Anyone looking for an upper-beginner, standards-based, interactive, and easy-to-use online Japanese learning course will be delighted to try the IRODORI Japanese Online Course. This free Japanese-learning site is designed by the same people who made the Marugoto textbooks, which are known for their interactive and colorful content. IRODORI is designed very similarly: fun, intuitive, and full of comprehensible media. Unlike Marugoto, however, IRODORI is slightly faster-paced and is designed for those who have already completed an absolute beginner course in Japanese (i.e. the A1 level, according to the Japan Foundation's language standards). So, if you already know hiragana, katakana, some kanji, and basic grammar and vocabulary, then the IRODORI Japanese Online Course may be right for you!
The content is highly organized with lessons divided into 9 topics (content themes) with two lessons per topic. All 18 lessons are populated with writing, reading, listening, and speaking activities. While reading and listening activities may be understandable for an online language course, IRODORI is unique in that it incorporates spaces for learners to record their own speaking and writing practice with each lesson. These can be saved to a user "portfolio" which users can access later to see how far they've come in their studies. There is also a distinction made between studying (i.e. learning new material) and practicing (i.e. reviewing material you have already learned).
It's actually hard to believe that all of this content is accessible to everyone free of charge. You can see their content lists for the Elementary 1 and Elementary 2 levels, vocabulary lists (Elementary 1 and Elementary 2), expression lists (Elementary 1 and Elementary 2), and a kanji list (Elementary 1 and Elementary 2). You can also find a print version of IRODORI for levels A1 to A2 free of charge here. In fact, the IRODORI Online Course is based on this print version, which was designed to help foreigners adjust to life in Japan and encourage others to come to Japan for highly-skilled work.