Many online learning platforms have responded to the closings of schools and universities during the coronavirus pandemic by expanding their offerings and giving free access to courses. As a service to readers that will endure beyond the pandemic, Al-Fanar Media offers here a guide to some of the more popular platforms in use by educational institutions, organizations and individual learners.

Our emphasis is on courses of interest to students of university age and adults, and also on lower cost e-learning or free offerings, such as MOOCs (massive open online courses), particularly those available in Arabic. We will eventually give readers the opportunity to review each platform in the hope of allowing students to share their learning experience in online classrooms and in online training, so other potential students can better judge if a set of courses is suitable for them.

A number of online platforms offer college-level and general interest courses online, and others offer specialized instruction for students or workers in particular fields, such as the creative arts or humanitarian work. We want to hear from readers about what they are looking for and what features they would find most useful as we build this resource out. Use the comments field at the bottom of this article or write to [email protected]. We also want to note that two platforms, Udemy and Coursera, are blocked in Syria due to U.S. sanctions.