[Update: 28 Jan. 2020] Today, Stanford removed most of their free-certificate courses from Lagunita. This is likely a result of the university becoming an institutional member of edX. Some of Stanford’s courses that just yesterday were offered on Lagunita have now been transferred to edX. Unfortunately, on edX, they don’t include a free certificate of completion. You can find more details here.

Recently, we wrote about CS50, Harvard’s Introduction to Computer Science, which allows learners to earn a free certificate. This time, let’s go over Stanford’s free-certificate offering.

Stanford University offers 69 free online courses through Lagunita, Stanford’s own MOOC platform, which is based on Open edX. Of those 69 courses, 44 offer a free certificate of completion, including courses in computer science, engineering, and medicine.

The courses are self-paced and involve auto-graded assessments. In some courses, learners may earn a special mention if their final course score is high enough. For instance, in Statistical Learning, a 50% gets you a regular certificate, but a 90% gets you one “with distinction.”

Stanford’s free-certificate courses notably include Algorithms: Design and Analysis, which is often regarded as one of the best introductions to algorithms and data structures available online — notably by Class Central founder, Dhawal Shah, who recently wrote about it.

The course is also offered as a Specialization on Coursera. But there, the equivalent certificates cost $200. On Lagunita, they’re free (albeit not ID-verified). Here’s how they look:

Note that Stanford prefers to call them “statements of accomplishment” rather than “certificates,” probably to distinguish them from the university’s paid certificates.

Below is a complete list of Stanford’s free-certificate courses. To get a fuller picture of the university’s online offering, explore Stanford’s online courses on Class Central.

Stanford Courses with Free Certificate

Education

• Developing Instructionally-Embedded Performance Assessments for the NGSS Classroom
• How to Learn Math: For Students
• Performance Assessment in the NGSS Classroom: Implications for Practice
• Writing in the Sciences

Engineering & Computer Science

• Algorithms: Design and Analysis
• Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Part 2
• Automata Theory
• Compilers
• Computer Science 101
• Introduction to Computer Networking
• Mining Massive Datasets
• Statistical Learning

Introduction to Databases

This course is split into 14 minicourses, each offering its own certificate (except the first).

1. Introduction and Relational Databases (No certificate)
2. XML Data
3. JSON Data
4. Relational Algebra
5. SQL
6. XPath and XQuery
7. XSLT
8. Relational Design Theory
9. Unified Modeling Language
10. Indexes and Transactions
11. Constraints and Triggers
12. Views and Authorization
13. On-Line Analytical Processing
14. Recursion in SQL

Humanities

• America’s Poverty and Inequality
• Human Trafficking Awareness for the General Public
• Human Trafficking Awareness for the Hospitality Industry
• Human Trafficking Awareness for the Restaurant Industry
• International Women’s Health and Human Rights
• Introduction to the Natural Capital Approach
• Introduction to the Natural Capital Approach in Department of Defense Environments
• The New World of Arnold Schönberg’s Piano Music

Medicine

• Disaster Medicine Training
• Exotic Tumor Database Training
• Know HBV And HCV
• Palliative Care Always
• Partnering with the Public and Patients in Medical Research
• Statistics in Medicine