Those who wanted to learn something new in the past had to enter a certain institution, pay fees and physically attend classes; these days you can access all human knowledge without even leaving your bedroom. Given that many of us freelancers have a tendency of staying in their bedrooms for months, online education seems to be the best available option if you want to hone your skills in an easy manner. So here are some of this year’s best online courses for freelancers:

Web design for everybody on Coursera

If you are new to web design, this course is a good place to start. Created by the University of Michigan, it covers several programming languages used in web development; a good thing about this particular course is that you’ll have a developed portfolio on hand by the time you are finished. The course is divided into five sub-courses: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Advanced Styling with Responsive Design and Capstone. Each sub-course will take 3 to 6 weeks to study — that’s pretty long, but the skills you’ll be taught are totally worth it.

C Programming For Beginners on Udemy

Ask any programmer what language a person with zero expertise in coding should learn first — you’ll most likely hear about studying C in response. This course is designed specifically for newcomers eager to learn the basics of programming: having listened to all 128 lectures (22 hours of video material), you’ll be able to code in C and create your own applications. A good fit for beginners.

Creative Writing on Coursera

The annotation says that this course is designed for those willing to specialize in such genres as short stories, narrative essays, and memoirs. In truth, this is a must-have for any aspiring writer in general. No matter whether you consider yourself a beginner or an established writer: during these 21 weeks of study you will learn many new things — and maybe even reconsider some of your old techniques. This course proves the thing they say about the relation between old dogs and new tricks to be untrue.

Time Management Fundamentals on Lynda

If you’ve got a bad habit of missing deadlines, don’t miss on this course taught by bestselling author and business coach Dave Crenshaw: you will learn about managing your tasks, developing your “time budget”, avoiding the “pitfalls of multitasking” — all in the span of three short hours. The fact that this is one of the most popular courses on Lynda kind of speaks for itself. Writer’s choice.