Free Online Resources For Students: Textbooks, Ebooks, & Videos
Money isn’t everything but when a college textbook costs around $100 you might run out of resources real fast. If you want to keep your spendings at a minimum, take a look at the following free study resources.
Free Online Textbooks and Course Materials
There are some reputable places where you can find reliable aids for your studying free of charge. Some of the best that are also extremely easy to use include:
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a free online library with thousands of e-books on any given subject. From classic literature to architecture, mathematics, physics, biology, geography, and even more obscure topics like anarchy and suffrage.
Most books are available in various formats such as PDF, EPUB, and HTML.
To find your desired book, you can just use its Quick Search bar and type the author's name, book title, or related subject. Or you can use the Advanced Search option to input more information such as category, file type, language, and subjects.
You can also check out hand-curated collections in different categories using the Bookshelf option. There’s everything from a History Bookshelf to Fine Arts, Language and Literature, Law, Biology, and many, many more.
OpenStax
OpenStax is a platform that provides access to free, openly licensed college textbooks. It’s part of Rice University, a nonprofit that aims to make education accessible for more people.
You can access free textbooks online, on the OpenStax website, or download them as PDFs.
Print book versions are available too, but you’d have to pay between $18-$60 for those.
Open Stax offers textbooks in many subjects, including Computer Science, Business, Math, Nursing, Social Sciences, Biology, Physics, and Economics.
I would highly recommend looking through its library. It’s a great resource especially if you’re beginner since all subjects have at least some introductory textbooks.
On the flip side, certain study areas lack more advanced-level textbooks. For instance, the Computer Science section only has 2 textbooks that’re both catered towards beginners.
MIT OpenCourseware
MIT OpenCourseWare is a free collection of study materials from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Accessible online and requiring no registration, it's a great place to learn from one of the world's leading universities.
These resources come in a variety of formats, including lecture notes, written assignments, problem sets with solutions, lecture videos, exams, projects, and much more.
With thousands of courses available, you can find subjects in Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Urban Studies and Planning, Literature, History, Science, Physics, Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Music and Theater Arts.
The platform is easy to use. Similarly to Project Gutenberg, you can just type your desired topic in the search bar and all relevant courses and resources will pop up.
You can further refine your search by topic, course level (undergraduate or graduate), or media type (video, lecture notes, etc.).
Educational YouTube Channels
Swapping pages for pixels, let's check out a few YouTube channels that offer excellent educational content.
Crash Course
Crash Course is a YouTube channel offering hundreds of educational videos.
It presents bite-sized information in an engaging, fun style. Videos are typically ranging from 10 to 20 minutes and are hosted by well-known instructors in their respective fields.
For instance, John Green teaches the Literature Course.
The YouTube channel covers a wide range of subjects, including computer science, literature, mythology, linguistics, astronomy, and psychology
It caters to students of all ages, but the subject matter is most suitable for high school and college students.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed features short, animated educational videos (usually under 10 minutes) spanning multiple subject areas – science, history, literature, philosophy, arts, current events, and social issues.
The fun pictures and clear explanations in TED-Ed videos make hard stuff easy to understand, and great for watching when you're just chilling.
But if you want to dive deep into a topic, you might need something more detailed. Still, TED-Ed gives you a good starting point or a quick summary of things.
Kurzgesagt
The Kurzgesagt YouTube channel uses stunning animation paired with a calm and informative narration to tackle some of humanity's biggest questions.
The subject range here encompasses biology, technology, space exploration, philosophy, psychology, and even future predictions.
It does not shy away from complex concepts and ideas.
To sum up
Even though learning can be expensive, these free online resources are a huge help. Whether you're reading, watching videos, or studying, they've got you covered. They cover lots of interesting topics, like science and history. While they might not give you everything, they're a great place to start. So, if you want to learn without spending money, give them a try.