8 QUALITY FREE COURSES FROM HARVARD UNIVERSITY 📚
Tags: webdev, javascript, beginners, programming
Published: 2024-05-19 15:03:50

**Harvard University** must be so famous. This is one of the most prestigious universities in the world, not only famous for its outstanding training quality but also for its important contributions in disseminating knowledge to everyone.

In today's digital age, Harvard has expanded its influence by offering many **free online courses**, giving people everywhere the opportunity to access top-notch knowledge without spending money.

These free courses are designed to serve a wide range of students, from **beginners** to those who have basic knowledge and want to improve their professional skills.

The topics of the courses are very diverse, including: computer science, artificial intelligence, medicine, literature, art, and many other fields.

Each course is built by **leading Harvard professors**, ensuring that learners will receive the latest knowledge and most effective teaching methods.

In this article, I will share with you **8 quality free courses** related to our majors, which are programming, computer science, and artificial intelligence.

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## [🔸 1. CS50's Introduction to Computer Science](https://www.edx.org/learn/computer-science/harvard-university-cs50-s-introduction-to-computer-science)

![CS50'S INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/249xib0yeril63adjst4.png)

**Describe:**

- **CS50's Introduction to Computer Science** or **CS50x** is one of Harvard University's most famous and popular courses, designed to provide an overview and solid foundation in computer science.

- Led by professor **David J. Malan**, this course not only attracts thousands of Harvard students but also millions of students around the world through its online learning platform.

**Course content:**

The **CS50x** course covers the following main topics:

- Week 0: Scratch
- Week 1: C
- Week 2: Arrays
- Week 3: Algorithms
- Week 4: Memory
- Week 5: Data Structures
- Week 6: Python
- Week 6.5: Artificial Intelligence
- Week 7: SQL
- Week 8: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
- Week 9: Flask
- Week 10: Cybersecurity

**Learning methods:**

- CS50x is taught through **detailed video lectures**, **practical exercises** and **real-life projects**, helping students apply theory into practice.

- In addition, students also have the opportunity to participate in discussion forums and receive support from the community and the teaching staff.

**Benefits of the course:**

- **Comprehensive knowledge:** Students will gain a broad and deep knowledge base in computer science, sufficient to pursue advanced courses or personal projects.

- **Practical skills:** Through exercises and projects, students will develop programming and problem-solving skills, which are useful for a career in information technology.

- **Certificate:** After completing the problem sets, labs and final project of the course, students can receive a certificate from Harvard University, an important demonstration of their knowledge and skills.

![CS50x certificate](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/x91bfi9g0mi25oj00pam.png)

---

## [🔸 2. CS50's Web Programming with Python and JavaScript](https://www.edx.org/learn/web-development/harvard-university-cs50-s-web-programming-with-python-and-javascript)

![CS50'S WEB PROGRAMMING WITH PYTHON AND JAVASCRIPT](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/fpr59v4w875xahhtmqf9.png)

**Describe:**

- **CS50's Web Programming with Python and JavaScript** or **CS50W** course is an in-depth online learning program about web design, databases, scalability, security and user experience.

- This course provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to design and deploy applications on the Internet.

- Through hands-on projects, students will be able to create UI on Front-end side, code logic on the Back-end side, and build APIs to connect FE and BE. Besides, there are issues related to Testing, CI/CD, Scalability and Security

- After completing the course, students will master the principles, programming languages ​​and tools needed to become a professional web application developer.

**Course content:**

The **CS50W** course covers the following key topics:

- HTML, CSS
- Git
- Python
- Django
- SQL, Models and Migrations
- JavaScript
- User Interfaces
- Testing
- CI/CD
- Scalability and Security

---

## [🔸 3. CS50's Introduction to Game Development](https://www.edx.org/learn/game-development/harvard-university-cs50-s-introduction-to-game-development)

![CS50'S INTRODUCTION TO GAME DEVELOPMENT](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/dpkff0lq6vhig2bpquyg.png)

**Describe:**

- **CS50's Introduction to Game Development** or **CS50G** course is an in-depth online learning program on video game design and development.

- Through lectures and hands-on projects, you'll explore the fundamentals of 2D and 3D graphics, animation, audio, and collision detection using frameworks like Unity and LÖVE 2D, as well as programming languages ​​such as Lua and C#.

- In this course, you will be instructed to code games like Super Mario Bros, Pokémon, Angry Birds,...

**Course content:**

The **CS50G** course covers the following key topics:

- Super Mario Bros
- Pong
- Flappy Bird
- Breakout
- Match 3
- Legend of Zelda
- Angry Birds
- Pokemon
- 3D Helicopter Game
- Dreadhalls

---

## [🔸 4. CS50's Introduction to Cybersecurity](https://www.edx.org/learn/cybersecurity/harvard-university-cs50-s-introduction-to-cybersecurity)

![CS50'S INTRODUCTION TO CYBERSECURITY](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/uhw1lb064yyluz7bb43u.png)

**Describe:**

- **CS50's Introduction to Cybersecurity** or **CS50 Cybersecurity** course will help you learn network security knowledge.

- In this course, you will learn how to protect your data, devices, and systems from threats. Besides, there is a way to recognize and evaluate future attacks.

- The course introduces many popular attack techniques such as social engineering, phishing, brute-force, dictionary attack, DDoS,...

**Course content:**

The **CS50 Cybersecurity** course covers the following main topics:

- Hacking, cracking
- Social engineering, phishing attacks
- Passcodes, passwords, SSO
- Brute-force attacks, dictionary attacks
- Biometrics
- Multi-factor authentication, password managers
- Ethical hacking
- Denial-of-service attacks
- Viruses, worms, botnets
- SQL injection attacks
- Port-scanning
- Proxies, firewalls
- Automatic updates
- Closed-source, open-source software
- Buffer-overflow attacks
- Secure deletion
- Hashing, salting
- Secret-key, public-key encryption, digital signatures
- Full-disk encryption, ransomware
- Cookies, sessions, incognito mode
- Anonymization, de-identification
- Verification
- Operating systems, app stores

---

## [🔸 5. CS50's Mobile App Development with React Native](https://www.edx.org/learn/react-native/harvard-university-cs50-s-mobile-app-development-with-react-native)

![CS50'S MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT WITH REACT NATIVE](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/61xpyswz6coi9gyw31ys.png)

**Describe:**

- **CS50's Mobile App Development with React Native** or **CS50M** course is a course that helps you learn how to develop mobile applications with React Native.

- In this course, you will learn how to code with JavaScript (including ES6 and ES7) as well as JSX.

- Through hands-on projects, you will have the opportunity to gain experience developing mobile applications with React Native, an open-source framework created by Facebook and contributed to development by many programmers around the world, allowing cross-platform mobile application development.

**Course content:**

The **CS50M** course covers the following main topics:

- JavaScript
- ES6
- React, JSX
- Components, Props, State, Style
- Components, Views, User Input
- Debugging
- Data
- Navigation
- Expo Components
- Redux
- Performance
- Shipping, Testing

---

## [🔸 6. CS50's Introduction to Databases with SQL](https://www.edx.org/learn/sql/harvard-university-cs50-s-introduction-to-databases-with-sql)

![CS50'S INTRODUCTION TO DATABASES WITH SQL](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/28rnewvrreg2k2xiqk9f.png)

**Describe:**

- **CS50's Introduction to Databases with SQL** or **CS50 SQL** course will help you understand databases, using the SQL language.

- In this course, you will learn how to create, update, delete, and query data with relational databases.

- You will learn how to model real-world entities and their relationships, learn how to use tables with appropriate data types, along with other concepts such as triggers, constraints, ...

- The course starts with SQLite and ends with an introduction to PostgreSQL and MySQL.

**Course content:**

The **CS50 SQL** course covers the following key topics:

- SQLite
- CREATE TABLE
- SELECT
- INSERT
- UPDATE
- DELETE
- DROP
- CREATE INDEX
- CREATE VIEW
- PostgreSQL, MySQL
- Connectors (Python, Java)
- Replication

---

## [🔸 7. CS50's Introduction to Programming with Python](https://www.edx.org/learn/python/harvard-university-cs50-s-introduction-to-programming-with-python)

![CS50's Introduction to Programming with Python](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/o16githllxr15whzbf20.png)

**Describe:**

- **CS50's Introduction to Programming with Python** or **CS50P** is a free online course that teaches how to program with the Python programming language.

- This course is suitable for both beginners and experienced programmers who want to learn Python in depth.

- Students will learn how to read and write code, test and debug, as well as master basic and advanced concepts in Python programming.

**Course content:**

The **CS50P** course covers the following key topics:

- Functions, Variables
- Conditionals
- Loops
- Exceptions
- Libraries
- Unit Tests
- File I/O
- Regular Expressions
- Object Oriented Programming (OOP)
- ...

---

## [🔸 8. CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python](https://www.edx.org/learn/artificial-intelligence/harvard-university-cs50-s-introduction-to-artificial-intelligence-with-python)

![CS50'S INTRODUCTION TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WITH PYTHON](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/whpykuzqsmim6lnnlbqu.png)

**Describe:**

- **CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python** or **CS50AI** course introduces the basic concepts and algorithms of artificial intelligence.

- The course delves into the ideas behind technologies such as game-playing engines, handwriting recognition, machine translation,...

- Through hands-on projects, students will gain exposure to the theory behind graph search algorithms, classification, optimization, machine learning, large language models, and other topics in artificial intelligence as they incorporate them into their own Python programs.

**Course content:**

The **CS50AI** course covers the following main topics:

- Graph search algorithms
- Adversarial search
- Knowledge representation
- Logical inference
- Probability theory
- Bayesian networks
- Markov models
- Constraint satisfaction
- Machine learning
- Reinforcement learning
- Neural networks
- Natural language processing

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