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• Sustainability: Sustainable Oceans, Shorter Course on Sustainability
• General Oceanography: General Oceanography, Shorter Course on General Oceanography
• Special Topics: Oceanography and Sailing, Geology-based Course with Free Certificate

Who loves the ocean? According to Cambridge Prisms: Coastal Futures, 2.15 billion people live in the near-coastal zone and 898 million live in the low-elevation coastal zone. Which means around 38% of the world’s population live near the ocean. We rely on seafood and other resources, but at the same time, overexploitation and climate change are causing declines in ocean health.

The United Nations has declared 2021-2030 to be the Decade of Ocean Science to support efforts to reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health and build a framework for sustainable development of the ocean.

I have always loved the seashore and some of my earliest memories are of swimming in the Pacific Ocean at Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. All my life, I’ve enjoyed exploring rockpools for seashells and marine creatures.

I’ve reviewed over 80 online courses to find the best, and have great pleasure in presenting this Best Courses Guide (BCG) to oceanography. Courses cover various aspects including geology, ecology, climate change, and physical features.

Click on the shortcuts for more details:

• Top Picks
• What is Oceanography?
• Courses Overview
• What Else?
• Why You Should Trust Us
• How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Here are our top picks

Click to skip to the course details:

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What is Oceanography?

Oceanography is the scientific study of the oceans and everything they contain. It encompasses various branches of science, including biology, chemistry, geology, physics, and meteorology, to understand the complex ocean systems and their interactions with the Earth’s systems.

• Biological oceanography studies the ecology and biology of marine organisms, their interactions, and their relationship with the ocean environment.
• Chemical oceanography focuses on the chemical composition and properties of seawater, including processes like ocean acidification caused by increased atmospheric carbon dioxide absorption
• Geological oceanography (or marine geology) investigates the geology of the ocean floor, including plate tectonics, sedimentology, and coastal processes
• Physical oceanography examines the physical attributes and dynamics of the ocean, such as temperature, salinity, waves, tides, currents, and fluid dynamics.

Oceanographers use various tools and techniques to study the oceans, including research vessels, satellites, computer models, and specialized equipment for sampling, mapping, and data collection.

Oceanography is crucial for understanding and managing marine resources, predicting and mitigating the effects of natural hazards, and addressing environmental issues, particularly climate change and ocean acidification. It also plays a vital role in advancing our knowledge of the Earth’s systems and the interconnections between the oceans, land, and atmosphere.

Courses Overview

• 4 courses are free or free to audit and 2 are paid
• 4 courses offer a certificate of completion. One of these is free
• The oceanography subject is followed by 1.2K learners on Class Central
• Courses in this guide have more than 56K enrollments and views
• These courses are from 6 different providers.

Best Course on Sustainable Use of the Oceans (SDG Academy)

One Planet, One Ocean covers themes of coasts, marine ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture, marine life and minerals, and ocean and climate. You’ll learn science-based methods of preservation and conservation of the oceans and their resources.

Along the way, this course will teach you about several of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): education, water, energy, cities, climate, below water, land, peace, and partnerships.

“A very interesting course that covers the essential material to understand all the aspects of ocean sustainability and how they play along with SDG 14. Definitely a great starting point for further specialisation.” – N. V., Class Central learner.

Also Great Sustainable Ocean Management Course (National Oceanography Centre)

Ocean Science in Action: Addressing Marine Ecosystems and Food Security looks at marine robotics, global ocean modelling, and remote sensing. Particular attention is paid to specific issues and case studies in the western Indian Ocean.

This course also looks at the key sustainable development challenges of the United Nations Ocean Science Decade 2030.

“This course was very well presented with the right level of detail for all to understand with additional reading options for those wanted more comprehensive information” – Graham J., FutureLearn learner.

Best General Oceanography Course (The Great Courses Plus)

You don’t need any science background for the 36 lectures in Oceanography: Exploring Earth’s Final Wilderness. Explore the world’s oceans from tidal zones to ocean floor depths. Learn about ocean basics, mapping, habitats, marine life, physics of water, marine chemistry, marine resources, marine ecosystems, coastal dynamics, climate impact, and marine pollution.

“…Prof. Tobin is an excellent presenter, calm, matter of fact, personable, and very clear, even on the tricky bits.” – MeredithS,The Great Courses Plus learner.

Best Short General Oceanography Course (Study.com)

Learn general oceanography concepts in Introduction to Oceanography. Topics covered include oceanography & the history of oceanic exploration, Earth structure & plate tectonics, ocean floors & basins, marine sediment,atmospheric & oceanic circulation, waves & tides, coastal features, primary production & food webs, and conservation.

Also Great General Oceanography Course (University of Barcelona and Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona)

Oceanography: a key to better understand our world was produced as part of a series of courses about a round-the-world regatta. Starting in the Mediterranean Sea, you’ll be transported to the Atlantic, Southern Indian and South Pacific Oceans. You’ll learn about a large variety of oceanographic situations including currents, ice, waves of all kinds, and biological diversity. You’ll learn about the ocean floor, how sea satellite analysis systems work, chemistry of the oceans and the processes that led to its formation. You don’t need previous knowledge of oceanography.

Note: the course is recorded in Spanish with subtitles in many languages. If you speak Spanish, here is the full Spanish version.

“This course is absolutely valuable. It enhances your knowledge in all aspects of oceanography…” – Biswajit P, Coursera learner.

Best Non-Biology Course with Free Certificate (The Open University)

The Oceans is a mostly text-based course but has some videos and activities with Google Earth. You’ll learn about the effects of different temperatures, salinities, and densities of ocean water. Videos include models of and observations of deep and surface currents and ice formation. Unlike some other courses, this does not discuss ecology or the ocean’s resources, but it’s a great introduction to oceanic geology-related topics.

“An interesting short course, that took me far less than the estimated 15 hours…” – Pat Bowden, Class Central learner.

What Else?

Communities: Join 11K members of Reddit r/oceanography or join the StackExchange community to ask and answer questions and join discussions.

You can find many YouTube playlists on various aspects of oceanography. Here are several standout channels:

• EVNautilus explores the oceans and has videos on ocean life, geological aspects, and historical artifacts under the sea
• Sven Holbik covers tides and waves alongside various other aspects of oceanography
• Seds Online looks at carbon, climate, and ocean currents
• AGU also has short videos on the ocean’s influence on climate
• Earth and Space Sciences X have some courses on marine geology
• Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur has an engineering course from 2014, teaching about building marine structures.

Why You Should Trust Us

Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 60 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of 200,000 online courses and 200,000 reviews written by our users. And we’re online learners ourselves: combined, the Class Central team has completed over 400 online courses, including online degrees. I’ve personally completed over 200 online courses in a variety of topics including oceanography.

How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Trying to find “the best” can be daunting, even for those of us who live and breathe online courses. Here’s how I approached this task.

First, I combed through Class Central’s Catalog and the internet to find a variety of free and paid open courses, some with certificates. You don’t need to enroll in a university to learn about oceanography.

When choosing courses, I considered the following factors:

• Learner reviews: I read learner reviews (when available) to get a sense of the quality of each course, leveraging the Class Central database with its thousands of course ratings and reviews written by our users as well as available course provider reviews.
• Popularity: I checked numbers of enrollments and views to find popular courses
• Course content: I examined courses that covered a range of topics and presentation styles, including the basics and more advanced topics. I watched some course videos to sample courses I hadn’t already taken.

Then, I defined the scope for these recommendations. An oceanography course can cover various topics, so I chose top courses from a range of sub-fields.

Ultimately, I used a combination of data and my own judgment to make these picks. I’m confident these recommendations will be a reliable way to learn about oceanography.