Magnum Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 I know the topic title looks like email spam, but bear with me. Just been reading this article in the Guardian about the increasing availability of university-standard courses and modules available for free online through organisations such as Coursera. Â Does anybody have any experience with these? Personally, I think it's a fantastic idea, and I'm going to try and do as many as possible before they inevitably find a way to start charging a few grand for them. Obviously I've been to university, and although the set-up we have is a necessity for getting into a certain career at a certain point of your life, I really found personally the ages of 18-21 to be one of the worst periods of my life to get any real academic learning done. You're so focused on making sure you're getting 'the university experience' and the social life that goes with it that your focus on the subject itself can really suffer. I'm only a lecturer now because, having totally coasted for the first two and a half years of my course, I started to actually pay attention enough to get a 2:1 and an MA once I'd got all the other stuff out of my system. Â What are people's thoughts on this? Obviously there are limitations to these things - some of which are outlined in the article, the main one being the comparative lack of real world worth to an employer of 'qualifications' you may get online. Nonetheless, I think having the opportunity to get some form of education in a subject you might have no prior knowledge of for free could be invaluable at a time when plenty of people with a limited income are losing their jobs and looking to retrain or find a new career. I know I certainly couldn't afford to spunk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members lambyUK Posted November 13, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted November 13, 2012 I know the topic title looks like email spam, but bear with me. Just been reading this article in the Guardian about the increasing availability of university-standard courses and modules available for free online through organisations such as Coursera. Does anybody have any experience with these? Personally, I think it's a fantastic idea, and I'm going to try and do as many as possible before they inevitably find a way to start charging a few grand for them. Obviously I've been to university, and although the set-up we have is a necessity for getting into a certain career at a certain point of your life, I really found personally the ages of 18-21 to be one of the worst periods of my life to get any real academic learning done. You're so focused on making sure you're getting 'the university experience' and the social life that goes with it that your focus on the subject itself can really suffer. I'm only a lecturer now because, having totally coasted for the first two and a half years of my course, I started to actually pay attention enough to get a 2:1 and an MA once I'd got all the other stuff out of my system.  What are people's thoughts on this? Obviously there are limitations to these things - some of which are outlined in the article, the main one being the comparative lack of real world worth to an employer of 'qualifications' you may get online. Nonetheless, I think having the opportunity to get some form of education in a subject you might have no prior knowledge of for free could be invaluable at a time when plenty of people with a limited income are losing their jobs and looking to retrain or find a new career. I know I certainly couldn't afford to spunk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Fatty Facesitter Posted November 13, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted November 13, 2012 Thanks for posting. I like the look of the Sports & Society one and might give it a go. I'd eventually like to do a masters in sports journalism, but anything and everything I can do in between to keep the knowledge bank ticking over would be handy. I showed the other half the site this morning and she's going to look up stuff on there as well. Â It'd be interesting to see how far a "Signed certificate from the tutor" could actually get you. I obviously wouldn't expect to land a well-paid job immediately or maybe even at all, but you never know when such knowledge may come in handy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members lambyUK Posted November 13, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted November 13, 2012 Thanks for posting. I like the look of the Sports & Society one and might give it a go. I'd eventually like to do a masters in sports journalism, but anything and everything I can do in between to keep the knowledge bank ticking over would be handy. I showed the other half the site this morning and she's going to look up stuff on there as well. Â It'd be interesting to see how far a "Signed certificate from the tutor" could actually get you. I obviously wouldn't expect to land a well-paid job immediately or maybe even at all, but you never know when such knowledge may come in handy. Â This is the thing, depending on where you go of course, a lot of the time they appreciate the knowledge rather than the paper it's printed on. If you write about something in a CV and sufficiently make clear your understanding of the subject, it will still put you in good stead to progress further. It's actually perfect for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Surf Digby Posted November 13, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted November 13, 2012 This could be a really good thing for someone like me. Â Similar to yourself, my teenage years were not particularly well spent in terms of education, and my lack of academic achievements is something I'm quite embarrassed about these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 In Scotland, we have a scheme called ILA which gives you up to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted November 13, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted November 13, 2012 It's been a massive regret of mine recently that I didn't stick around for an MA. I loved university and my course and I still have no fucking idea why I didn't stay on instead of scratching around for writing work. This might well be a partial solution that I'm looking for. I'm definitely doing this:- Â https://www.coursera.org/course/hollywood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnum Posted November 13, 2012 Author Share Posted November 13, 2012 In Scotland, we have a scheme called ILA which gives you up to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted November 13, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted November 13, 2012 I'm a massive believer in ongoing education for adults, though, and I think these online courses could be excellent for me. The internet is such a great thing for self-education, but it's so easy to just end up fannying about on forums and facebook or looking for porn. Having something structured that tells you where to start on a new subject and how to progress your learning on it could be a great thing. Â I completely agree, I absolutely love the idea of stuff like this and I just signed up for that course I linked to. I want to actually find a course about the history of adult entertainment and pornography, funnily enough, with you having mentioned porn, but I think I'll be lucky to find anything of that ilk around. Â That said, I think I'll be doing a lot of these in the future, thanks for the topic and alerting me to the existence of these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted November 13, 2012 Moderators Share Posted November 13, 2012 I've signed up to Sports and Society. Should be a boon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Mrs Houchen has a background in online learning facilities. I'll ask her about this for a professional opinion and let you guys know. Again, thanks to Magnum for this. Â Gladders, that course looks well skill. I might sign up too and we can be study buddies!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted November 13, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted November 13, 2012 Gladders, that course looks well skill. I might sign up too and we can be study buddies!!!!!!!!!!!! Â Dude! I'll scrunch up the paper balls, you dip them in the ink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 It'll be just like Animal House but with blokes in their 30's. With responsibilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Ronnie Posted November 13, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted November 13, 2012 This looks great. I wish I had more time because there are loads of those courses that I would like to do. For the time being I'll stick to just the one so I've just signed up for Introduction to Databases. I'm an advanced Excel user and use that to mirror a database at work but I run websites that are built on MySQL databases and I'd like to get a bit more involved with them, so this is right up my street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Emailed Mrs H about this and she had already signed up for a course on there. Haven't spoken in depth about it but I think she is doing it for the skills, not the qualification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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