Software for Digital Scholarship

Start Here - Comprehensive Sources

Free for Mason Students, Faculty, and Staff. 

Subscribed Platforms

These have a wide variety of high-quality resources from basics to advanced topics.

Teaching? Add direct links to books or chapters in Blackboard with Leganto.

Teaching? Ask Learning Support Services for "Curator" status to create your own Learning Path

Foundational & Consumer Skills

These are free tutorials that include focusing on basics, general knowledge, or widely-useful skills. Links are directly to software-focused tutorials, but these also have a wide variety of non-technology topics.

• GCF Learn Free - Technology - A large collection of text and some video and/or follow-along tutorials
  • For most general computing topics, such as getting started with computers and the internet and using common software (such as Microsoft Office). The tutorials start from the beginning but include lots of tips that could benefit anybody.
• Crash Course - Computer Science - Video series produced by PBS for TV (40 ~12 min episodes)
  • Includes historical context and special topics such as Natural Language Processing and Hackers. Produced in 2017, but most is still relevant

Online Course Platforms

Most courses on these platforms are free to audit or participate without earning a certificate. The topics range from basics to more advanced, but are usually better for those with foundational skills.

• edX  (how to audit courses for free)
  • Courses on Computer Science
  • Harvard @ edX 
  • MITx @ edX  (see also MIT Open Learning Library)
• Coursera  (how to audit courses for free)
  • Courses on Computer Science, Information Technology, or Data Science

Teaching? See MIT Open CourseWare and other Open Educational Resources

For [Aspiring] Professionals

Check out the comprehensive resources linked above first! 

Company-Created Learning

Includes free materials on their specific software, but also many related topics, some of which also give certifications. May also include paid learning options. 

• Microsoft Learn 
• Apple Training 
• Grow with Google
  • Google Career Certificates
  • Google Digital Garage
  • Google Cloud Skills Boost
• IBM Training
• AWS Educate / AWS Training and Certification
• Cisco Networking Academy  (self-paced classes are free)
• See LinkedIn Learning for prep courses for CompTIA certifications. 

Other Free Courses

• Kahn Academy - Computing Lessons - A small number of tutorials with a mix of reading, video, and questions
  • Computers and the internet, computer science, and programming
• Open Learning Initiative - Independent Learner Courses - Text tutorials with embedded questions and interactive elements
  • PC Hardware (CompTIA), PC Software (CompTIA), Python, Java, Media Programming 

Data Science & Programming

Check out the Comprehensive Sources first. Some of the [Aspiring] IT Professional options include these topics as well, though specific recommendations are also included below.

Courses

• Harvard's CS50 or CS50 OpenCourseWare )
  • For Python, See CS50P
• LaunchSchool - Software Engineering. 
  • Free Live Workshops
  • LaunchSchool Textbooks (free) - Programming-focused books for beginners that supplement their courses
• See also the company-created learning from Google, Microsoft, and Amazon/AWS
• And the source for a language, for example:
  • R - Getting Help with R, An Introduction to R
  • Python - Beginner's Guide to Python, Documentation

Free Interactive

These are all free resources with a learning progression and interactive or hands-on elements. Some require creating accounts.

• freeCodeCamp
• Kaggle Learn
• CognitiveClass.ai
• W3 Schools
• SkillUP by Sipmlilearn

Located in 2700 Fenwick Library, the Digital Scholarship Center (DiSC), supports research in the areas of: 

creating, finding, and using data; geographic information systems (GIS); research data management, curation, and archiving; digital scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences; and digital project planning and management.