Microbiology is the scientific study of single-celled and multi-celled microorganisms that are too small to be seen with the naked eye. Scientists use light and electron microscopes, along with various other laboratory equipment and techniques, to analyze these organisms.

The two main branches of microbiology are pure and applied.

• Pure microbiology includes the study of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae, protozoa, and nematodes. Immunology, microbial evolution, and genetics are also considered to be pure microbiology.
• Applied microbiology covers medical and pharmaceutical microbiology, industrial fermentation and wastewater treatment, agricultural and veterinary applications among others.

If you’re interested in microbiology, there’s a course for you. I combed the Class Central catalog to identify the top online microbiology courses from many providers for this Best Courses Guide (BCG). If your time is limited, a short course may fit the bill. I’ve collated ratings, views, and reviews from Class Central and course providers to narrow down the best choices from over 40 microbiology courses in our catalog.

Click on the shortcuts for more details:

• Top Picks
• BCG Stats
• Why You Should Trust Us
• How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Here are our top picks

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BCG Stats

• 6 courses are free or free-to-audit and 2 are paid
• 4 courses offer a certificate of completion
• 2 courses offer college or university credit if approved by your institution
• The microbiology subject is followed by 5.4K learners on Class Central
• The most featured provider is YouTube with 4 courses, plus bonus talks and presentations.

Best University-Made Microbiology Course

Small and Mighty: Introduction to Microbiology is for anyone interested in microbiology, particularly biology school students or those considering further study, even if you have no previous knowledge of the subject. How can you distinguish good microbes that help to keep us alive from the bad ones associated with disease? In this free-to-audit course you will learn about:

• Types of microbes, how they function, and where they live including microbe-host interactions
• Studying microbes: techniques, discoveries, interpreting and analyzing results of experiments in the lab and at home
• Medical, food, and environmental microbiology, biotechnology
• Includes interviews with experts.

“Excellent This course was amazing and the content was really good and related to topics. I really enjoyed the course.” – ARISHFA A., FutureLearn learner.

Best Microbiology Course with ACE CREDIT

Microbiology is a college-level course focusing on microbiology in health care, pathogenic microorganisms and their role in human disease, human immunology, symptoms and treatment of microbial infections, and preventative measures against infection. As well as earning credit for over 150 partner colleges & universities and over 3000 institutions that accept American Council on Education (ACE) credits, you can ask your own institution if they will accept credit for this course towards your degree. Learn about:

• Types of microorganisms, prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms, taxonomy, history of microbiology and recent discoveries
• Chemistry of biology, lab techniques including light and electron microscopy, stains, bacterial and viral structure and replication
• Microbial metabolism, physical and chemical control
• Genetics: DNA, RNA, genetic engineering
• Microbe-human interactions, epidemiology, general and specific immunity, vaccination and disorders in immunity
• Diagnosing infections specific to various anatomical systems
• Environmental microbiology including food and water safety.

Also Great Microbiology Course with Credit

Biology 103: Microbiology has been evaluated and recommended for 3 semester hours credit and may be transferred to over 2,000 colleges and universities. You will learn:

• Microbiology basics, biology of bacteria, the disease process, foodborne and blood borne bacterial diseases
• Bacterial infections of the gastrointestinal, respiratory, and reproductive tracts, wound and skin infections
• DNA and RNA viruses, protozoal and fungal infections
• Principles of immunology and antimicrobial drugs.

Best Course Relating Gut Microbiome to Health

If you’re intrigued by the invisible world of microbes and their impact on human health, Gut Check: Exploring Your Microbiome from the University of Colorado Boulder is for you. This free-to-audit course with no special prerequisites is suitable for students, health professionals, and beginners. It’s a unique opportunity to understand a crucial part of your biology that can influence your health, weight, and behavior. You’ll learn about:

• Microbes and human microbiome diversity
• Fundamentals of studying the human microbiome
• Techniques for generating and analyzing microbiome data
• Impact of gut microbiota on nutrition and well-being
• Interactions between gut microbes and human systems
• Insights from the American Gut Project and subject matter experts.

“As a nutrition science student I found this easy without being boring. Highly recommend to future or current nutrition professionals as an introduction, and to anyone else with an interest in gut health.” – Fofe Vrettos.

Best Short Free Microbiology Overview

Back in 2013, I took a Virology MOOC from Columbia University. Sadly, it is no longer available, but I was delighted to see that the instructor, Vincent Racaniello, teaches Introduction to Microbiology | Medical Education Videos for free on YouTube. In less than two hours, you can learn about:

• Introduction to microbiology: definition & types of microbes, bacteria, eukaryotes, fungi, protozoa
• Concepts of microorganisms: historical findings, life in extreme environments, microbial metabolism
• Importance of microbes: bacterial diseases, staphylococci and streptococci.

You may want to follow this course up with Lecturio Medical’s 4-5 hour long Microbiology | Medical Education Videos, and for more medical learning resources, see the Lecturio Medical website.

“Excellent explanation of microbiology, it is a good refresher course. I would recommend this course for anyone who needs a basic microbiology crash course.” – Dana Hamilton.

Most Popular Free Microbiology Course in Hindi

With more than 412K views, Microbiology wins the popularity contest for this subject. In this free course, learn about:

• Introduction and history of microbiology, types and classification, structure and morphology of bacteria
• Culture mediums, nutritional requirement for bacterial culture media, factors affecting growth of bacteria, isolation of pure culture, streak plate method
• Simple staining, Gram’s staining, acid fast staining
• Sterilization techniques: physical, mechanical, chemical, radiation, fungus sterility testing
• Pharmaceutics, IMViC test, evaluation D Z F value
• Spoilage of food material, contamination and preservative
• Evaluation of microbial stability, animal cell culture
• Disinfectant: types and evaluation, tube dilution, cup plate method, factors affecting disinfectant action, antiseptic
• Virus structure types and replication
• Corona fungi: properties, classification, and reproduction
• Membrane filtration and direct inoculation method
• Aseptic area & microbial control, clean room concept

“…all videos are very helpful to understand microbiology subject, thanks for sharing videos” – @unnatisharma7039, YouTube learner.

Best Free Course for Laboratory Techniques

If you are studying microbiology for AP Biology, MCAT, or NEET exams, you may find How to Pass Your Microbiology Lab (Practical Skills) useful. This free course will teach you:

• Acidic vs. basic stains in microbiology, gram stain procedure, acid-fast stain, endospore stain procedure (Moeller and Schaeffer-Fulton methods), capsule stain and flagella stain
• Catalase, oxidase, coagulase, lipase test with spirit blue agar, and disk diffusion (Kirby-Bauer) tests
• MIC determination by linear regression, how to use PubMed, Eijkman test, quadrant streak (streak plate method), and axenic culture in microbiology.

Other video courses by Biology Professor are Microbiology Diagnostic Tests (2-3 hours) and Microbiology Study Videos (8 hours).

“Get an overview of whole practical techniques that we will learn in future. Can’t thank her enough. Biology Professor is my favourite YouTube channel for learning microbiology.” – Dip Ghosh.

Also Great Free Microbiology Course

In Microbiology Lectures, you will learn about:

• Scope, impact, human use, infectious diseases microorganisms, historical foundations, naming, classifying, evolution
• Bonds and molecules, macromolecules, culturing, preparations
• Form and function, envelope, external, internal.
• Prokaryote, archea, fungi, protists
• General structures, modes of multiplication, nutrition chemical sources and transport
• Genetics: genes, DNA replication, transcription, translation, eukaryotic T T, gene regulation, mutations and DNA recombination
• Controlling Microorganisms: Physical and chemical control, antimicrobials and interactions
• The human host, progress of infection, epidemiology, defense mechanisms and systems involved
• Hypersensitivity, specific immunity, vaccination, type I reactions, and autoimmune immunodeficiency.

“Great lectures. Bless you. Thank you so much.” – @thilan0800, YouTube learner.

(Bonus) Talks and Presentations from the American Society for Microbiology

Bite-sized snippets between 20 minutes up to around an hour. Popular topics include:

• Vaccines work, whether or not you believe in them – This Week in Virology 496
• Basic Mechanisms of Antibiotic Resistance and Gene Spread by Marilyn Roberts, PhD
• What Careers are there in Clinical Microbiology? – Donna Wolk
• Sequencing influenza, CRISPR diagnostics, and an increase in tick and mosquito-born disease
• How drugs affect microbiome, AI & virus hunting, & which seat on the plane makes you sick

Find more American Society for Microbiology talks and presentations here.

Why You Should Trust Us

Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 60 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of 200,000 online courses and 200,000 reviews written by our users. And we’re online learners ourselves: combined, the Class Central team has completed over 400 online courses, including online degrees. I’ve personally completed over 150 online courses in a variety of topics including microbiology.

How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Trying to find “the best” can be daunting, even for those of us who live and breathe online courses. Here’s how I approached this task.

First, I combed through Class Central’s Catalog and the internet to find a variety of free and paid open courses, some with certificates. You don’t need to enroll in a university to learn about microbiology.

When choosing courses, I considered the following factors:

• Renowned Institutions: I looked for recognized institutions in microbiology
• Instructor experience: I sought instructors with extensive experience in microbiology and engaging presentation styles
• Popularity: I checked numbers of enrollments and views to find popular courses
• Course content: I examined courses that covered a range of topics and presentation styles, including the basics and more advanced topics. I watched some course videos to sample courses I hadn’t already taken
• Learner reviews: I read learner reviews (when available) to get a sense of the quality of each course, leveraging the Class Central database with its thousands of course ratings and reviews written by our users as well as available course provider reviews.

Then, I defined the scope for these recommendations. A microbiology course can cover various topics, so I chose top courses from a range of sub-fields.

Ultimately, I used a combination of data and my own judgment to make these picks. I’m confident these recommendations will be a reliable way to learn about microbiology.