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10 Places to Get a Free Business Education Online

Getting a business education doesn't have to be expensive. An increasing number of colleges, universities and even nonprofit organizations offer free business courses online. Find out how you can sign up for these courses and what you can get from them.

Take Free Courses. Earn Real College Credit.

Most free courses don't lead to college credit. Education-Portal.com's free courses do!

Here's how it works:

  1. 1. Watch free video lessons.
  2. 2. Pass an exam to earn real college credit.

1. Education-Portal.com - Free Online Courses

Education-Portal.com's free online courses are designed to prepare students to earn real college credit by passing the College Board's College Level Examination (CLEP) exam, but they're open for anyone to use for any purpose! Most lessons are under 10 minutes long and are accompanied by an online quiz and full video transcript.

2. MIT OpenCourseWare - Sloan School of Management (mit.edu)

MIT OpenCourseWare might be the next best thing to getting an MIT education for free. Through this free online publication you can find bachelor-level business courses, as well as master-level courses, offered by MIT's Sloan School of Management. The curriculum includes lecture notes, videos, labs demonstrations and more. No registration is required and more than 50 courses are available.

3. The U.S. Small Business Administration (sba.gov)

The Small Business Administration has one of the best selections of business courses on the web. Topics include everything from starting a business and business management to government contracting and international trade. Most courses take only 30 minutes to complete.

4. The Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA Program (managementhelp.org)

Free Management Library's Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA(SM) Program is a great resource for students wishing to learn more about nonprofit management. Completion of this program will not result in an MBA degree, but enrollment is free. The amount of time it takes to complete the program will depend on how fast you learn, but you may expect to spend at least 200 hours on coursework.

5. London School of Business and Finance

This internationally renowned business school is offering its entire online MBA program for free. Anyone can sign up for their Facebook application to gain access to all of the course content from the program, including hundreds of hours of videos, lessons, assignments and educational resources. Students who would like to earn the degree can apply to LSBF and pay tuition retroactively at the end.

6. My Own Business - (myownbusiness.com)

Nonprofit organization My Own Business, Inc. offers a free online business administration course that would be beneficial to new managers and to anyone who is interested in starting a business. This comprehensive course is split up into 14 sessions covering topics like business plans, accounting, marketing, insurance, e-commerce and international trade. For under $100, students can also acquire the accompanying textbook and a certificate of completion.

7. University of California Irvine (uci.edu)

The University of California Irvine offers several free business courses in English and Spanish through their OpenCourseWare site. Courses are broken down into lessons, and include optional reading lists for students who want to dig deeper into the course subjects.

8. Kutztown University - Small Business Development Center (kutztownsbdc.org)

The Small Business Development Center at Kutztown Univeristy of Pennsylvania offers an online business course that can take less than one week to complete. The course presents strategies for crafting and executing business visions, mission statements and goals. The SBDC also provides strategic planning software free to all course participants.

9. University of California Berkeley

The University of California Berkeley offers a new selection of business courses each semester. Courses are lecture-based and typically include either audio or video or both.

10. Financial Management Training Center Courses (exinfm.com)

The Financial Management Training Center provides 20 free downloadable business courses for people who need to learn the finer points of financial management. All courses can be taken online. They include full exams as well as evaluation forms for people seeking Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits.

Earn Real Credit from Free Courses

While the free courses above don't award credit directly, you can earn credit by passing an exam and transferring credit to your college. There are two widely recognized and affordable options for exams that award credit.

Option #1: CLEP Exams

The College Board's 33 CLEP exams allow you to test out of your general education requirements. Credit is accepted at 2/3 of colleges and universities in the U.S.

Option #2: Excelsior College's Credit-by-Exam

Excelsior College offers over 40 exams that lead to transferable credit. You can also earn three full degrees by taking free online courses and earning your credit by exam.

Learn how Education Portal Academy will pay you to earn credit!

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32 Popular Schools

The schools in the listing below are not free but are popular choices among our users. Tuition and costs will vary across programs and locations. Be sure to always request tuition information before starting a program.