Due to the spread of COVID-19, a lot of public schools, universities, shops, and workplaces are closed, with many people working or studying from home. If you're starting to go stir-crazy without the outside world and looking to challenge your mind with something other than games and films, there are tons of remote learning apps out there that can teach you something new while you're confined to your own four walls. We've also got a suggestion for you if you need some support while homeschooling your children.

The all-rounder: Udemy

Udemy is an all-purpose learning app that teaches you all kinds of different skills in over 130,000 courses covering more than 2,000 topics. You can use it to become familiar with web development, finance and business management, office productivity tips for Word and Co., Design, Marketing, languages, music, photography, and video. There are even fitness classes, and teachers can get tips on how to improve their own lessons. Udemy offers both free and paid content, so there should be something in there for everyone.

Udemy - Online Courses Developer: Udemy
Price: Free
4.4
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The one with the familiar faces: Masterclass

Masterclass is more entertainment-focused than the others around here and comes with beautifully produced video courses. It offers you to "learn from the best" and gives you access to more than 70 of the worlds' best-known experts in their respective areas — Gordon Ramsey shows you how to cook, deadmau5 gives you insight into music production, Neil deGrasse Tyson helps you find a way to think scientifically, and Natalie Portman teaches acting. You can subscribe to get access to all classes, but you can also buy specific ones you're most interested in.

Speaking in public: TED Masterclass

You can be forgiven if you think that Masterclass and TED Masterclass are similar due to their shared name, but that's not the case: TED's app focuses on teaching you how to master public speaking. It's a video class that encourages you to take notes while it walks you through the rhetoric tools and ideas behind some of the best TED talks. The further you advance, the more hands-on it becomes, giving you tips on how to craft your talk plan, how to train your voice, and how to tell compelling stories using rhetoric principles. The first lesson is free, and you can unlock the rest via an in-app purchase.

Coding: Encode and SoloLearn

If you want to learn how to code on your phone, Encode and SoloLearn are some top destinations with a ton of free (and some paid) content. SoloLearn offers courses in just about any language you could imagine, even newer ones like Kotlin. Encode, meanwhile, exclusively focuses on JavaScript and Phyton, but it feels more approachable even on higher levels — SoloLearn turns into walls of explanations with fewer opportunities to try out stuff yourself the further you proceed. If working on your small phone screen becomes too cramped, you'll be happy to know there's a web version of SoloLearn, too.

Encode: Learn to Code Developer: Upskew Pty. Ltd.
Price: Free
4.5
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Content creation: Skillshare

You've probably heard about this one in a ton of YouTube videos, but there's a reason a lot of creators recommend it. It's because the remote learning platform's lessons revolve around content creation, such as photography and film, animation, design, illustration, lifestyle, writing, web development, and business. Lessons are presented in beautifully crafted videos that are quite entertaining to watch while teaching you something new. The platform relies on subscriptions for revenue, but you can sign up for a free 2-month trial available on the service's website, which you could use to bridge the time until you're allowed to go outside again.

Math and science: Brilliant

Brilliant is rather similar to Skillshare regarding monetization and the number of recommendations it gets on YouTube, but it follows a more interactive learning-by-doing approach and focuses on math, science, and computer science. The courses want to build your intuition instead of making you memorize formulas, which should help you tackle difficult problems in the field you're interested in by utilizing logical thinking. You can sign up for a free premium trial, which might be handy if you only want to try the service while you're quarantined.

Brilliant Developer: Brilliant.org
Price: Free
4.5
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Languages: Duolingo

I can't recommend Duolingo enough when it comes to learning new languages, but you have to be willing to let go of the way they're taught in school. Duolingo throws natural sentences at you and makes you remember which declinations, cases, and conjugations to use in which instances without relying on tables. You may feel like you don't have as much control over the language you learn, but you'll start to notice similarities and differences between regular and irregular verbs or nouns pretty quickly and develop a natural understanding of the language.

The app also heavily relies on gamification. It encourages you to return to the app daily, and you collect an in-game currency you can exchange for amulets that protect you from losing your daily streak when you don't manage to get stuff done on a given day. In contrast to some other apps presented here, you can get full access to all of its content without ever paying a cent.

Duolingo: language lessons Developer: Duolingo
Price: Free
4.7
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College replacement: Coursera

Coursera has a more traditional approach to learning than Duolingo, and it also has a broader selection of courses than the language-learning app. It even allows you to earn certificates, going as far as actual master's and bachelor's degrees, which might help you when you apply for your next job.

Courses include just about anything you could want to learn, ranging from AI, Neural Learning, and computer science in general over business degrees all the way to humanities and social studies. There's even a section dedicated to personal development, and there are many smaller, more compact courses that aren't as intense as actual college classes, like photography basics or an introduction to Android app development.

Just like college, some of the bigger courses come with a whole application process, while smaller, quicker sessions usually only cost you a bit of money. For example, there's a 15-hour "Get your film off the ground" course from the Michigan State University for about $50.

For your kids: Khan Academy

While Coursera requires a tremendous amount of commitment and time and can be a full-on replacement for college, Khan Academy focuses more on giving your children something to learn for school before it's open again. They can also prepare for all kinds of exams, including SAT, GMAT, AP, and more. The app is divided into classes so you can easily choose which topics your kid needs refreshing or preparation in.

Khan Academy currently also provides daily classes for students ages four to 18 to keep them occupied and fit in the head while schools are closed. Like the rest of the Academy's offers, this is free of charge.

Khan Academy Developer: Khan Academy
Price: Free
4.3
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While you might be tempted to do nothing while you're confined to your home, challenging your brain every once in a while will help you stay fit in the head and fight the monotony. When you go ahead with any of these lessons, you might even leave your quarantine smarter than you entered it.