Suggest me an e-Learning Platform

What this tool does

You have decided to learn something online, and now the question is where. Coursera, Udemy, Khan Academy, and a dozen others all promise to teach you, but they are pitched at quite different things. This tool gives you a place to start. It hands you a learning platform at random, so you have a real name to look into rather than a vague sense that you should be using one of them.

Press the button for a platform. Press it again for another. Ask for a few at once to compare a short list. It is a starting point to explore, not a recommendation, and the best platform depends entirely on what you are trying to learn, which the sections below get into.

How to use it

1. Number / Quantity. How many platforms to pull at once, from 1 to 100.
2. Generate. Pulls a fresh platform, or a fresh set if you asked for several.
3. Starts with, Contains, Ends with. Optional filters that whittle the list before it picks. Leave them blank to draw from everything.
4. Copy. Sends the current platforms to the clipboard as plain text for your notes.

A platform is on screen as soon as the page opens, so there is always something to look into.

How it works

The list is a fixed set of e-learning platforms, and each press draws one at random, with no repeats inside a single set when you ask for several.

The filters let you aim. Contains keeps any platform with your text in it, so typing edx brings up edX and its variants, while another name narrows it the same way. Starts with looks at the first letter and ends with at the last.

What is on the list

It is a list of around fifty online learning platforms. The big consumer names are all here, like Coursera, edX, Udemy, Khan Academy, Skillshare, and Codecademy, the kind most people mean when they talk about learning online.

One honest note: the list also mixes in platforms aimed more at businesses and institutions, like the learning systems schools and companies run, which are not really for an individual signing up to learn a skill. So a pull may occasionally land on something built for organisations rather than you, and the next section helps you tell which platform actually fits what you want.

Why picking a platform is confusing

The platforms overlap enough to blur together yet differ enough that the wrong one wastes your time, and there are a lot of them, so people stall before they start. Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper documented that freeze in a 2000 study where a spread of twenty-four jams attracted browsers but produced far fewer purchases than a spread of six. Plenty of choice, little action.

Barry Schwartz called the broader pattern the paradox of choice, where abundance leaves us stuck rather than served. A random platform gives you one real name to look at instead of the whole confusing field. The key, though, is matching the platform to what you actually want to learn, and the next section lays that out.

Matching the platform to your goal

The right platform follows from what you want to learn. For university-style courses with academic depth, and often certificates, the likes of Coursera, edX, and FutureLearn fit best, since they partner with real universities. For practical and creative skills taught by independent experts, Udemy and Skillshare have huge, affordable libraries. If you want to learn to code, Codecademy, Treehouse, and Pluralsight are built around that with hands-on practice. And for free, rock-solid fundamentals in maths and science, Khan Academy is hard to beat. After the fit, weigh the cost model, since some charge per course, some run a subscription, and some are free with paid extras. Sort out what you are learning first, and the platform almost picks itself.

Questions people ask

Is it free, and does it save anything?

The tool is free with no sign-up, and nothing is kept. The picks run in your browser, so copy a list for your research before you leave.

Can I get a few options at once?

Yes. Set the quantity to the number you want, up to 100, and press Generate for that many different platforms in one pull.

Which platform is best?

There is no single best one, since it depends on what you are learning. Academic courses, practical skills, and coding each have platforms that suit them better, as the section above explains.

Are these free to use?

It varies. Some platforms are free, some charge per course, and others run a subscription, often with a free tier, so check the pricing on the platform itself.

References

1. Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper, "When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000, the study behind choice overload. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11138768/
2. Barry Schwartz, "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less", his talk on how more options can lower satisfaction. https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_the_paradox_of_choice