Nourish That Noggin!

This immensely immersive virtual tour leads you through the jungle and the world's largest cavern,  Hang Sơn Đoòng, with full 360-degree views, intimate atmospheric audio, and high-resolution imaging you can zoom into while exploring to get some great views, including hidden surprises if you look hard enough. The map has five main points, with multiple areas of exploration within.

 *Dons erudite accent* Have you really not seen the Museé d’Orsay of Paris? 2500+ museums all over the globe have made their galleries accessible to the public for free with high quality images through Google Arts & Culture. Many of them allow you to virtually tour the museum; when you choose a museum, look for the Yellow Sign of a person in the lower-right corner of the banner when you open the museum's page. Some offer interactive and informational online exhibits, too.

HistoryView VR is an excellent resource for virtual reality tourism. I first tried the Lake Shasta Cavern system tour and was highly impressed; everything was in sharp resolution, I could choose where to, "walk," at my own pace, had full 360 views wherever I walked, and cool things to click on that taught me even cooler things. That said, despite their eclectic library, the searchability isn't great and I couldn't find a way to gauge a tour's length or digital features without going through it. Poke around a bit first.

Go through the Grand Canyon from your home thanks to Google Street Trek. The button to take me to the, "street view," for hiking did not work. If you have the same issue, let me get you started on the 9.3 mile-long Bright Angel Trail. Use Earth View for an aerial angle of where you're exploring. You can also hike the Mt. Everest base camp, but their StreetView button doesn't work on that one either so you'll have to figure out how to get started.

AirPano has catered to clients all over the world to provide you with some truly baller virtual tours. Virtual photo tours offer full 360 ° views in every shot, in incredible resolution, that you can zoom in and out of. You'll see points of interest to click on that guide you through the tour, and keep your eye out for the video tours that some offer. Try starting with the Avatar Mountains of the Zhangjiajie National Park of China

Does the term, "Greek life," elicit stomach-churning memories of being curled up by a toilet? Let's change that. Experience Greece via virtual tourism with the plethora of offerings and variety of quality tours, or use the site's homepage to experience even more Greek culture.

Explore the World - Learn Stuff! - QuarantineClever banner and "Resources" photos by cottonbro via Pexels

Saylor Academy  offers FREE accredited coursework (that transfers to dozens of universities)! Earned certificates through the site are provided free of charge.   Coursework, study material and exams are provided via academic consultants and content reviewers, contributors and partners as well as professors from a plethora of universities, including Ivy League schools, alongside other institutions. 

As a plus, the site also lets you share on LinkedIn to display what you’ve been gaining in knowledge. They also hook you up with digital transcripts and easy shareability for any earned certificates.

Alison  offers free online certificates and even diploma courses. They are not accredited, but can certainly still help on paper... and are a great way to keep yourself busy. 

Now's your chance to say you studied at Harvard (y'know, kinda). These free Harvard University Courses don't offer transferable credits, but there are plenty of free courses just to learn something (most are set at four weeks-- perfect for the stay-at-home guidelines!). There are paid course options too, just use the “Price,” filter from the drop-down menu on the online courses page. 

A resource I probably could've benefited from when I decided to make this website, Khan Academy is offering free web development courses.  This is also a great resource for free courses and support for grade school kids (or if you want to practice converting fractions into decimals again). 

OpenCulture offers an impressive lists of free full-blown courses or lessons that cover a vast array of subjects and their niche categories. This is also a great resource for those who would benefit from audio lessons! Give it a looksee.

Duolingo is a great program if you're looking to pick up another language. You can also check out OpenCulture for a repository of other free language resources, though many of these tend to be more, "get-your-feet-wet," experiences

In response to the pandemic, Coursera is offering a variety of courses for free, as well as quizzes, homework and a certificate (if offered). That's right, I said homework (should we still call it homework if we're always home?). Check out their offerings, from courses on cloud technology to career development to public health to mental health. Make sure you follow the instructions so you can redeem your course for free!