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LIST: Here are the Yale University courses you can take online for free

By Brooke Villanueva Published Jan 22, 2026 6:16 pm

Did you know you can take online courses led by Yale professors that are completely free of charge?

Yale University has Open Yale Courses that offer lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses online, including liberal arts disciplines such as humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences.

Led by scholars and scientists who teach at Yale's introductory undergraduate level, the online courses are designed "for a wide range of people around the world, among them self-directed and life-long learners, educators, and high school and college students."

Here's the complete list of OYCs with links to the sessions.

  1. African American History: From Emancipation to the Present (2010) by Jonathan Holloway
  2. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner by Wai Chee Dimock
  3. Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics by Charles Bailyn
  4. Frontiers of Biomedical Engineering by W. Mark Saltzman
  5. Freshman Organic Chemistry I by J. Michael McBride
  6. Freshman Organic Chemistry II by J. Michael McBride
  7. Introduction to Ancient Greek History by Donald Kagan
  8. Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior by Stephen C. Stearns
  9. Financial Markets (2008) by Robert J. Shiller
  10. Financial Markets (2011) by Robert J. Shiller
  11. Financial Theory by John Geanakoplos
  12. Game Theory by Ben Polak
  13. Introduction to Theory of Literature by Paul H. Fry
  14. Milton by John Rogers
  15. Modern Poetry by Langdon Hammer
  16. The American Novel Since 1945 by Amy Hungerford
  17. Environmental Politics and Law by John Wargo
  18. The Atmosphere, the Ocean, and Environmental Change by Ronald B. Smith
  19. The American Revolution by Joanne Freeman
  20. The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877 by David W. Blight
  21. The Early Middle Ages, 284–1000 by Paul Freedman
  22. European Civilization, 1648-1945 by John Merriman
  23. Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600 by Frank Snowden
  24. Early Modern England: Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts by Keith E. Wrightson
  25. France Since 1871 by John Merriman
  26. Roman Architecture by Diana E. E. Kleiner
  27. Dante in Translation by Giuseppe Mazzotta
  28. Global Problems of Population Growth by Robert Wyman
  29. Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature by Tamar Gendler
  30. Death by Shelly Kagan
  31. Fundamentals of Physics I by Ramamurti Shankar
  32. Fundamentals of Physics II by Ramamurti Shankar
  33. Introduction to Political Philosophy by Steven B. Smith
  34. Capitalism: Success, Crisis, and Reform by Douglas W. Rae
  35. Introduction to Psychology by Paul Bloom
  36. The Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food by Kelly D. Brownell
  37. Introduction to the New Testament History and Literature by Dale B. Martin
  38. Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) by Christine Hayes
  39. Foundations of Modern Social Theory by Iván Szelényi
  40. Cervantes' Don Quixote by Roberto González Echevarría

Each OYC has an entire set of class lectures complete with videos and other materials like syllabi, suggested readings, exams, and problem sets. You can opt to watch the videos, listen to their audio versions, or read the transcripts.

Registration is not required. Know more about the Open Yale Courses here.

If you're on the hunt for other free online courses being offered by Yale, check out its page at Coursera.