Free Online Typing Courses: A Look at Top 5 Courses That Will Build Your Skills

2010-11-23

Online Learning & Degree Programs, Education

Free Online Typing Courses: A Look at Top 5 Courses That Will Build Your Skills

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GoodTyping.com

This site is great if you want to brush up your basic typing skills. You will have to pay for the more advanced version, which includes lessons with numbers. Going back to the free version, you have 27 lessons which teaches you a variety of letter combinations.

After each test, you are given your score in Seconds, Keystrokes Per Minute (KPM), and Words Per Minute (WPM). You can save and exit after you complete each test. Also, you can repeat the lesson or move on to the next lesson. If you do not do well on a test, the site will prompt you to take the test again, although it will not force you to do so. You can very well move on to the next lesson.

One thing I wish they had was the overall list at the very end, after you take all 27 lessons. It would be nice to see what your average typing speed is.

Peter’s Online Typing Course

In addition to lessons, this site also offers preliminary articles that explain the principles of effective learning, typing ergonomics, and where your fingers should go on a keyboard. The site is organized and easy to use. You can start at any of the lessons in the left sidebar.

As you type the letters, they will turn gray, unless you make a mistake. Then a robotic male voice will say, “bad.” Type the correct letter and keep typing until you reach the end. You will reach a screen. Then you will see a screen like this:

Although I like that the screen shows the completion time, I would have liked to have seen the WPM score, as it would be great when you need it for a resume. I do like that you can choose any lesson that you want, instead of having to go through them sequentially. That helps if you have already mastered basic typing and want to improve on your numbers.

The exercises that I liked the best were at the bottom. They were a combination of letters and numbers, and you had to get all of them right. You can create your own typing exercise if you don’t like the ones they have. It is limited to 600 characters, though.

Learn to Type Online

This site assumes that you know the rudimentary basics of typing and provides nothing but tests to improve your skills. You will find number pad lessons to help boost your keypad speed. Other tests include general typing and numeric typing.

SENSE-LANG.org

SENSE-LANG is a free online typing course that you can use to practice with a variety of keyboards. They include the standard QWERTY, the United Kingdom, Dvorak, Colemak, Arabic, and more. You can test your typing skills, keypad skills, or play one of the five games that they have.

TypingWeb

You do not have to create an account with TypingWeb in order to use its features. However, you will not be able to save the results of your tests. If you do not do well on a test, you have the option to retake it. You can also build your typing speed by playing the number of games on this site.

Typing certifications are available through this site. Once you have practiced with all the tests on the site and feel comfortable with your overal score, you can take typing and/or keypad certification exams. Upon passing, you will receive a certificate, which you can either download and print or pay a small fee to have one signed and sent to you.

Some of these sites are basic, while others offer more in the aspect of gameplay and certification. All are excellent, free options to improve your skills, whether you need to flesh out a resume or need to take better notes in your class.