Free History Courses & Certifications

In the recent past, conserving cultural heritage has become a vital discussion worldwide. Time and again, urbanisation poses challenges for new development that can maintain the age-old qualities and values of urban areas. The Cultural Heritage in Transformation training allows students to understand, explore, sustain, and utilise a city's cultural heritage.

RWTH Aachen University, one of the most famous institutions in Europe, is offering the five-week-long Cultural Heritage in Transformation programme. The instructor-led course requires students to devote five-six hours per week. Throughout the training, industry veterans will introduce several topic-based approaches and methods using the City of Aachen as a model for candidates. Students will learn with examples of the city, landscapes, artefacts, and individual buildings. 

The Cultural Heritage in Transformation course curriculum also features assignments and revision questions for practice and better understanding. The intermediate-level training runs on a course schedule. The signed and verified edX certification that you will receive after completing the curriculum and paying a fixed price will add immense value to your job profile.

The online programme is provided in a self-paced mode and it can be taken by the learners in two modes; certificate and free. In the paid certificate mode, the candidates will get unlimited access to the course whereas in the free mode, they will be given access only for a limited period of time. 

A significant part of the history of the world, the American past holds a great number of gems hidden to date from many which can be used to figure out patterns that are closely interlinked with the present of this globe, which precisely the course will be mentioned in detail. Smithsonian’s Objects That Define America boasts about a perspective of history that is unique to its contents and mentions the iconic symbols, which though were of great significance in that era, have come to be forgotten.

By the end of the Smithsonian’s Objects That Define America certification course, the candidates will have a distinct knowledge of objects narrating the key points in the history of America. They will have gained insight into the distance as well as the recent past through observation of the moments collected in Smithsonian, giving them the opportunity to recognize precious artifacts, their stories and be able to connect and create their lifetimes. 

Smithsonian’s Objects That Define America course will help the candidates in all fields connected to or using the knowledge of, America’s history, valuable memorabilia, their theoretical studies, sequencing timelines, and such.

The Remembering Empire online course is about the collective memory of the empire. It talks about the memories of French settlers in Algeria and their view of Algerian colonial history. In this program, you will learn about these settlers’ history, the subsequent eight-year-long Algerian War of Independence, and the French settlers’ mass exit in 1962. The curriculum focuses on the mass migration’s cultural impact and aims to arrive at how France shaped Algeria’s colonial history. 

The UK Government’s Arts and Humanities Research Council has funded the Remembering Empire certification. It is a five-week online course in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities. You will be learning through videos, short readings, discussions, and quizzes through an interactive and comprehensive journey. 

Dr. Fiona Barclay of the University of Stirling, Scotland, will deliver the Remembering Empire program. You do not need any prior knowledge to join this course. Moreover, this in-depth curriculum will help you seek career prospects in cultural industries, charities, and amongst memory activists, museums, etc. 

Have you ever wondered what made Star Trek a cult classic? How it began as an unsuccessful network series and transformed into a whole universe of feature films, fan conventions, television series, and memorabilia? If yes, then choose edX’s Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology III programme. Here, you’ll take an in-depth look into why this globally popular series resonates with millions. Offered by The Smithsonian Institution, this is a five-week introductory training in ‘History’. 

The immersive Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology III certification syllabus will employ object exploration, critical analysis, Star Trek’s clips, experts’ viewpoints, and debate sessions with fans. Additionally, you will also examine how this series’ motion films and live-action tv shows impacted audiences worldwide. The curriculum will also explain how this cult movie tackled various controversial subjects, including gender, sexuality, race, and ethics.

The Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology III online course provides free auditing and an optional certificate (paid). The curriculum schedule is self-paced, has English transcripts, and requires just one to three hours of study every week. 

The Tabernacle in Word & Image: An Italian Jewish Manuscript Revealed certification course is an estimated 5 weeks online course. This programme can be studied through the online platform edX. The syllabus comprises five video lectures in number and are short that explore Mantua, Malkiel Ashkenazi’s Tavnit ha-mishkan manuscripts.

The Tabernacle in Word & Image: An Italian Jewish Manuscript Revealed training course has no pre-requirement of knowing Jewish or intellectual history. This short history programme also introduces a free, and fascinating Italian Jewish text concerning the collection portrayed at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Guetta explains through this programme by studying the manuscripts which state how Jews intellectually lived their lives.

2 different tracks are offered by Edx, one of which is the audit track which offers limited but free access whereas the other one is the verified track which gives unlimited access to the course materials.

The course in Modern Indian Art from the Colonial Period to the Present by Swayam delves into the socio-political, aesthetic, and cultural factors that have shaped the history of Indian art movements. Beginning from the colonial period, it traces the evolution of Indian art forms as a function of external and internal factors, such as shifts in patronage from kings to the erstwhile colonial rulers. 

The Modern Indian Art from the Colonial Period to the Present course is designed to look at vital moments in Indian history and correlate them with changing art styles. It also highlights how the art style changed from nationalistic to individualistic. The candidates will get to study the significant Indian artists, their works of art, and how they influenced the movement.

The Course in Modern Indian Art from the Colonial Period to the Present encourages art appreciation amongst the candidates and teaches them how to critique art forms. It is a 4-week long programme, offered by the expert faculty from Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. 

The early modern period saw many new inventions, but the development of printing was probably the most exciting of them all. The course on The History of the Book in the Early Modern Period: 1450 to 1800 will teach candidates about the impact of this printing revolution on contemporary politics, religion, medicine and science. 

Candidates will learn how books were made, illustrated and bound together. They will learn how these books were sold, circulated and read by the people of the early modern period. Such insightful details about the history of the book in the early modern period are bound to be an enriching experience for the candidates.

The History of the Book in the Early Modern Period: 1450 to 1800 by FutureLearn gives candidates a unique opportunity to study early modern book production using sample books from the Edward Worth Library, Dublin and Trinity College Dublin. Candidates can look through early editions of Aesop’s Fables or study the engravings of Anthony Van Dyck.

An Introduction to Japanese Subcultures online course is designed to answer the questions of the people who are interested in Japanese subcultures but do not know where to look first. You will analyse the culture deeply and examine its historical context. 

If you are familiar with Shonen-manga, Japanese pop music, Shojo-manga, Vocaloid and other elements of this phenomenon and want to learn more, this course is for you. An Introduction to Japanese Subcultures course by FutureLearn serves as an apt gateway into the world of the ‘Cool Japan’. 

You will explore the reasons why Japanese subculture intrigues people all around the world, with a primary focus on defining the dimensions of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘immaturity’ of youth culture from the 1970s. These keywords are meant to explain a new meaning of the cultural phenomenon in Japan.

The Japanese subculture has garnered substantial worldwide popularity and acceptance in the last two decades. An Introduction to Japanese Subcultures MOOC will take you through the causes behind it and how its market is expanding. 

Moreover, the course will let you recognise key Japanese subcultures like comics, anime, J-pop idols, cosplay and the Hatsune Miku Vocaloid emphasising on the themes such as Battle, Fan culture, Love and Technology.

The Hollywood: History, Industry, Art course will help you explore how Hollywood became globally prominent and art that is widely celebrated. The course curriculum covers how the present-day Hollywood industry plays a role in politics using film, TV, and new media. You will also dive deep into the various studios such as Warner Bros, Disney, and Fox and their story in cinema's evolution. 

The Hollywood: History, Industry, Art certification programme will uncover the impact, advanced technological tools had on the process of creating a movie. By taking examples of various independent and Hollywood films, the course will provide insights into the transitions we can expect to see in the future. The four-week training from edX is entirely self-paced but has a time constraint in case the students have selected the audit mode. In case of selection of the verified mode, the candidates will have an unlimited amount of time to complete the programme.

Besides, the Hollywood: History, Industry, Art online programme by Edx is taught by an experienced faculty, Peter Decherney from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. The introductory level course requires no prerequisites. The training falls into the communication domain and covers synchronised sound, color cinematography, home video, computer graphics, and the internet.  

The Certification course on Invitation to The Tale of Genji: The Foundational Elements of Japanese Culture will provide an insight into the age-old story of “The Tale of Genji”. During the course, many video lectures and references will be provided to elaborate and explain the customs, manners, and sensibilities of the Kyoto city and the society of the Japanese aristocrats. The students will gain a comprehensive and presided view of the then-Japanese society. The Tale of Genji will provide a foundation base for Japanese literature. It will allow the students to learn more about history from a different perspective and will help to understand the spirituality related to Japanese society in ancient times.

Considered to be the world's first prose fiction and novel the “Tale of Genji” is considered to be a central piece of literature. Hence, the Invitation to The Tale of Genji: The Foundational Elements of Japanese Culture program provides students an opportunity to learn more about royal life. Among the 2 paths, if the candidates choose the Audit mode they will be getting only limited-time access to the course whereas the access becomes unlimited if the Verfiied track is selected by the candidates.

Through Poetry in America: The Civil War and Its Aftermath course, the candidates will become acquainted with different historical facts that have taken place in the context of American literature, specifically, poetry during and after the Civil War had taken place. edX takes the learning experience to the next place by providing a course that will not only suit the experienced candidates but also those who do not have any prior knowledge in his field and are interested in knowing more about it. The candidates will draw inspiration from distinguished and world-renowned guests such as Harvard Civil War scholar John Stauffer, Professor, and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner, baritone Davone Tines, and Harvard President Drew Faust. The candidates will not only be just receiving the theory aspect of education but will also become familiar with the real-life applications of those concepts with the help of live examples and case studies. 

All this will be covered within a span of 4 weeks. Candidates need to be regular in their submissions and studies which will prove to be enough for them to score the passing percentage in Poetry in America: The Civil War and Its Aftermath certification course. 

The Introduction to History of Architecture in India program will help you understand architectural works as material expressions of societies, polities, and aspirations of a region. The course also provides a broad perspective on India's five thousand years of rich architectural history.

Moreover, the Introduction to History of Architecture in India course by Swayam is available at the UG level. In just four weeks, you will have acquired knowledge of the various cultural, artisanal, technological, and philosophical processes of every period and place of architecture in India. 

Core topics covered in the Introduction to History of Architecture in India syllabus include Cave & Wooden architecture, Islamic architecture, Sultanate architecture, Medieval temples, Mughals and Rajputs, Neoclassical architecture, and more. 

As such, you will study the complete history of architecture in India, starting from the Bronze Age through the Vedic Culture period, early Buddhist period, early modernity in architecture, and colonial buildings. Finally, the Introduction to History of Architecture in India online course will culminate on the architecture from the Republic of India.

Walter Scott was a writer, collector, and the most enduring cultural icon of Scotland who is famous all over the world. The Walter Scott: The Man Behind the Monument certification will allow exploration of the literature that is responsible for the heritage and Scotland’s national identity. This is a month-long online course where learners give a mere 2 hours as study time every week. Moreover, the certification is given jointly by the University of Aberdeen, Abbotsford Trust, and FutureLearn.

Walter Scott: The Man Behind the Monument training is famous for enlightening Walter Scott’s legacy as a poet and novelist. With this course, candidates can also take part in the conversation by using social learning with their teachers and fellow students. The courses are divided based on weeks so candidates can simply complete the course whenever it is ideal for them.

Walter Scott: The Man Behind the Monument certification syllabus has the course content broken up into video, short articles, and audio in topics like Scott’s work selection, and what led him to be behind the books and monuments in Scotland.

Modern Sculpture: An Introduction to Art History certification by the University of York, and FutureLearn helps the candidates jump onto learning the art history while exploring public sculpture. Learning modern sculpture becomes quite easy as candidates will be developing their visual capabilities.

With the Modern Sculpture: An Introduction to Art History certification syllabus, candidates can explore the conceptual, material, and theoretical questions that have risen around 20th-century sculptures like parks, galleries squares, museums and city centres that one finds everywhere. Being a creative art, and Media course, this programme is able to help candidates to start off a conversion regarding purchasing artworks by initiating arts-related conversation.

Modern Sculpture: An Introduction to Art History is run over a period of 4 weeks that is responsible for making the candidates aware of the contemporary sculpture’s epicentre like Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and Henry Moore Institute so that these sculptures can be explored visually.  

Examine how football evolved from the old era to today’s modern-day with the 4 weeks English Football: a Social History online course. This short certification course is outlined by the joint efforts of De Montfort University, the University of Leicester, and FutureLearn. With this course, people will be able to understand the evolving nature of English football with a special interest in Leicester City Football Club and the World Cup.

Both the universities have partnered with Leicester City Football Club to develop the English Football: a Social History certification syllabus that gives us detailed information on how the Premier League; the World Cup, and LCFC transformed into Premier League Champions.

This English Football: a Social History training course comes under the History course of Futurelearn that gives a unique insight of both history and sociology of this fantastic sports football, and portrays the whole inside story of how a premier league club is formed and plays football.

The World Bank states that Africa’s working-age population is likely to increase by almost 70% by 2035. However, to achieve sustainable development, industrialisation is crucial to create jobs. While rapid manufacturing has been beneficial for east Asian countries, will it be useful for Africa? Industrial Policy in the 21st Century: The Challenge for Africa online course explores this and many other questions related to Africa’s industrialisation policy requirements. 

The Industrial Policy in the 21st Century: The Challenge for Africa course surveys various ways to promote economic growth in Africa. The prime focus will be on ‘industries without smokestacks’, an industrial policy that encourages industry growth and economic development in Africa, foregoing the manufacturing policies. 

Industrial Policy in the 21st Century: The Challenge for Africa is a four-week online course. However, you can learn at your own speed. With a weekly effort of two to four hours, you will be able to complete the course on time. The educator for this course is John Page, a representative of the SDG Academy.  The self-paced course is free to join and access it for a limited duration. To get the certificate and unlimited access to the programme, they learners will need to pay the prescribed fee. 

The Globalization: Past and Future online course by edX is designed to enlighten you about the history of globalisation. The course focuses on the question: Is globalisation a recurring pattern or a new occurrence? It is a four-week-long mini-course curated by the SGD Academy that gives you the chance to earn an e-certificate on completion.

Throughout the Globalization: Past and Future certification programme, you will go on an anthropological and historical tour of six different phases of globalisation. These epochs are the great dispersal, the Neolithic revolution, land-based globalisation, ocean-based globalisation, the Anglo-American world (industrial age), and new globalisation.

With the help of the programme, you will explore the technology development, dispersal and the main factors that led to innovation in these distinct eras. You will also be able to extract important lessons from history to understand the disorderly changes of today. To complete this course, you will need to put in an average of two to four hours per week for four weeks. The course has two enrolment options; verified and free audit. You can get unlimited access to the course in the verified mode whereas in the free mode, you can audit it for a limited duration. 

The Paradoxes of War is an online programme offered in partnership with the prestigious Princeton University. The course encompasses all the core concepts of war and explains how it paradoxically expresses man’s innate animal instincts and constitutes our coherence as groups. The course curriculum consists of key learnings to help you understand these, such as war’s nature, causes, experiences, the war between armies, how battles have progressed, the war between societies, war’s social aspects, and more.

The Paradoxes of War programme is an entirely free course, where all features will be available to you without any cost. The curriculum includes pre-recorded videos and has been designed to suit your busy schedule. Hence, it is entirely online so that you begin instantly and learn whenever you want

Furthermore, the Coursera Paradoxes of War Online Course is available in English but also features multilingual subtitles, including Portuguese (Brazilian), French, English, Russian, Romanian, and Spanish. The programme will last a total of 3 weeks, and you will be able to complete it in approximately 14 hours. No certification is provided for this course.

Magna Carta is an old document approximately 807 years old which is an important document of history and has altered the laws and regulations of the United Kingdom. It is a document that is enforced in 1215 to king John that a king and his government are not above the law. The document is very important from the historical point of view and also holds importance in spreading liberty among the civilians. The course on Magna Carta and its Legacies: Freedom and Protest is an initiative by the University of London for the students who are willing to explore more about the Magna Carta. 

Magna Carta and its Legacies: Freedom and Protest training is an online 3-week course available on the online platform of Coursera. The classes of the course will be taken by the experts and will be completed in 9 hours. The course will focus on the significance of the Magna Carta on the globe, and the reason behind perceiving the Magna Carta as a radical document. The candidates who shall opt for the certification mode will receive Magna Carta and its Legacies: Freedom and Protest certification by the University of London and Coursera.