This word has appeared in 26 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
‘SNAP Wasn’t a Handout’: The Week 8 Winner of Our Summer Reading Contest
Viviana Thumm, 15, writes about the Trump administration’s cuts to the food aid program — changes she says are “personal.”
Gamified Learning: How Organisations Can Boost Learning Engagement by 25%
Disengaged learners cost organisations millions in lost productivity, higher turnover, and stalled capability growth. According to Gallup, employee disengagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion annually, equivalent to 9% of global GDP. The good news? According to G-UpLearning, companies that embed gamification into their L&D programmes report 25%+ higher engagement, stronger knowledge retention, and faster upskilling. By turning learning into an active, rewarding experience, gamification doesn’t just increase participation; it delivers a measurable business advantage.
At Alison, we recently conducted a beta test involving 56K+ users on our new gamified platform. This real-world test measured exactly how gamification impacted learning outcomes, and the results speak volumes.
What Is Gamified Learning?
Gamified learning refers to the use of game-like elements, such as points, badges, leaderboards, and progress streaks, within a digital learning environment. When integrated into a Learning Management System (LMS), these elements encourage consistent learner participation and reinforce positive behaviours.
Gamification isn’t just about adding fun for fun’s sake. It’s rooted in cognitive and motivational science, designed to create psychological incentives that keep learners coming back.
For example, a sales team using a gamified LMS might earn badges for completing product modules, see their names rise on a leaderboard for high quiz scores, and maintain a learning streak that unlocks bonus content, turning daily training into a friendly, rewarding competition.
The Solution: Gamification in Learning Management Systems
To address the persistent challenges of disengagement, low retention, and high drop-off rates, Alison integrated game mechanics directly into its LMS+, its Learning Management System.
In our beta programme, we introduced three key features:
- Experience Points (XP): Learners earned XP for completing modules and quizzes, offering immediate, tangible rewards for progress.
- Leaderboards: Ranking systems created friendly competition among users, energising learners through visible achievement and team dynamics.
- Streaks: Daily participation streaks reinforced habit formation and rewarded learners for consistent effort.
These elements weren’t superficial add-ons. They were intentionally designed to align with motivational triggers and reduce friction in the learning journey. Together, they formed a scalable, free gamification platform built to improve both learner experience and business outcomes.
Incorporating these into your workplace gamification strategies enables scalable L&D innovation while aligning training with behavioural science principles.
By implementing these mechanics, Alison created a real-world example of LMS gamification lessons in action, illustrating how strategic design can radically shift user behaviour and performance.
Real Results from 56K+ Learners
Our beta test engaged over 56,000 learners. The performance gains were measurable and significant:
- Study time increased by 25.6%
- Number of sessions rose by 21.3%
- Course completions increased by 12.3%
- Average time per learner grew by 5.2%
These improvements were observed across regions, industries, and job roles, demonstrating that gamification in learning can deliver consistent results at scale.
Why Gamification in Learning Works
Gamification succeeds because it reflects how people are wired to respond to progress, recognition, and challenge. It connects psychological drivers to educational design.
- XP feeds the need for accomplishment. Seeing a progress bar move or watching a point total grow creates a real sense of momentum, even in small steps, which keeps learners engaged.
- Leaderboards tap into social motivation. When learners see their efforts reflected in rankings, even anonymously, they feel a deeper investment in outcomes.
- Streaks encourage consistency. Repeated actions over time form habits. By recognising consecutive days of learning, streaks make the process feel natural and worth sustaining.
In post-test feedback, learners shared how these features transformed their behaviour. Some returned “just to keep the streak alive.” Others admitted that the XP system nudged them into finishing courses they might have otherwise dropped. What began as a novelty quickly became motivation.
These results reinforce that, but because it’s built on a strong behavioural foundation. It aligns what learners want, clear goals, progress, and reward, with what organisations need: participation, retention, and outcomes.
What This Means for L&D Teams
For Learning & Development leaders, the implications are clear:
- Gamification reduces drop-off and increases course completion.
- It’s scalable across teams, departments, and geographies.
- Built-in engagement mechanics lower administrative overhead.
- Real-time analytics provide clear data on learner performance.
With gamification, training stops being something that needs reminders or follow-ups. Learners are more likely to return, participate, and complete without extra prompting, freeing up L&D teams to focus on strategy, not chasing completions.
How to Implement Gamified Learning in Your Organisation
To bring gamified learning to life in your workplace:
1. Use a platform with built-in gamification
Choose a learning platform like Alison’s LMS+ that includes XP, streaks, and leaderboards out of the box, no third-party tools or extra integrations required.
2. Align game mechanics with KPIs
Tie gamification to measurable goals like compliance, upskilling, or internal mobility. Use badges and XP to recognise real business milestones.
3. Communicate the why
Explain to learners how gamification benefits them, their career development, recognition, and overall learning outcomes.
4. Launch, track, and scale
Start small, gather data, and expand based on real engagement metrics. Use platform analytics to refine the approach and personalise future learning paths.
Conclusion: Gamified Learning Is More Than a Trend
Gamified learning isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a tested, psychology-backed approach to solving one of the biggest problems in corporate training: getting people to care enough to learn.
Done right, gamification fosters consistency, ownership, and motivation, without additional cost or complexity. And with Alison’s free gamification platform, it’s now easier than ever to embed those benefits directly into your organisation’s learning strategy.
Additional Tools to Boost Workplace Learning
To further support employee development, explore these valuable tools and assessments:
Stay connected with us on LinkedIn for updates and success stories.
Word of the Day: inedible
This word has appeared in 22 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
How AI Impacts Workforce Efficiency in Learning
Do you remember when people worked remotely due to COVID?
A couple of years ago, some companies announced that remote workers had to return to the office.
The reasoning behind this was that employees’ performance was better on-site than remote.
The data, though, doesn’t support that premise.
Companies from Gallup to Deloitte to McKinsey to the GAO to many others all show strong and better performance for remote workers compared to in the office.
On top of this, fewer distractions and more completed tasks appear with remote versus on-site.
Seeking lower attrition rates and happier employees?
Hubstaff found that 71% of employees had higher satisfaction compared to on-site employees.
Want another study?
Consider a study that found employees who worked remotely reported lower stress and better mental well-being. (79% and 82% respectively).
The adoption of companies that require employees to be in the office 100% of the time is increasing.
Take a look at any job site, and the numbers are significantly lower for someone to work remotely only versus hybrid or 100% on-site.
Even though that darn data again indicates a higher percentage of employees who would leave a company if they ever went to the office.
What about those cost savings?
Neat, found that on average. Employers will save around $11K (USD) per remote employee.
The environmental impact of on-site compared to remote operations has the potential to result in 54 million greenhouse gas emissions.
All of which, when viewed from a broader perspective, clearly indicate the benefits of remote versus on-site work, including environmental benefits, reduced employer costs, improved employee well-being, increased productivity, and fewer distractions.
Workforce efficiency and performance staring you, well, the person overseeing the whole strategy, right in their face.
Nevertheless, the push for full on-site improves productivity, and the benefits of such are overall the mode of operation for many companies, including Amazon.
I bring this up because the idea that AI will increase employee performance and make them more efficient isn’t, at this stage, a winning solution.
Let’s not kid ourselves here.
There will be plenty of companies, as data and studies show, that eliminate jobs and replace them with AI.
This isn’t in any stretch a benefit for employee performance.
Workforce efficiency, though?
McDonald’s experimented with AI to improve workforce efficiency, reducing the need for employees to take orders and serve food at the window.
It failed miserably.
An article in the New York Times discusses individuals with computer science degrees who focused solely on coding, only to lose their jobs or struggle to find employment due to coding being handled by AI.
One individual stated they applied to over a few thousand jobs to no avail. There wasn’t any mention of whether this person adapted, and while looking, started to take courses on AI programming – a necessity for the next generation of the workforce.
Schools and higher academia are finally recognizing the relevance of AI for tomorrow’s workforce and are moving away from the wholly coding experience.
However, for graduates with an AI programming degree, finding a job depends on many factors, which isn’t the focus of this thread.
Nor is the amount of money that will be thrown at them (assuming their talent level is elite).
What is missing in all these discussions is an effective business plan that incorporates AI into the development of workforce performance and efficiency.
A topic I will refrain from discussing in detail with this post.
The post here, instead, is about learning technology needs towards workforce efficiency and its rollout of functionality in learning systems (under the umbrella of LT), to meet those needs.
Are learning systems today meeting the needs of workforce efficiency?
The answer is no.
This is not unexpected, because of where AI stands, what is unknown (a lot), and what are its weaknesses and failures to solve (hallucinations, AI bias, and lately LLM traits moving over to another LLM), to say the least.
All of these exist, and yes, could be sitting in the system – not the bias – that is the client, ditto on the LLM we have, and we want to go into your system, and even the direct source, which may not exist – it’s your content, my dear client.
Systems themselves are limited in what they can do, even though, to their respective side, they are trying (as a whole) to induce and improve workforce performance and thus efficiency.
Is that learning’s role?
It is something we often fail to ponder.
What is the role of learning and training online in workforce performance and efficiency?
To guide? Yes
To offer opportunities to learn new skills and develop current ones, too? Yes
To empower an employee to produce more by knowing more?
All relevant only as it relates to what the company, i.e., the client, is offering them in terms of learning.
If we recognize that well-being is crucial for boosting productivity, offering employees the chance to take courses/content that are not only job-specific but also tailored to their personal needs makes perfect sense.
Yet, that is rare on the L&D and HR side. Training in its methodology finds the usefulness of personal and professional development.
That said, if the company forbades this mechanism of learning, then it is a negative on the part of the company itself.
There is by far nothing more stressful than the fear that AI will replace the employee.
That’s the stress a company should focus on from a learning standpoint. And make no mistake, there is real fear and thus stress here.
I stumbled upon a Reddit thread discussing the release of GPT-5 and its potential to replace white-collar workers.
The hype surrounding version 5 was driving this, as the respondents were not focusing on AI in general; some were, but overall, it was the latest LLM from OpenAI.
Even though there were mentions of the Ph.D. spin being incapable of solving basic math, there was also the occurrence of hallucinations and just general underwhelming sentiment.
Nevertheless, let’s say your company decided to roll out 5 in your workplace.
Under the presumption that the latest LLM would improve workforce efficiency and performance.
If the employee believes online learning will replace them and there is no plan to alleviate this fear, then the effectiveness of tasks becomes a serious question of what is defined as success.
There is, without a doubt, a time when two types of autonomous agents will appear within learning technology: free for XYS and, if you want more capabilities, a fee-based agent.
If I were a vendor investing in autonomous agents, I would consider this, depending on the agent’s level and what it can accomplish for the learner.
And that is a big piece, right?
For the learner.
Not just the admin, which would be of use to them.
Nor the manager or department head, again, depending on what it is doing and providing in terms of performance for the person in that role in the system.
But the learner.
Workflows and AI
It makes 100% sense, and the level to which it will be extensive or has the potential to be is a key element.
With an autonomous agent, you have one type of workflow, with learning and what “tasks” should be done or pushed out once X or Y is met is another, but what exactly is the task for the learner?
More importantly, should a task for an autonomous agent be handled by the learner, or should it be something the learner needs to learn themselves?
It’s one thing for AI to handle the creation of a slide deck (still requires a human to review, even if folks are ignoring doing this). Still, it is entirely different for someone who needs to learn how to do certain features, if not specifics, with PowerPoint, or even just the basics.
Would you want AI to handle this task in your system for that learner?
Answer engines will continue to improve, but their effectiveness is directly tied to the LLMs driving them, the multimodal approach (beyond just text, including audio, video, and PDF summaries) within the engine, the content, and the sourcing.
Today, Answer Engine for the most part is a search engine with some panache (as a whole).
It still requires the human element, as with any AI, until the days of Singularity happen, and impacts far more so than learning, but in our case here, learning.
Right now, though, how much should AI exist within a learning system, let alone another learning technology that improves the learner’s experience?
An answer engine surely would be – because knowledge management, at least in my opinion, will take an LMS, and other types of learning systems, to a whole new level.
If you look at it from a space level, what is a learning system?
It has always aimed to be, and continues to be, a platform for knowledge acquisition and growth, even if not explicitly stated.
With the engine, we can now say it out loud – the beginning of a new tier of knowledge management.
What then is the role of AI in a learning system from a performance standpoint?
Performance is the point here, because how we define performance with learning is the stuck in the mud, ROI thing, any L&D and Training exec will tell you, is data manipulation – after all, the necessity of saying 35 hours of learning reduced safety accidents by 84% or 42 hours of training (online) by ABC increased their sales by 43%.
Sure, doable, but there are always additional variables.
Nothing is as cause and effect, one-to-one.
With AI thrown into the learning mix, a whole new variable is at play.
Again, I am looking at the learner side and only their side.
Should I have AI handle tasks that learners typically perform or tasks that the AI can or will handle?
If it can read a publication and display only the highlighted text that correlates with the learner’s search, then yes, it helps in that way.
If the whole article is of zero interest to the learner, then I’d argue no.
Efficiency is often interwined with the guise of speed.
It is poor to think in such a way.
Especially with learning.
It reminds me of those “Speed Reading courses by Evelyn Wood,” that were prominent in the 70s and 80s.
OR those now thirty-somethings who would say that speeding through a YouTube video increased their learning comprehension and retention far more than the usual speed.
There is no mention of validation, say in six months, nor synthesis at 12 months.
Bottom Line
Visit any site these days that presents an article or post, including well-known publications, and you will see the summary above.
The summary includes specific points of relevance (as defined by the AI) for the reader.
However, the internet and its content are not primarily about learning to boost employee productivity in the workplace, whether they are on-site or remote.
Because, despite what you might think, on-site employee XTFD still could be reading on their mobile device, and not using their workplace desktop or laptop.
They are still not entirely focused on the task at hand.
Unless that task is about reading an article
Then yes, it is delivering.
But online learning on content that empowers the employee’s ongoing development of skills, and various personal and professional knowledge, shouldn’t be limited to an agent
.
Handling a task of this or that.
Instead, it should be in conjunction with the learner.
Symbiotic in a way
That maximizes
Rather than detracting.
E-Learning 24/7
How to Build a Daily Learning Habit (And Actually Stick to It)
We all want to learn more, grow faster, and keep upskilling. But let’s be honest, building a consistent learning habit is tough. Life gets busy, motivation dips, and that TV show you’ve been binge-watching always seems to win. There’s good news, though. Building a daily learning habit doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, with a few small tweaks, it can become something you actually look forward to.
But how do you make learning a daily part of your life without turning it into a chore? Read on and we’ll show you how to go from “I should learn more” to “I learn something new every day.”
Start With Consistency, Not Intensity
You don’t need to study for three hours a day. In fact, starting that way is one of the fastest routes to burnout. Instead, aim for just a few minutes a day. Commit to what you can, whether that’s 10 or 20 minutes. It’s not about cramming, it’s about consistency.
The real power comes from showing up every day. A few minutes of focused learning every day add up, and over time, those small wins create momentum. The trick is to make learning feel easy, so you’re more likely to return to it.
Make Learning Part of Your Routine
Habits stick when they’re attached to something else. If you always study with your morning coffee or while waiting for dinner to cook, you’ll start to associate learning with those moments. This technique is known as “habit stacking” and it works because you’re not relying on willpower, you’re building learning into your existing daily study routine.
Here are a few ideas:
- Learn right after brushing your teeth in the morning
- Watch a course module while you eat lunch
- Review what you learned before bed
The key is to keep it easy and repeatable. The more automatic it feels, the easier it is to stay consistent with upskilling.
Start Small and Build Up
Big goals are exciting, but they can also be overwhelming. Start by learning one new concept a day, or completing one module per session. Once that feels easy, you can level up. The goal isn’t perfection, it’s progress.
Online learners who commit to short, regular learning sessions often see better results than those who binge once a week. Why? Because small steps help build confidence, and confidence fuels motivation to learn every day.
Put the Fun Back in With Alison’s Gamified Learning
Remember the buzz of ticking off a to-do list or hitting your daily step goal? Alison now brings that same sense of progress and achievement to your learning journey. With gamified features like Experience Points (XPS), Streaks, and a global Leaderboard, learning becomes less of a task and more of a game you’ll want to keep playing.
Each lesson completed, quiz passed, or streak extended gives you a small win – a boost of energy that keeps your motivation high. Leaderboards add a friendly competitive edge, letting you see how you stack up against Alison Learners in your country and around the world.
It’s not just about finishing a course. It’s about staying engaged, hitting milestones, and celebrating momentum along the way. With Alison’s redesigned learning experience, progress feels rewarding, motivation is easier to maintain, and learning becomes a habit you’ll actually look forward to.
Link Learning Streaks to Real-Life Rewards
Keeping your Streak alive feels good in the moment, but what makes it really powerful is what it leads to. Every day you learn, you’re building skills that can lead to better job opportunities, career growth, and more confidence in your abilities.
Think of your Streak as more than a number. It’s a visible reminder that you’re investing in yourself. Over time, that habit translates into real change:
- A 15-day Learning Streak on a language course brings you closer to landing a job at a multi-national company
- A daily leadership lesson helps you manage your team more effectively
- Regular learning boosts your confidence to apply for that promotion
Fun or Focused? Why Not Both?
Learning doesn’t have to be one-size-fits-all. It can be fun, serious, or both, depending on your goals. Maybe you’re learning just for the joy of it, like improving your photography skills, mastering guitar chords, or exploring the world of psychology. Or perhaps your goals are more career-focused, like levelling up your Excel game, brushing up on project management principles, or preparing for a certification in cybersecurity.
Whatever the purpose, Alison’s new gamified learning experience makes the journey more enjoyable. It helps you stay committed, not just through motivation, but by turning your personal goals into achievable milestones. Whether you’re diving into our hobbies and interests courses for fun or exploring IT, Business, or Healthcare topics for professional growth, gamified learning keeps the process rewarding, purposeful, and yes, enjoyable.
Word of the Day: hackneyed
This word has appeared in 20 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
Introducing Coursera’s new course preview experience: A more meaningful way to start learning
By Tim Hannan, Chief Marketing Officer, Coursera
Since our founding in 2012, Coursera has worked hard to increase access to world-class education. Over the years, we’ve introduced features like course auditing, financial aid, and AI-powered translations to make learning accessible to as many people as possible. Today, we’re taking another step forward in this evolution, introducing a new course preview experience that offers learners a deeper, more meaningful way to explore content before committing to a full course.
This new model replaces our audit experience and gives learners the ability to preview the first module of nearly every course on Coursera for free. This includes full access to key platform features, such as graded assignments and Coursera Coach, when available within the course. Our early tests show that the full suite of course features is leading to stronger engagement and completions among our learners, accelerating their path to skills mastery. To further support global accessibility, we’re also rolling out localized pricing while continuing to offer options and support for learners with financial need.
Here’s what the updated experience includes:
- Free Course Preview: Learners can explore the first module of most courses for free — complete with assessments, video content, and AI-powered support features like Coach.
- Free Community Impact Courses: Learners will have free access to certain courses that address urgent social needs—such as mental health, refugee support, and public health.
- Localized pricing: We’ve introduced new geopricing models to reflect regional purchasing power and ensure affordability across emerging markets.
- Financial Aid: Eligible learners can still apply for financial aid to unlock full access to course content and certificates for free or at a reduced cost.
This evolution marks a new chapter in how we invite learners into their journey on Coursera—one that’s more engaging, more accessible, and better aligned with their goals from the start, while supporting the long-term growth and impact of our platform. We’re excited to build this future together with our global community of learners, partners, and institutions.
What’s New at Codecademy: Reinforcement Learning & AI Agents
Welcome to our centralized hub for all new course launches and updates at Codecademy. Here, you’ll find an up-to-date record of what’s new so you can easily discover fresh learning opportunities, figure out who a course is best suited for, or just jump right in and start.
We’re always launching new courses and fine-tuning our learning environment so you can stay ahead of emerging tech trends and build the skills that are in demand right now. Bookmark this blog and check back regularly — we’ll update this anytime there’s a new launch you need to know about.
Use the links below to skip to the week or update you’re interested in.
Want to see all our courses in one place? Browse the catalog to find courses and paths, filter by level and topic (or sort by “Most recent” to see the newest launches). You can also chat with the AI Learning Assistant to build a learning plan that helps you reach your goals.
August 8, 2025
What’s new
Learn Reinforcement Learning with Gymnasium
Our new intermediate course introduces you to reinforcement learning (RL) using OpenAI’s Gymnasium library. You’ll learn to build intelligent agents that learn through trial and error in dynamic environments. With practical projects like training agents to solve challenges, you’ll develop essential RL skills for AI-driven industries. This course bridges theory and practice, helping you master techniques behind self-learning systems.
Who it’s for
This one’s perfect if you’re already comfortable with Python and ready to take your AI knowledge to the next level. It’s a smart choice for professionals in robotics, game development, and industrial control systems, or anyone working on complex projects with delayed feedback or high-dimensional spaces.
Tackle the foundational skills needed to create agentic workflows and autonomous agents. You’ll gain hands-on experience in building the core components of agents using Python and Jupyter Notebooks, ultimately integrating these elements into a cohesive, functioning system.
Who it’s for
This course is designed for intermediate learners who are ready to move beyond basic AI and specialize in autonomous systems. With solid Python knowledge and some data science experience, you can advance your skills in agentic workflows. Get ahead of the curve and learn the concepts that are driving the current AI agent revolution.
July 28, 2025
What’s new
We’ve added 40+ new learning paths to our catalog, including prep for intermediate and advanced certification exams (think AWS Certified DevOps Engineer and Oracle Database SQL Certified Associate) as well as skill-building for specific tools like Snowflake and Terraform.
There are now 35 certification prep paths for intermediate and advanced certifications in AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, CompTIA, Oracle SQL, CBAP, and more.
- New Microsoft certifications
- New CompTIA certifications
- New Google certifications
The remaining 9 new skill paths focused on applied learning in IT, DevOps, and data engineering.
Who these paths are for
Our new paths are designed to support you on your career journey with professional, certification-focused training. From cloud architecture and data engineering to DevOps, cybersecurity, business analysis, or IT project management, you can find a route that helps you advance and specialize. These paths are best for:
- Mid-career professionals seeking to deepen expertise and gain relevant credentials.
- Teams aiming to upskill in cloud, data, security, and DevOps.
- Anyone who wants to earn certifications from leading providers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud.
Last updated: August 2025
The Most Popular Free Courses on Alison in 2025
Alison continues to be a driving force in global education, with more than 45 million Learners and 10 million Graduates across 193 countries as of 2025. As digital transformation accelerates across sectors and job markets, free online courses have become essential tools for people wanting to enhance their skills, switch careers, or boost their employability. Below, we explore the most popular free courses on Alison in 2025 and what makes them resonate so deeply with professionals worldwide.
Alison’s Most Popular Courses
Here are the ten most in-demand free courses on Alison making an impact in 2025:
1. Diploma in Caregiving
Gain comprehensive knowledge in elderly and disabled care, communication, and ethical issues in caregiving, preparing you for in-demand roles in healthcare and home care sectors.
➡️ Start the Diploma in Caregiving
2. CPR, AED and First Aid
Learn essential life-saving techniques, including CPR, defibrillator use, and emergency response. Ideal for healthcare workers, teachers, and safety personnel.
➡️ Learn CPR, AED and First Aid
3. HACCP Food Safety System for Restaurants and Other Catering Services
Understand global food safety standards and hygiene practices. A must-have certification for chefs, kitchen staff, and food service managers.
4. Diploma in Human Resources
Explore recruitment, training, and workplace behaviour. This course lays a strong foundation for those entering or progressing in HR and personnel management.
➡️ Explore human resource management
5. HIPAA Compliance: A Complete Guide
Navigate U.S. healthcare privacy laws with ease. Learn how to protect sensitive patient information, a vital course for healthcare workers and compliance officers.
➡️ Understand HIPAA compliance
6. Diploma in Health and Social Care
Merge theory with practice in this well-rounded program covering ethical issues, healthcare policy, and hands-on care strategies. Perfect for roles in public health and community support.
➡️ Start the Health and Social Care Diploma course
7. Diploma in Business Administration
Build your business acumen with modules on finance, operations, and management. Designed for budding entrepreneurs and future leaders.
➡️ Study business administration
8. Basic Life Support (BLS)
Master critical BLS techniques such as CPR, rescue breathing, and patient assessment. Essential for first responders, nurses, and caregivers.
9. Medication Management and Administration
Develop competence in drug classifications, dosage calculations, and safe handling procedures. Suited for caregivers and healthcare professionals alike.
➡️ Improve your medication management skills
10. Diploma in Mental Health
Understand mental health conditions, reduce stigma, and support those in need. This course is ideal for social workers, educators, and carers.
➡️ Take the Mental Health Diploma course
Why These Free Alison Courses Are Trending in 2025
The popularity of certain courses reflects global shifts and personal motivations:
- The Rise of AI, digitalisation, and healthcare: As artificial intelligence reshapes the workplace and demographic shifts increase the need for caregivers and health professionals, learners are increasingly drawn to courses that align with these trends.
- Learner motivations are shifting: Job readiness, career switches, and upskilling are primary drivers. Many learners are looking for flexible, high-impact ways to stay relevant in the workforce.
- External drivers of demand: The rising cost of living, workforce automation, and the expansion of remote and hybrid work have made skills-based learning more urgent than ever.
- The appeal of micro-credentials: Micro-credentials are short, focused qualifications that prove you’ve mastered a specific skill or topic. They’re designed to be quick to complete, practical to apply, and easy to share with employers. Alison’s free online courses let you earn industry-recognised micro-credentials from trusted brands like IBM, giving you a competitive edge without the time or cost of a traditional qualification.
What These Courses Say About Learner Goals in 2025
Three major themes stand out across these course choices:
- Flexibility and accessibility: Learners value the ability to study at their own pace, often while balancing work and family responsibilities.
- Practicality over theory: Courses with immediate job market applications and workplace relevance dominate.
- Lifelong learning culture: Education is no longer a one-time event. Continuous learning is now a mindset, necessary for navigating change.
How To Get Started With Free Courses on Alison
Getting started on Alison is quick and simple:
Step 1: Sign up for free
Go to Alison.com and create your free account in just a few clicks.
Step 2: Choose your course
Browse thousands of free courses by industry, skill, or career path. Not sure where to begin? Try Alison’s free Career Ready Plan or Aptitude Tests to find courses that match your goals.
Step 3: Start learning
Once you’ve chosen a course, click Start Learning to begin instantly. Courses are broken into short, manageable modules with assessments to track your progress.
Step 4: Earn your Certificate or Diploma
Learning on Alison is and will always be free. Once you complete a course, you have the option to purchase a certificate to prove what you’ve learned. Should you wish to purchase a certificate, you can choose between a Digital or Printed certificate.
Conclusion
The most popular free courses on Alison in 2025 reflect a world in flux: learners are choosing smart, practical education pathways to navigate a changing job landscape. From caregiving and compliance to digital administration and first aid, the focus is on flexible, skills-based learning that opens doors to new opportunities.
Free online courses with certificates are no longer a niche solution. They are a global movement. Sign up for Alison, start a free course, and take one step closer to achieving your personal and professional goals.
