.

What Do You Get?

With the completion of each course, you can download and print a certificate of completion, or display your achievement in your LinkedIn Profile, differentiating you from the 772 million LinkedIn members.

LinkedIn Learning gives you the perks that other learning platforms are unable to give:

• Seamless integration of your learning achievements into your LinkedIn profile.
• Gain access to unlimited courses for an affordable price.
• Gain insight from industry experts with real-world experience that you cannot get from a University Degree.
• Personalized course recommendations that help you progress further in your career.
• The courses are stand-alone and there are no prerequisites.
• Provide learning solutions for business, high education, and government.

Watch the video below and see how powerful is LinkedIn Learning in helping you get the job you want.

Here are some of the most popular courses taken by millions of professionals like you:

I’ve done a deep dive into understanding the unique features of LinkedIn Learning and how you can use LinkedIn Learning’s free 1-month trial to help you advance in your career, check out my in-depth review of LinkedIn Learning in my other article here.

Udemy

Udemy is probably the most popular and established online learning platform. With more than +130,000 instructor lead courses taught by both professionals and experienced experts on the topics. It has a massive number of Udemy courses available practically on any topic you can think of.

Udemy

Best for Self-Development

A.C.

Range of Courses

Affordability

Ease of platform use

Course Recognition

Instructor’s Quality

Summary

Udemy allows you to learn anything under the sun. Learn in-demand skills with over 213,000 video courses taught by industrial experts and lifetime access on mobile and desktop.

4.2

Reason To Start In A Glace

• As low as USD$11.90 – Some courses are offered Free
• >130,000 Courses – Hundreds added every day
• Lifetime Access – Simply log in and get access to your previous course
• 30+ Languages – Udemy is localized in Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, etc.
• Short Bite-Sized Lessons – Break down into short videos for ease of learning
• Certification Available – Check out the fine print for each course, some courses require you to pay for the certificate.
• Apps Available on iOS and Android – Allowing you to learn anytime anywhere.

Why Udemy

At the time of writing, you can have the opportunity to explore 592 online courses available for free. As an added bonus, some of these free courses also allow you to download and print a certificate of completion once you have completed the course.

Furthermore, Udemy has a lot of experienced instructors to ensure that the best learning material is available for students taking their online classes.

With Udemy, you can get access to one of the largest libraries of courses in the world, taught by industrial professionals. With instructors who are C-Suites, TED-Talk speakers thought leaders, popular influencers and experienced experts in their field, you are sure to find the instructor that suites you.

What Do You Get?

With Udemy, you can expect great courses taught in 30+ languages and the opportunity to learn new practical skills for an affordable price.

• That means, there is no monthly fee and you only pay what you need.
• Most courses are stand-alone and there are no prerequisites or other courses that you’ll need to complete in conjunction with others.
• 90% of all courses award you a certificate of completion each time you complete a course.
• Access to your course material anywhere, anytime, with both their mobile app and desktop learning platform, anytime is a good time to learn.
• One of the biggest, if not the biggest library of in-demanded online courses.

Here are some of the best-loved courses taken by millions of students:

Learn. From Fiverr

Learn. From Fiverr is a new player in the online learning industry. With more than +96 instructor lead courses taught by industrial experts, you will be pretty sure that the quality of materials taught is of a high standard.

Learn. From Fiverr, aka. Fiverr Learn

Best For Freelancers

A.C.

Range of Courses

Affordability

Ease of platform use

Course Recognition

Instructor’s Quality

Summary

Learn. From Fiverr let you learn the skills required to start your own freelancing business. Students who complete their courses get a badge on Fiverr freelancer hiring services which makes you stand out from other freelancers. Learn in-demand skills taught by professional instructors and lifetime access to the courses anywhere, anytime.

3.6

Reason To Start In A Glace

• As low as USD$20 – Some of the courses are offered as Free
• >90 Courses – Each course is taught by industrial experts who are highly experienced in the skills demanded by a freelancer.
• Lifetime Access – Simply log in and get access to your previous course
• 1 Language – English
• Short Bite-Sized Lessons – Break down into short videos for ease of learning
• Certification & Badge Available for Fiverr Profile – Do check on the fine print for each course, some courses require you to pay for the certificate.
• No Apps Available currently – App available for Fiverr for Freelancers but not for Learn. From Fiverr

Why Learn. From Fiverr

Compared to other online learning platforms, Learn. From Fiverr focus on skills that are in high demand for Freelancers.

At the time of writing, you can have the opportunity to learn from 47 expert instructors who are professionals in their fields. With more than 10+ years of experience, each instructor is vetted by their credentials.

As an added bonus, some of these courses are taught by multiple instructors to ensure the best materials are presented to you.

What Do You Get?

You get to know the exact skills needed to become a freelancer, a self-employed professional who is in control of your own time and life.

Given the opportunity for you to learn from experts, after the completion of each course, you can download and print a certificate of completion

With Fiverr Learn, you only pay for the course you want.

• No pesky monthly fee and you only pay what you need.
• Similar to a University Degree where you get a lecture for that particular subject, “Learn. From Fiverr” has a particular instructor for each of the Topics.
• Each course is stand-alone and there are no prerequisites.
• A badge will appear on your Fiverr profile after completion of the course.
• In-demand video courses which let you learn at your own pace.

Here are some of the best-loved courses taken by thousands of students:

How To Choose An Online Learning Platform As A Student?

Choosing the right online learning platform for you to learn new skills and get professional certificate is not easy, as each learning platform have it’s own unique features making it suitable for different students.

Here are some criteria you may want to consider when you are looking for the right online platform for you.

1. Course Content Offered By The Learning Platform

Every learning platform target different students with different needs. Understanding the course content that the learning platform offers will let you know if you are able to meeting your learning goals from learning using the online learning platform.

Course content offered can be generally categorized into the following:

• Sector specific such as; information technology, health care, financials, consumer staples, consumer discretionary, utilities, energy, real estate, communication services, industrials and materials.
• Profession specific such as; gig workers who do freelancing, general career professionals, entrepreneurs.

Depending on the topic you are interested, or type of profession you are looking to pursue, you may want to start your learning journey from different platform.

Choosing the right learning platform with the right mix of course content can have many benefits such as:

• Offers high quality learning materials and courses catered to the particular group of students.
• Offers industrial specific insights which cannot be found in other learning platforms.
• Offers a community where a particular group of students with similar interest can gather and learn.

With these, it makes choosing the platform with the right mix of course content a key to helping students to meet their learning objectives.

2. Understanding How Is The Course Delivered

With so many types of online learning offered today, understanding how the online education is delivered can helps you decided if the mode of course delivery suits you.

As every students learn differently, the types of course delivery can affect the learning outcome. Furthermore, not all students have the same amount of freedom to make time to cater to attend a course, even if it is conducted online.

Understanding the following few ways the course is delivered is the key:

• Synchronous learning where courses is conducted real-time
• Asynchronous learning where learning can be performed anytime.
• Hybrid learning where learning is conducted in a combination of virtual class and online class.
• Collaborative learning where learning is to be done in groups where you are required to interact with your peers to meet the learning outcome.
• Individual learning where the content and pace of learning is based on each individuals.

Depending on which types of courses you are taking, choosing the right online learning platform can help you to learn more efficiently.

• If you want to learn interpersonal skills or similar, you may want to learn through collaborative learning instead of individual learning environment.
• If you are a busy professional, you may want to learn through platforms that offers asynchronous learning rather than synchronous learning.
• If you prefer more hands-on experience, you may want to choose hybrid learning where you can enjoy both the benefits of online learning and learning through doing.

Understanding how the course is delivered is the key when choosing the rigth platform for you.

3. Consider Course Pricing

The cost of learning can be very different between online learning platforms, for some platforms, you can learn a new skills for a price of as low as $19.90, while other might cost you more than $1,000+ to complete a course.

Often times, platforms which price their courses higher offers many benefits which can be of great value. When that is the case, it make sense to choose these premium courses.

Understanding how each platform price their courses is essential if you are looking to learn a new skills within your budget.

4. Payment Model

Different payment models are generally offers for different learning platforms, generally there is two different payment models offered by course providers:

1. Pay per use pricing model
2. Subscription-based pricing model

Pay per use pricing model is also called consumption-based pricing model, where the students are only charged for the courses they take. This is usually a good option if the student only intended to take one course, or are unsure if the learning platform is suitable for them.

Subscription-based pricing model is where the student will pay a fixed sum for a specific period to learn from the learning platform. Generally the student can have unlimited access to the library of courses within the period, making subscription-based learning a good option for passionate learners.

Regardless which platform you choose, each have its own advantages and caters to different groups of students.

5. Community On The Platform

Learning community is key when you want to have a fun and effective learning environment. With an active community, you can ask your peers for help when you are stuck, or gain unique insight from others.

A good learning community can help you reinforce what you’ve learn with a new perspective, making learning complex concept easier and faster.

Which Online Learning Platforms Should You Choose?

LinkedIn Learning is perfect for working professional who is looking to gain a deep understanding of the skills required for them to advance in their career. A huge library of recognized courses and the unique feature of integrating your learning achievements into your LinkedIn profile make LinkedIn Learning one of the best places to learn new skills to get you hired.

Udemy is perfect for anyone who wants to learn a new skill for an affordable price. Ranging from any topic under the Sun, you get the opportunity to learn a new skill that aligns with your interest, or gain certifications to help you advance in your career.

Learn. From Fiverr is the best platform for any Freelancer or aspiring freelancer to learn a professionally taught skill. As a bonus, it allows you to display an exclusive badge to show your client that you have the credentials to provide the service which can skyrocket your freelancing career.