Free courses & certifications

Grow your knowledge of sociology and the social sciences at no cost. We've gathered self-paced courses from respected universities and platforms — many of them offer a certificate or digital badge when you finish. Explore what interests you and learn on your own schedule.

Course availability, certificates, and any account requirements are set by each platform, not by the club.

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FutureLearn

A digital learning platform offering online courses, microcredentials, and full degrees in partnership with 200+ top-tier universities. Each course below notes its partnering university.

King's College London Research Methods: A Practical Guide to Peer and Community Research Identify how to conduct your own research and develop your own ethical research project on this practical course. View course Arden University Preparing for an Independent Research Project Learn how to design, plan and write your postgraduate research project with confidence and curiosity. View course University of Aberdeen The Psychology of Social Bias Find out how social bias develops and study social bias in the workplace with psychologists. View course University of Bergen Global Health, Conflict and Violence Understand the role of medical peace work, and consider the role of healthcare workers in times of conflict and violence. View course U. Groningen · U. Warsaw · U. Tartu · von Humboldt Institute Growing Apart: What Is Polarisation and What Can We Do About It Explore why societies grow divided, how polarisation affects our lives, and some practical ways to deal with it. View course The Open University Why Religion Matters: Religious Literacy, Culture and Diversity Discover why religion is important for understanding and engaging with global challenges. View course

Saylor.org

A non-profit offering full, self-paced courses. Complete the course and pass the final exam to receive a free, verifiable certificate of completion.

Browse Saylor's Social Science catalog →
Sociology SOC101: Introduction to Sociology Study major sociological theories, culture, socialization, groups and institutions, and social stratification by income, gender, race, ethnicity, aging, and social change. View course Psychology PSYCH101: Introduction to Psychology Explore the fundamental principles of psychology and major topics of inquiry such as emotion, development, memory, and psychopathology. View course Economics ECON101: Principles of Microeconomics Analyze the economic decisions consumers, firms, and government face around scarcity, supply and demand, production costs, and opportunity costs. Find on Saylor Economics ECON102: Principles of Macroeconomics Explore what drives the overall performance of economies and how public policy helps or hinders goals like reducing unemployment or increasing trade. Find on Saylor Economics ECON135: What Is Money? Michael Saylor and Robert Breedlove discuss Bitcoin through the lenses of energy, technology, and anthropology. Find on Saylor Political Science POLSC402: Global Justice Examine debates around global justice: human rights, cultural boundaries, distributive justice, inequality and poverty, environmental harm, and violence against women and children. Find on Saylor

OpenLearn

A free platform from The Open University (UK), offering accessible university-level learning with no entry requirements, tuition fees, or fixed schedules.

Browse all OpenLearn sociology courses →
The Social in Social Science A basic overview of how social science carries deeply embedded cultural assumptions, and the relationship between philosophical thinking and practical research methods. View course Social Problems: Who Makes Them? Discover how issues like anti-social behaviour, homelessness, drugs, and mental illness are identified, defined, given meaning, and acted upon. View course Social Construction and Social Constructionism Build a clearer definition and understanding of these frequently used terms, particularly in relation to social policy. View course Getting Started with SPSS A step-by-step introduction to statistics software through seven interactive activities — no statistics software required. View course

IBM Training

Professional courses, certifications, and hands-on labs from IBM. These picks build practical data and statistics skills that support social science research.

Before you start: you'll need to create a free IBMid and a Credly account to access these courses and receive the certification.

Credly badge Data Science Methodologies Understand the essential steps of data-science problem solving: defining the problem, collecting and analyzing data, building models, and interpreting deployment results. View course Cognitive Class Statistics 101 Learn descriptive statistics, variance, probability, correlation, and data visualization — taught using SPSS Statistics. No prior experience necessary; a free trial is available. View course