Free Education

[EscapedMentalPatientParticipant 1489]

I wasn’t quite sure where to post this.

As always, being a hermit a great deal of the time (I often don’t even get around the Internet enough), I am probably way behind the times on this one.

Please forgive me if you all already know about the following place, as I didn’t know it existed until about 15 minutes ago and was thrilled to find it:

Coursera

I often like to pursue courses and such in my free time, and have done more than a few from some open Universities and such and sometimes they are pricey.

I had no idea of this place called “Coursera”.  One can take free classes of wildly varying topics from many different participating educational institutions and the like, and some of them are apparently even 3 Credit courses towards a degree.

I just thought I’d mention it in the event that any of my brethren here like to do the same sort of thing.

Cheers.

 

[Math RoninParticipant 86]

Cousera gets pretty good reviews. I have a few courses in mind to pursue when I get the time (such as their course on R and a course in foundations of math).

There are other sites that allow you to take self paced courses in which you might also be interested. One of the best is MIT opencourseware: they offer courses just about in every technical discipline taught at MIT. Many of the courses have all of the lectures recorded, problems with solns etc.

What are you interested in taking on Coursera?

[RoyDalParticipant]

Thanks! I’m sending this one on to a young man I know.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[EekParticipant 1162]

Ive used Coursera before and it is quality.

There is also Udacity, MIT has almost all of their courses available online, Khan Academy has good 5-10 minute videos for almost every subject pre-college level and there are several other big ones.

I think the archaic school systems are ripe from some internet age disruption. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of feminist harpies.

If you are looking to learn about something, odds are pretty good someone online will teach you for free.

[Mango IngawayParticipant 2264]

Eek wrote:

If you are looking to learn about something, odds are pretty good someone online will teach you for free.

Exactly, my experience with higher “education” so far is that you pay some dude to explain to you what you could have learned for free on the internet, or in a 15$ book.
Add to that the fact that most students are unbearably dumb, and that seriously makes me want to just drop out.

It is a common failing of childhood to think that if one makes a hero out of a demon the demon will be satisfied.

[Math RoninParticipant 86]

Eek wrote:

I think the archaic school systems are ripe from some internet age disruption. ….

Not to get OT, but you are absolutely right. I’ve worked in academia for decades and I’ve seen what used to be a good system turned into a circus. Students are now “clients” that are catered to and pampered so institutions can fatten their bottom line. People have been sold this bill of goods that you can’t make it unless you have a college degree. Pretty soon, the govt will enact laws so you’ll need a diploma to be a f~~~ing dog walker. You’ll have to take chemistry and biology to understand dog anatomy, and ethics and regulations to understand laws and a computer course to balance your books and a practicum to show you’re qualified, etc. And as stupid as this example sounds, this is what has happened to our system. We’ve made people have to get degrees in things that they used to be able to learn by experience such as “hospitality management”. They are made to take boatloads of math and science courses which they are never going to use, a decent portion struggle with and either subsequently fail out or have to stay in school longer and get further in debt.

People have wised up to the fact that the secondary school system is often bad and have taken to home schooling their children and yet when they’re paying beau coup bucks to send their kid to a college for a degree that does not prepare them well for their actual career, they have no problem with that.

Post secondary ed is a mess and alot of people are trying to address it but the internet is only half the solution.

We need a better, more efficient educational model without all the fat and bloated excesses colleges thrive off of (posh dorms, unnecessary departments and positions, college athletics, etc).  If we don’t, I think we are soon going to find ourselves in a situation where student debt situation becomes an ever increasingly deeper pit for graduates.

[EscapedMentalPatientParticipant 1489]

Math Ronin wrote:

There are other sites that allow you to take self paced courses in which you might also be interested. One of the best is MIT opencourseware: they offer courses just about in every technical discipline taught at MIT. Many of the courses have all of the lectures recorded, problems with solns etc. What are you interested in taking on Coursera?

I had absolutely no idea of this phenomenon at all.  I thought it would be a cold day in hell when formal education was being “given away” in any way, shape or form.  Very cool that MIT is offering courses as well; thank you for the head’s up.  I’ll definitely check that out.  As far as interests go my friend, there were just a ton that caught my eye.  I’ve got a pretty diverse set of interests, and haven’t taken a course in quite some time.  Something light-hearted would be in order for me at the moment, as I’m pretty invested in another project at the moment.  I saw one class on there entitled “Astro-Biology and The Search For Extraterrestrial Life”.  This might well be a course on the origins of feminism, so I will have to be on my guard.   Seriously though, I’d like to see how hokey it is, and have a look at what they deem to be “data”.  I am also highly lacking in any form of computer programming, so I might well check out something along those lines.  I’ve always wanted to be less useless on a computer.

Eek wrote:

Ive used Coursera before and it is quality. There is also Udacity, MIT has almost all of their courses available online, Khan Academy has good 5-10 minute videos for almost every subject pre-college level and there are several other big ones. I think the archaic school systems are ripe from some internet age disruption. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of feminist harpies. If you are looking to learn about something, odds are pretty good someone online will teach you for free.

Thanks for the review of this brother, and for suggesting the other places.  Will definitely check them out.

[Math RoninParticipant 86]

EscapedMentalPatient wrote:

…I’d like to see how hokey it is, and have a look at what they deem to be “data”. I am also highly lacking in any form of computer programming, so I might well check out something along those lines. I’ve always wanted to be less useless on a computer.

If that’s the case, you’d definitely like Coursera: they actually have a flow chart of what courses you need in programming and in what order (start with “computational toolbox course” then go to “Programming in R course”, etc)

[Anonymous 5]

Bookmarked this page. Will check out those places. I didn’t know free courses were available. Thanks.

[The Moth Attracted to the FlameParticipant 2982]

Coursera is great. I used it to take a class for Python coding once.

I really wish I was in the Nordic regions. They have education all the way up to college for free, with the small but worthwhile sacrifice of higher taxes. They thrive in morality and common sense in those places, while other Western worlds suffer from their own bulls~~~.

[EscapedMentalPatientParticipant 1489]

The Moth Attracted to the Flame wrote:

Coursera is great. I used it to take a class for Python coding once.

Good to know, Gray Fox.  Thanks for the added review.

I’m taking my time signing up for anything; trying to avoid clicking on 20 of the classes at once as so many of them are interesting to me.

As a side note, I’ve noticed on there that you can pay a relatively small fee so that when one completes a course, you are given an actual certificate.  This would make it valid as a transfer credit in some cases, or as a resume adder.

Using Introduction To Thermodynamics  as an example, one can choose the option of “Verified Certificate” or “Statement of Accomplishment”.  In my case, this would cost $61 CAD.  Approx. $46.72 US Dollars.  (Shows how bad the “Loonie” is doing at the moment).  This gets you a signed certificate.  But if one wants to simply take a course for general interest or their own purposes, it’s entirely free.  As an added bonus, there is digital linkage to free required textbooks in PDF format, so that eliminates the traditional sky-rocketed costs of required reading.

Compare this to, say, Athabasca University here in Alberta.  This was a pioneering distance education university, which offers many degrees, but is centered primarily on Arts at the baccalaureate or master’s level.  One course is usually in the $700.00 range, which would include all of the residual or hidden fees.

This is just an excellent alternative to spending so much for general interest, or weeding through many publications at a library or such.  It’s always nice to have some guidelines or syllabus in an area where one is not quite so familiar.  I’ve been working on a magnetism induced source of heat energy for a number of years, but have been lacking in some areas of knowledge.  I think this Coursera is a bit of a God send.

[BurgundyParticipant 1525]

Wow, bookmarked!

 

Didn’t even though these sort of courses existed without a paywall, even for a country with “free education”, courses are quite hefty in prices, for even basic stuff, so this is incredible.

[Author]

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