Best 10 Resources for Learning High School Social Studies Online

If you are schooling at home, you probably would like some extra resources to help your student through their subjects. But where do you find quality content? 

In our homeschooling, we have found quality online courses, some college level, that are complete and appropriate for finishing high school class credit. 

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The following offers a wide variety of history, government, economics, and civics classes from different points of view: from public institutions as well as private. If you want to challenge your high school student with some advanced learning, give them a head start for the next school year, or as a homeschooler, you want a class for high school credit, then explore this list:  

American Heritage Education Foundation

A Top 10 website for Homeschooling for its curriculum content. Many free resources and lesson plans for middle and high school grades. 

Annenberg Classroom

This site has over 65 teaching videos complete books, interactive timelines and online games. Founder Leonore Annenberg believed that "engaged and well-informed citizens are vital to making our government work at the local, state and federal levels. Annenberg Classroom strives to help develop citizens who demand and support a functioning democracy realizing Mrs. Annenberg's vision of generations who will go out and fulfill their civic calling." 

Coursera

"Every course on Coursera is taught by top instructors from world-class universities and companies, so you can learn something new anytime, anywhere. Hundreds of free courses give you access to on-demand video lectures, homework exercises, and community discussion forums."

edX

Founded by Harvard University, this collaboration with some of the best universities and institutions, offer their high-quality courses free. While all courses are college-level, they can be adapted for high school.  

The Great Courses Plus

There has been a lot of positive feedback for The Great Courses. The site is the "leading global media brand for lifelong learning and personal enrichment. With thousands of in-depth videos taught by the world's greatest professors, you'll always have something fascinating to learn about." While there is a cost for the service after the 7-day trial, it is worth checking out. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you can choose to subscribe that way.

Hillsdale College

Hillsdale has become a "national leader in free online courses." Their popular course—“Constitution 101”—now has more than 800,000 students around the world.

HippoCampus

HippoCampus.org is a "free, core academic web site that delivers rich multimedia content--videos, animations, and simulations--on general education subjects" to students, free of charge.

PBS Learning Media

PBS LearningMedia™ is "your destination for direct access to thousands of classroom-ready, curriculum-targeted digital resources" including videos and interactives, audio, documents and in-depth lesson plans. Note that their resources are aligned to Common Core and national standards. Browse by standards, grade level, subject area, and special collections. 

Smithsonian's History Explorer

Developed by the National Museum of American History, the site offers "hundreds of free, innovative online resources for teaching and learning American history." Resources focus on "learning history by 'reading' objects for the stories they hold about the nation and its many peoples. Learning activities feature artifacts selected from over 3 million items in the Museum's collections, and draw on the expertise of the Museum's renowned curatorial staff."

Stossel in the Classroom

Stossel in the Classroom videos "are created to encourage critical thinking in schools." Register and receive a free DVD (a new one each year) with videos to inspire "students to expand their understanding of free markets, and of life." Each DVD includes a teacher guide with lesson plans and ideas for complementary activities.

To find out more about how this online content can be helpful to our student, read this article from OnlineCollege.org

Is there anything I missed? If so, please add it in the comments below!