Here are the 30 most popular free online university courses and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) starting in December 2021, based on Class Central learners’ activity.

If these courses don’t interest you, either browse Class Central’s extensive catalog of 40,000 online courses via our subjects page, or have a look at our thematic collections:

• Massive List of Thousands of Free Certificates and Badges
• 1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely Free
• 450+ Free Ivy League Online Courses
• The Best Online Courses of All-Time
• 100 Top FREE edX Courses of All Time
• 250 Top Udemy Courses of All Time

To see all our compilations, visit Class Central’s Collections.

Most Popular Courses

The Science of Generosity: Do Good…Feel Good
University of Pennsylvania via Coursera
In this course, we’ll hear from multiple experts and explore the many facets of generosity by looking closely at the meanings, traits, and motivations behind giving behaviors across communities and cultures. We’ll discuss how generosity contributes to our own happiness and well-being as well as the happiness and well-being of our loved ones, our local communities, and our global society.

Introduction to data analysis
Saint Petersburg State University via Coursera
With this course, you will begin to take the first steps in the world of data analysis. You will see in detail the main concepts and processes that make up this discipline. The main goal of the course is acquisition of knowledge about the mathematical and statistical basics underlying the main ideas and approaches used in data science.

Introduction to Medical Software
Yale University via Coursera
This is a class aimed at either third- or fourth-year undergraduates in computer science, biomedical engineering, and related fields, and to junior software engineers currently either working in, or interested in moving to, the medical device industry.

Data Storytelling
University of California, Irvine via Coursera
This course will cover the more complex concepts that become involved when working beyond simple datasets. Exploring the connection between visual aspects and data understanding, we will examine how those concepts work together through data storytelling.

Teamwork and Creativity
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera
In this course, you will enhance your ability and opportunity to work creatively within any organization, learn to understand the importance and role of teamwork within the organization, and develop skills that differentiate yourself as a team player.

Implementing a Risk Management Framework
University System of Georgia via Coursera
The ultimate destination for a security manager is to be responsible for all cybersecurity operations in the organization. But how do you get from entry-level IT or security employee to the CISO’s office and what do you need to know when you get there? This course examines the career path and requirements to be an effective CISO, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the position.

Leadership for Cancer Informatics Research
Johns Hopkins University via Coursera
Informatics research often requires multidisciplinary teams. This requires more flexibility to communicate with team members with distinct backgrounds. This can present unique challenges in making sure that everyone is on the same page and cohesively working together. This course aims to provide research leaders with guidance about on how to instill cohesion within a diverse team.

Stability and Capability in Quality Improvement
University of Colorado Boulder via Coursera
In this course, you will learn to analyze data in terms of process stability and statistical control and why having a stable process is imperative prior to perform statistical hypothesis testing.

Dashboarding and Deployment
University of California, Irvine via Coursera
This course will take you through the various parts of analytical dashboarding: from best practices for designing a dashboard, creating a unified analytical environment, to deploying and publishing visualizations.

More C++ Programming and Unreal
University of Colorado System via Coursera
This course is the second course in the specialization about learning how to develop video games using the C++ programming language and the Unreal game engine on Windows or Mac.

Deep Learning Applications for Computer Vision
University of Colorado Boulder via Coursera
In this course, you’ll be learning about Computer Vision as a field of study and research. First we’ll be exploring several Computer Vision tasks and suggested approaches, from the classic Computer Vision perspective. Then we’ll introduce Deep Learning methods and apply them to some of the same problems.

Organizational Concepts and Language
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera
In this course, you will learn how to communicate using common organizational language, concepts, and frameworks useful for decision-making and problem-solving. The professional business skills related to business concepts and language gained through this course will help you to succeed working in any organization.

Ethics, Culture, and Global Perspectives
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera
In this course, you will acquire a deep understanding of the importance and role of ethics within and beyond the organization as well as realize the benefits and challenges of a diverse culture and various – and changing – global perspectives.

Data Literacy- What is it and why does it matter?
Sorbonne Universités via Coursera
You might already know that data is not neutral. Our values and assumptions are influenced by the data surrounding us. This is why data literacy matters. In this course, we view data literacy from three perspectives: Data in personal life, data in society, and data in knowledge production.

Introduction to Complexity Science
Nanyang Technological University via Coursera
In this course, we will aim to give everyone a comprehensive introduction to complex systems, to talk about the resilience, robustness and sustainability of the systems and to learn basic mathematical methods for complex system analysis – for example regime shifts and tipping points, agent-based modelling, and network theories.

Marketing Analytics with Facebook
Facebook via Coursera
This course explores Facebook Marketing Analytics Tools. You’ll learn how the Facebook advertising platform works and you’ll learn to create ads using Facebook Ads Manager. Then, you’ll learn how Facebook reports results and how you can customize the reports to match your business goals.

Renewable Energy: Resources and Technologies
St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University via Coursera
In our course, you will become familiar with the basic concepts of renewable energy. Get an idea about the basics of determining the potential of renewable energy resources, including its territorial, temporal and climatic variability.

Finalize a Data Science Project
CertNexus via Coursera
This course is designed for business professionals that want to learn how to gather results from previous stages of the data science project and present them to stakeholders. Learners will communicate the results of a model to stakeholders, be shown how to build a basic web app to demonstrate machine learning models and implement and test pipelines that automate the model training, tuning and deployment processes.

Fundamentals of Technology Sales
University of Maryland, College Park via Coursera
Sales jobs are among the most in-demand nationally. The explosive growth of technologies such as Cloud Computing and Cybersecurity has created tremendous business opportunities for technology companies. In this course, you’ll learn how to capitalize on these opportunities.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Primitives
Duke University via Coursera
This is the second course of the DeFi and the Future of Finance series on decentralized finance. In this course, we talk about transaction mechanics and introduce both fungible and non-fungible tokens – or NFTs.

Automation Techniques in RPA
UiPath via Coursera
The Automation Techniques in RPA course will provide knowledge about Extraction and its Techniques, Screen Scraping, Data Scraping and PDF Extraction.

Experiencing Design: Deepening Your Design Thinking Practice
University of Virginia via Coursera
We become design thinkers by experiencing design. In this course, developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, we will guide you through six key phases of the design journey – Immersion, Sensemaking, Alignment, Emergence, Imagining, and Learning in Action.

Applying Data Analytics in Accounting
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera
This course explores business analytic applications in accounting. First, it presents a survey of technology topics in accounting, including process mining, blockchain and applications in audit, tax, and assurance. Next, the course explores visualization and basic analytics in audit and control testing using R and Alteryx. Finally, the course examines robot process automation in general using UiPath and its applications in accounting.

Climate Solutions: India
University of Edinburgh via FutureLearn
Explore the effects of climate change and how to address the biggest challenge to our civilisation in the 21st century.

Geographical Information Systems – Part 2
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne via Coursera
This course is the second part of a course dedicated to the theoretical and practical bases of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It gives the opportunity to quickly acquire the basics that allow you to create spatial databases and produce geographic maps.

History of Russia: from Peter the Great to the Revolution
Saint Petersburg State University via Coursera
This course offers unique lectures by the leading professors of St. Petersburg State University, interesting assignments, interactive maps and much more. The course covers the history of the Russian state throughout its entire length (from the 9th to the 21st century) and the learners are welcome to join the discussion on the topical issues of Russian history.

Interdisciplinary Management of Cardiopulmonary Health and Disease (Cardiac Focus)
Hong Kong Polytechnic University via edX

Learn how different healthcare professionals work together to give holistic management for patients with cardiopulmonary diseases. This course focuses on the management of cardiac diseases.

Introduction to Quantum Information
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology via Coursera
The course provides an introduction to quantum information at a beginning graduate level. It focuses on the fundamental understanding of how information is processed with quantum systems and how the quantum properties apply to computing and communication tasks.

Old Norse Mythology in the Sources
University of Colorado Boulder via Coursera
This course is an introduction to the religion of the Vikings as it is recorded in Old Norse and Scandinavian literature from the medieval period. You will learn about the different written sources and what they can teach us about pre-Christian religion in northern Europe in the Viking Age.

UiPath Orchestrator and Capstone Project
UiPath via Coursera
UiPath Orchestrator and Capstone Project course will provide knowledge about UiPath Orchestrator and its capabilities. It also explains about connecting a Robot and publishing a project to the Orchestrator.