Sylvia Lilith

I sometimes check library newsletters or community college websites for this stuff but the offerings are limited and usually don't meet my needs :(

There are several great ones! MIT and Harvard actually both offer some free online courses

It depends a lot on where you live, but a lot of public libraries have deals with educational-leaning sites of just about every type, including online courses. There's also p2pU https://www.p2pu.org/en/ that I always feel tempted to grab a bunch of people and try out, because it sounds like a good idea, at least.

That also assumes that you want to do everything from home, but your town's recreation department almost certainly runs ten-week classes in a bunch of random things that somebody pitched them.

Every town I lived in has had some sort of community education program, but it's not always well known or advertised.

I've seen them run by the local community college, local library, parks and rec department, or the school district. Places like museums, art galleries, community theaters, nature centers, etc also run shorter classes which might be just once a week for two to four weeks. Community colleges also sometimes allow students to audit classes for a reduced fee or even free if you met particular criteria. (Unfortunately, I've noticed that the criteria has gotten more exclusive over the last decade and a half.)

Businesses like craft or hardware stores also sometimes have classes available.

Private instructors running group lessons/classes on specific topics have gotten harder to find in the last two decades, but they're still around. For example, a local machine shop here teaches welding, one of the organizers of our town's community garden teaches gardening classes, and there are several small music/dance schools.

Less bigoted religious groups offer LGBTQ+ friendly community classes as well. For example, both the local Zen group and the Universal Unitarians here offer classes on things like meditation and Tai Chi.

The regional LGBTQ+ orgs also sometimes have classes. For example, the queer hiking club offers classes on orienteering a couple times a year.

Small cities and towns tend to have more of this sort of thing going on than what people assume, it just might take some digging to find. (Particularly in rural areas, finding out about this sort of thing can require community participation because classes/lessons might only be advertised by word of mouth.)

if you live near a community college or university (in the US), many of them will let you "audit" their courses

for those who don't know, auditing a course means taking the class tuition-free but without getting any credit for it. it brings the cost down to little-to-nothing, but it won't count toward any sort of degree or certification

it's a way to take a class just to learn something

that being said, it's not a guarantee you'll be able to audit any given class in any given semester. they'll have to make sure there's an open space in your desired class first (ie. they'll often prioritize paying students over you). if the class is full of tuition-paying students, the school might not let you in that semester

most schools don't advertise this as an option, but you can always ask their academic advisors and they'll know what you're talking about

source: i've audited online courses and i used to work in post-secondary education

not sure how much skillshare type programs are, but i'd love something like this! it's hard to teach yourself things without feedback or anyone at a similar point in their learning journey to bounce ideas off of for holding each other accountable....

discord servers exist, but don't really cut it if you aren't particularly outgoing, don't know where to look, or weren't there early on/started it yourself.....