In this article we’re going to take a detailed look at the free courses you can do on Skillshare – what Skillshare is, how it works and the pros and cons of their free plan.
We’ve also written about free courses on Udemy here. We’ll continue reviewing the free offerings of different platforms, as well as our take on free online courses in general, in future blog posts – stay tuned!
What is Skillshare?
Skillshare is an extremely popular online learning platform. They offer over 25,000 courses on a range of different subjects, which are grouped into three main categories:
- Create: Focusing on more creative & arts-based topics
- Build: Focusing on business-based topics
- Thrive: Focusing on lifestyle & productivity-based topics
Unlike other learning platforms that operate by selling users individual courses, Skillshare operates on a ‘freemium’ subscription basis. When you sign up for Skillshare, you can have either a free account or a premium account.
The free account is limited (which we’ll go into in a bit), and once you sign up for a premium account, you have access to the full Skillshare platform.
Skillshare also requires each course on the platform to have a ‘project’ associated with it – this project is something users can complete in their own time after the course, and allows them to practice what they’ve learned from the course.
How do free Skillshare courses work?
As we’ve seen above, Skillshare has both free and premium offerings for their product. You can sign up for a free account on their homepage – once you sign up, they immediately direct you to a page where you can register your details for premium (cheeky!), but you can redirect to the homepage to avoid this.
From here it’s about choosing a course. You can either browse topics, or search for what you want to learn. Once you’re browsing, make sure to filter out premium courses to avoid getting roped in to paying! It can be hard to tell much about a course from the initial results – click through on a course and explore the ‘About’ and ‘Reviews’ section to see whether the course is right for you.
We’ll now have a look at some of the pros and cons of free Skillshare courses. Bear in mind we’re talking about the general course here – individual courses can vary both in length, detail and content, though in general they follow a similar theme.
Pros of free Skillshare courses
1. They mostly require little commitment
Like many platforms offering free courses, getting started on free courses is pretty commitment free – obviously, the courses don’t cost anything so there is no financial obligation. The courses are in general also reasonably short (anything from 10 minutes to a few hours), meaning you don’t have to commit much time to explore a subject area of interest.
2. They’re mostly aimed at beginners
This can be both a pro and a con (as we’ll see). Many of the Skillshare courses on the free plan are good for beginners, offering introductions and basic lessons on a variety of topics. This fits in well with the low levels of commitment with the free plan, allowing users to explore new topics they may be interested in but don’t want to initially dive into deeply.
3. They’re fairly representative of premium content
The content you can access on the free plan of Skillshare is pretty similar to the content you can access on the paid plan – there is just less of it. This means you can get a pretty good idea of what the platform feels like, before you commit to a paid plan.
4. You can have a free trial
You can also start a free trial on the platform, which allows you to get access to the paid plan for no initial cost. This can be great for trying out the paid version with no cost, but beware – they’ll take your payment details before you start the free trial, and once it ends you may start paying for the premium plan without noticing.
Cons of free Skillshare courses
1. There’s a limited choice of course
As alluded to above, the free plan on Skillshare offers a limited amount of initial courses. This means the actual learning you can get done from the free plan is extremely limited, and might not be in topics you genuinely want to learn about.
2. They’re mostly aimed at beginners
The flip side of this arises when you’re not actually a beginner anymore. If you already possess knowledge in the area you want to learn more about, you may struggle to find appropriate courses on the free Skillshare plan – and may have to jump straight into the paid plan to find the content you want.
3. Courses are pretty standalone
The free courses on Skillshare rarely link into each other – they are offered on a variety of topics by a variety of instructors, and aren’t part of a greater learning path. As a result, once you’ve completed one course it isn’t necessarily clear where you should go next with your learning.
4. Guidance is limited
When you register for Skillshare, you can browse for courses on whatever topic you like. However, it’s then up to you to choose which course to do. Although you can reference things like number of students enrolled and reviews, it can be difficult to know exactly which course is right for you to begin with.
5. They’re designed to get you hooked
The free plan on Skillshare is designed to get you hooked on the platform, and to turn you into a paying customer. From a small number of possible courses to advertisements and regular reminders about what the paid plan offers, the free plan can distract you from, and limit, your learning experience.
Conclusion
That’s our take on Skillshare’s free plan! We hope it helps you to decide whether you want to try it out.
In the meantime, why not get started on Pyxium? We’re a new online learning platform that converts your learning into currency!
How?
Working with experts in our subject areas of Health & Wellbeing, Social Issues and Personal Development, we’re using the latest research into how people learn to create free high-quality, interactive online courses.
And when you learn on Pyxium, you create ‘pyxies’. Pyxies are units of a virtual currency you can use to buy things in our marketplace, from subscriptions to vouchers to books and more!
We’re currently in development and looking for both instructors and users to help us build our platform. You can register your interest to be involved here.
Here’s to your learning journey!
