We’re all working from home now so I’ve put together this list of 17 free work from home online resources. Everything from free creatives classes by Brit + Co, two free months of Adobe Creative Cloud, Yale’s most popular class, and all the free live virtual concerts!
SEE ALSO: How I Made All Of My New Year’s Resolutions Happen
Table of Contents
1. TAKE A BRIT+CO CLASS – IT’S FREE UNTIL 3/31!
I’ve been a long time reader of Brit + Co (Brit Morin is an alma mater of UT Austin 🤘) and they are offering all of their online classes for FREE through 3/31! Go to brit.co/learn and use the code SELFCARE at checkout.
Interesting classes:
- Intermediate Watercolor Painting: Plants + Succulents
- Wanderlust Photography Bundle
- Digital Illustration For Social Media
- How To Sell At Craft Fairs Online Class
- Logo Design In Adobe Illustrator Online Class
2. TOUR WORLD-RENOWNED MUSEUMS
Not a tour in IRL but virtually! Thanks to Google Arts & Culture, we can now virtually tour 2,500 of the world’s most famous galleries, art, and exhibits. Including seeing a Picasso painting up close!
3. EXPLORE U.S. NATIONAL PARKS VIA 360-DEGREE VIRTUAL TOURS
Google just launched The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks – a new Google Arts & Culture exhibit and interactive documentary. You can take 360-degree tours of some of the most remote and beautiful U.S. National Parks!
4. PICK UP AN EXTRA JOB
If you need some extra cash or want to pick up some extra work, here’s a spreadsheet of 1575+ Remote Jobs From 100+ Companies Hiring Remotely.
5. TAKE A COOKING CLASS BY JULIA CHILD
You can now binge-watch every single episode of The French Chef with Julia Child. Julia Child’s iconic cooking show, The French Chef, was taped live and is now streaming on Prime and PBS. It dominated the televisions of home cooks from 1963 through 1973 and taught many a viewer how to cook like the French do. Learn how to make beef bourguignon, bouillabaisse, and more!
To watch on Amazon Prime Video, you have to be a Prime member. You can sign up for a free trial for 30 days, after which it’s $12.99 per month. Then, join PBS Living, which is a paid opt-in channel for Prime subscribers. You can enroll in a free trial for 7 days, after which the cost is $2.99 per month.
⚠️ Leaving Prime on April 01, 2020
via @oliverjeffers
6. HEAR A CHILDREN’S BOOK READ OUTLOUD
I don’t know about you but there’s something relaxing about hearing someone read a children’s book outloud and it’s even more special if it’s the author. Popular children’s book author Oliver Jeffers reads one of his books every weekday at 6pm GMT / 2pm EST / 11am PST and talking about some of the things that went into making it on his Instagram.
Full list of children book authors doing readings here.
7. WATCH NETFLIX WITH YOUR BESTIES OR S/O
Maybe not the most productive resource on this work from home online resources list but it’ll help us stay connected.
Thank you, Netflix for creating Netflix Party so we can watch movies and shows with our best friends and S/Os. You can chat with each other while watching too!
8. LEARN ABOUT SPACE
NASA has made its entire collection of images, sounds, and videos available and publicly searchable online. 140,000 photos and other resources available for you to see, or even download and use it any way you like.
9. TAKE YALE’S MOST POPULAR CLASS, FOR FREE
Yale University is offering a free course online, The Science of Well-Being, that teaches you how to be happier. The class was taught by Professor Laurie Santos in spring 2018 in response to concerning levels of student depression, anxiety, and stress, and it became the most popular class in Yale’s history and garnered national and international media attention.
You can audit the class entirely for free or opt for a $49 certificate of completion.
10. GO ON DISNEY WORLD RIDES
Go on a virtual ride of any of the rides at Disney World thanks to this YouTube channel. Enjoy 360° immersive Disney World videos captured in stunning 5K 360 VR. Best experienced with headphones and experience true spatial 360°audio (ambix).
11. WATCH YOUR FAVORITE MUSICALS
Watch hit musicals like Kinky Boots and 42nd Street right from your living room thanks to BroadwayHD that is currently offering a free seven-day trial, along with a wildly affordable $8.99 monthly plan.
12. WATCH LIVE VIRTUAL CONCERTS
NPA Music has compiled a list of live audio and video streams from around the world that links out to streaming platforms – some will require registration or a subscription, but most will be free. Click here for the schedule.
13. TAKE A WALK IN CLAUDE MONET’S GARDEN IN FRANCE
March 19 was the first day of spring, and it’s also the earliest first day of spring in 124 years. Explore the lush and serene gardens of England, France, Chicago, and Hawaii, and live like a Rothschild, Claude Monet, or a British Royal. House Beautiful has rounded up 5 virtual tours of five breathtaking gardens from across the globe.
14. 2 FREE MONTHS OF ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD
The creative and photography industry has gotten hit hard by COVID-19 so Adobe recently responded to widespread school closures by offering students free access to its Creative Cloud. But the company is now going a step further and is apparently giving every subscriber two months of free subscription during this economic downturn.
Check out Petapixel’s post to see how.
15. TAKE 600 FREE ONLINE COURSES FROM 190 UNIVERSITIES
In the past four months alone, 190 universities have announced 600 such free online courses. Class Central has compiled the list and categorized the courses into the following subjects: Computer Science, Mathematics, Programming, Data Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Education & Teaching, Health & Medicine, Business, Personal Development, Engineering, Art & Design, and finally Science.
16. FREE FITNESS CLASSES
I’m guilty of just working the day way at my desk/couch so thank you Austin360 for compiling this post of all the free online fitness classes
- Barre3 offers 15 days of free classes when you sign up for a trial
- Black Swan Yoga is live streaming free classes daily (donations accepted)
- CorePower Yoga is offering free on-demand classes
- Melody Dancefit is live streaming some classes on Instagram; check for details
- Orangetheory Fitness is posting a free daily at-home workout
- Studio Mantra is live-streaming yoga classes for free
17. MASTER SPREADSHEET OF COMMUNITY RESOURCES – COVID-19 EDITION
Someone put together this master spreadsheet of community resources on education, financial support, digital communities, freelancers/small biz owners, kiddos, and more.
BONUS: GREEN SCREEN + SKIN-SMOOTHING FILTER ON ZOOM
And this work from home online resources blog post wouldn’t be complete without a Zoom tip. We’re all using Zoom for conference calls now but did you know there are two hidden features on Zoom?
Green screen – forget cleaning up my room to look professional when I can upload any photo as my background (screenshot above of my Austin skyline)
Zoom filter – you can apply a filter to your video display that gives your face a softer look and minimizes the appearance of imperfections
- Before hopping on a video call, click on settings.
- In the Setting menu, click on the Video tab.
- Check the checkbox next to “Touch up my appearance”
