STEM subjects can be difficult for students to understand. Brilliant.org is an online learning platform that can help you understand difficult STEM concepts in an engaging manner. It encourages students to adopt a problem-solving mindset and develop reasoning and logic skills.
Brilliant.org offers real-world applications and interactive challenges to help you solidify your understanding. It has 60+ courses crafted by award-winning professionals, researchers, and teachers. The platform is backed by a venture capital fund named Social+Capital. Till now, 9 million students are subscribed to the Brilliant platform.
If you’re facing difficulty choosing between Skillshare vs. Brilliant, you must know that SkillShare is about exploring creative skills, and Brilliant helps develop professional skills.
Brilliant.org Review
Brilliant replaces lecture videos with interactive lessons making learning fun for everyone. There are daily challenges on this platform to test your personal skills. But similar to Skillshare, you get limited access with the free subscription. The monthly, lifetime, or annual subscription enables you to take up daily challenges, opt for any class and view daily challenges archive and personal stats. Let’s take a look at the features, pricing, and pros and cons of this platform.
Main Features of Brilliant.Org
Brilliant is a STEM learning platform that uses a gamified learning style to encourage engagement in complex subjects. Let’s take a look at the topmost features of Brilliant that will help you decide whether it is worth your money and time.
Excellent User Experience
Brilliant.org offers an excellent user experience to those looking to learn STEM subjects in an engaging way. The interface is attractive and simple, and the lessons are fun and interactive. Simple explanations and real-time feedback make learning efficient. The gamified approach offers learners an innovative way to tackle tough subjects.
Accessible for All Skill Levels
Brilliant is an excellent online learning platform for teachers, students, and hobbyists. You can find courses for all skill levels here. On this platform, you can learn the fundamentals of high school science and math and brush up on your knowledge of advanced topics such as special relativity and data structures.
Daily Challenges
Daily challenges are one of the awesome features of Brilliant.org. Brilliant posts daily challenges on engineering, math, and science topics to help you learn difficult subjects and concept matters with ease.
7-Day Free Trial
If you join Brilliant Premium, you get its 7-day free trial. You have to sign up on the platform to start your 7-day free trial. The trial gives you access to all the content on the site. It also allows you to preview the courses to see whether the content offered on Brilliant is the ideal fit for you.
Accessible on All Devices
You can access Brilliant on all devices, including tablets, smartphones, computers, and laptops, making it convenient to learn from wherever you are.
Excellent support
Brilliant has a dedicated Help Center where users can search for advice on topics they are looking for.
Simple Filter
Brilliant has a simple filter where users can search for the courses or topics they intend to learn.
Brilliant.Org Pricing
Brilliant.org offers both a Premium and Free option. It offers a 7-day free trial when you sign up for the first time. With the free plan, you can preview the courses and understand what you’ll get to learn in each course. With a paid Premium Membership, you get access to high-quality courses. In addition to full access to the courses, subscribers of this platform also get full access to puzzles and daily challenges.
Brilliant Premium Membership Price
Monthly – $24.99 billed once per month
Annual – $13.49/month billed once per year
Groups (3+ users) – $299.88 a year
Brilliant.org offers three payment plans for their premium subscription.
- You’ll have to pay $299.88 per year for an annual group (3+ people) subscription. The group subscription grants all individual users separate access to the Premium account. This subscription plan is best for families. With this subscription plan, each user will get access to the Brilliant courses at discounted rates and can progress at their own pace. But the pricing can vary depending on the people participating in the subscription.
- You can avail of a monthly subscription by paying $24.99 per month.
- You’ll have to pay $161.88 per year for an annual subscription. This subscription plan will cost you half of the monthly plan.
Your Brilliant subscription plans will renew automatically at the end of its term, whether that’s annually or monthly. You can turn off the auto-renew subscription option from your settings if you don’t want to renew your plan.
Brilliant.org Review Verdict
Brilliant.org is one of the most engaging online educational platforms that help you build your qualitative skills. It is a subscription-based service, and a 7-day free trial is offered when you first sign up. It offers 60 different STEM courses and can be used by different types of users, including teachers, students, and individuals who want to improve their professional skills. Each course includes gamified tasks and quizzes as a part of the learning process. The courses are crafted by award-winning professionals, teachers, and researchers from MIT, Microsoft, Google, Caltech, Duke, and more. Brilliant.org won’t be the right choice for those looking to go in-depth on a subject. But this platform is excellent for advancing your knowledge of STEM subjects.
Who is Brilliant.Org For?
This platform is ideal for professionals, students, and lifelong learners. It allows students to learn various subject matters at their own pace. For example, if you feel that the lectures at your school move too fast, you can revise the materials at your own pace on Brilliant. On the other side, if you feel the curriculum in your school is moving slowly, you can use Brilliant to learn advanced concepts and stay ahead of your curriculum.
For many STEM students, lectures don’t work. They can use Brilliant.org to learn Science and Math topics in an accessible way.
Brilliant is not ideal for career-focused learners because the courses are more academic or theoretical. While this is an excellent way to enhance your learning skills, it will not be a valuable addition to your career, as recruiters often seek proof of applied knowledge/experience. Brilliant also doesn’t offer certification, making it difficult to prove you have acquired a particular skill. Most of the courses are unaccredited on this platform.
Brilliant is also not ideal for very young kids, as even the basic courses need prior knowledge about the topic. Brilliant may not be apt for you if you have a well-developed knowledge base of STEM. It covers advanced topics, but they are not in-depth.
Pros and Cons of Brilliant.org
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Brilliant.org.
Pros
Interactive and Easy to Understand: The courses are interactive and easy to understand. Once you learn the basics, you test your knowledge with puzzles and games. Alongside the set courses, you also get access to daily challenges.
Beginner-Friendly: The platform is ideal for beginners who want to learn the fundamentals of various courses. There are different courses for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners.
Self-Paced: The courses on Brilliant are self-paced, meaning you don’t need to absorb everything in one go. Students can revisit difficult materials and study and complete coursework whenever it is convenient for them.
Strong Visual Aids: Brilliant uses strong visual aids to illustrate difficult concepts and complex topics. These visuals can be extremely useful in courses like geometry or physics that use spatial reasoning.
Courses Are Divided Into Short Modules: Most of the courses on Brilliant are divided into short modules consisting of 5-10 problems. For example, Brilliant’s course called “Geometry Fundamentals” has 25 interactive lessons, ranging from scaling and volume to more complicated topics, like when geometry gets tough. This module structure makes it easy to understand different concepts. You can even opt for a pre-requisite course if you don’t have a strong background in any subject.
Daily Challenges: The daily challenges are one of the most awesome features of Brilliant.org. Every day you have to complete a new puzzle to progress to the next level. Due to these challenges, you’re more likely to log on to the platform and progress through the courses. Besides the daily challenges, you’ll also find infinite puzzles and quizzes with each course.
7-Day Free Trial: Brilliant offers a 7-day free trial to new users, allowing them to preview all the STEM courses. The free trial won’t give you access to puzzles or daily challenges.
Mobile App: You can use Brilliant’s mobile app to download individual courses for offline use. You can download a maximum of 6 courses at a time.
Cons
Limited Course Selection: Brilliant mainly offers STEM-based courses. So if you’re interested in learning non-STEM subjects, you’ll have to look for other platforms.
Users Don’t Get Certificates: Brilliant doesn’t offer a certificate to users after completion of the course. This means these courses will enhance your knowledge but won’t add value to your resume.
The Monthly Subscription Is Pricy: To get a monthly subscription to Brilliant, you’ll have to pay $24.99, which is quite expensive. They also offer a yearly plan for $12.49, which is more appealing.
Conclusion
Brilliant.org is one of the best online learning platforms for learning STEM-based subjects. The learning experience, community wiki, puzzles, quizzes, gamification, and many more features make this platform highly productive for STEM-based learners.
But the free plan doesn’t provide enough value, so you should sign up for the premium plan to take maximum advantage of this platform.
Brilliant also doesn’t offer a certificate after completion of the courses, so if you want to build your resume, this platform may not be suitable for you. If you are looking for an instructor-led course with positive feedback, platforms like Datacamp and Skillshare are a better fit.
Alternatives to Brilliant.Org
Here are some of the best alternatives to Brilliant that you can consider to build your skills and enhance your knowledge.
Skillshare is an excellent learning platform for people who enjoy creative endeavors. It offers courses in business analytics, arts, photography, entrepreneurship, etc. Skillshare’s subscription is also cheaper in comparison to Brilliant. You can also create a course and become an instructor on this platform. Skillshare also has an app that covers 90+% of the material available on their website so that you can learn on the go without any issues. When comparing Skillshare vs. Brilliant, you must remember what you intend to learn, as Brilliant is better for STEM courses, and Skillshare is ideal for creative courses.
Khan Academy is a free online learning platform where students can learn STEM-based concepts. They have a website and a YouTube channel where you can learn through interactive problem-solving. This platform is designed primarily for K 12 students and emphasizes Math, coding courses, and English.
Datacamp is one of the best online educational platforms for those interested in learning about Python and Data. They have high-quality courses, short videos, and interactive lectures for advanced and beginner-level data analysts. In addition, you can find here 1,400+ hands-on Guided Projects and data science courses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brilliant.Org an Ideal Platform for Beginners?
Yes, Brilliant.com offers many beginner-friendly courses. Depending on your skill level and age Brilliant will recommend the best courses that suit your needs.
Is Brilliant.Org Worth It?
Brilliant.org is an excellent platform to advance your knowledge about STEM-based subjects. All the courses are accompanied by high-quality puzzles and games to make learning fun.
Is Brilliant.org legit?
Yes, Brilliant.org is a legit online learning platform. It is an American company founded by Sure Khim in 2012. It has fifty thousand 5-star reviews on Google Play and iOS App Store, so you can rest assured that you won’t be conned by the company if you sign up for their premium plan.
Which is better, Brilliant or Skillshare?
When comparing Brilliant vs. Skillshare, you must remember that both are excellent online learning platforms, and while choosing them, you must keep in mind your learning goals. Brilliant has a rigorous learning format, while Skillshare’s courses are more relaxed and apt for all levels of learners. Skillshare is better for people who enjoy creative endeavors, and Brilliant is apt for those who prefer undertaking analytical challenges.
what about university, and masters students ?