Many students, whether ESL students or natives, find it difficult to study, so they search for suitable material on various internet resources. There are many such opportunities. All network resources can be paid or free. Many paid resources roam from site to site. Their authors also use ready-made materials, slightly adjust them, and then sell them. Therefore, it is better to use free or paid resources with a good reputation.
Of course, if we compare native students with those from Asia who came to get a degree in the United States, it is no wonder that Asian students need more help with their writing for certain reasons. These reasons start with the fact that they are in a new country and end with all the differences between the languages. We have made for you a selection of the best educational resources for middle school students. These resources will provide insight into the concepts and ideas studied in universities and colleges and provide additional information on a variety of topics.
1. Google Academy
- Number of materials: millions
- Certificate availability: not issued.
- Registration: optional.
Google Academy is a free search engine with texts of scientific publications in any discipline. Google Academy searches for conference papers, theses, dissertations, scientific books, abstracts, monographs, annotations, technical reports, and other scientific knowledge in various fields. This service is in high demand by students and graduates carrying out research work. It can be said that this service is more for acquiring academic knowledge.
2. TED Talks
- Number of conferences: more than 3,500
- Certificate availability: not issued.
- Registration: optional.
Lectures by famous people are published on this site for free and free viewing. These conferences are designed to promote the most important and advanced ideas of our time. They will be very interesting for young progressives.
3.Edx.org
- A number of courses: over 2,500 in English from 140 universities.
- Availability of the certificate: in some courses, a free, non-nominative certificate is issued electronically.
- Registration required.
- App: Available for Android and iOS.
EdX is a non-profit organization, a project of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and University of California at Berkeley. The platform was founded in 2012, more than 20 million students study there and there are more than 120 partners. Most courses are fee-based and the requirements for students are high. If you completely complete all household chores on time and successfully, they will give you a certificate. The EdX platform provides in-depth professional knowledge.
4. Coursera
- A number of courses: more than 4,000 in English.
- Availability of certificates: verified prepaid certificates and free certificates for various courses.
- Registration required.
- App: Available for Android and iOS.
Coursera is the largest educational resource with hundreds of partners worldwide and over 73 million students. The site cooperates with the universities of Stanford, Princeton and Michigan. They aim to open training centers around the world. Coursera is a trading company. There are many exclusive courses. Nevertheless, you have the opportunity to obtain a prestigious certificate for free through the financial aid program.
5. FutureLearn
- Many courses: more than 700 in English.
- Certificate Availability: Verified prepaid certificates.
- Registration required.
- Application: No.
FutureLearn is a British MOOC project cooperating with Bristol, British Museum, British Council, Universities of Liverpool, Birmingham, etc. FutureLearn is part of The Open University project (The University of Open Education in the UK), developing distance learning for over 40 years.
6.Udemy
- Many courses: more than 130,000 in different languages.
- Availability of the certificate: in some courses, a free, non-nominative certificate is issued electronically.
- Registration required.
- App: Available for Android and iOS.
Udemy is the easiest and most user-friendly educational platform. There are already more than 35 million students and 57,000 teachers. Udemy offers a variety of courses on various topics, but the most developed and popular programs are in computer science, economics, and business. What’s special about Udemy is that the free courses don’t include assignments. They contain both short and long videos. Another feature of this site is to create your course on the platform and earn money on it.
7. Search for references
Somewhat minimalist design, but the appearance, as usual, is deceiving. This site has saved hundreds of thousands of school children and students. The principle of its operation is simple — it is something like Google, only for academic sources. You need to drive a rough topic in the search and dig deep into the output. There is a chance to find the necessary information (for example, of course, and not for plagiarism).
8. How it works
It is an online counterpart to the eponymous program on the Discovery Channel. Here you’ll find news, infographics and articles that explain how just about everything in the world works – from a submarine to Queen Elizabeth II’s love for corgi dogs. In addition, you can find answers to the most random questions there. For example, why do we have ten fingers, and not, say, 6 or 22?
It will be beneficial for those who turn to the natural sciences, especially physics. Besides that, there is a lot of exciting information about ecology, biology and engineering.
9. Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC)
One of the top academic search engines from the US Department of Education. More than 1.3 million articles, books, lecture notes and other documents in all fields of science. The results obtained can be filtered by a dozen parameters – the year of publication, the type of article, the level of studies, the country and the author. This site is best suited for finding publications on highly specialized topics.
10. Popular Science
This is an informative website for those curious about science, technology, health and the environment. The news and articles in this resource will help revitalize the summary with little-known facts, current news and exciting examples. It will not be easy to write a complete summary based on them, but you can find information that will make the school’s scientific work unique.
11. Virtual Learning Resource Center
A search engine brings together thousands of sites with academic content. The selection is not random: teachers, professors and librarians from all over the world have listed these resources. A great place to find accurate, up-to-date information on any discipline. Suitable for both school children and university students.
If you find it difficult to choose the right resource or you don’t have time for relevant research, you can directly contact an expert or consultant at a specialized paper writing service like Custom writes. You will be able to get qualified help when writing tests, essays, dissertations or theses, as well as in all the disciplines studied. Experts will compile the most up-to-date list of references for you and give you recommendations on how to write an article.