Free learning sites

[AK-33]

https://www.newsweek.com/25-free-websites-learn-new-skills-youtube-1617923

Some of these will be known to you, others might not.

For paid learning, I've been on Udemy for two years now and have purchased over 20 courses. They have sales several times throughout the year that allow you to buy a $200 course for like $15. You have lifetime access to the material.

[cwade12c]

Great share! I love how universities are starting to share content and even offer courses through edX. I'd love to level the playing field in education, and that's a great way to do it.

[AK-33]

College today is largely a scam (speaking as someone with a Bachelors, Masters and seriously contemplating starting a PhD). Unless you're going into STEM or a field that by law requires a degree, I actually don't see the point vis-à-vis the debt incurred. The democratization of access to online education has changed the game.

I also subscribed to Brilliant Premium for a year. It's novel, good, but not worth a resub imo.

[WarFox]

I think it varies on the institution, the person and the program being pursued. As mentioned, STEM of course. If you want to work as a research chemist, you need the lab time that schools offer and a few years of straight up theory. While one can certainly get books like Linus Pauling's general chemistry and master the text, many may not be able to due to needing direction. The biggest benefit of college for me pursuing STEM is having some pathway set for study, however there are people who can do this without direction.

I do think some of the above can apply outside of STEM. History as an example. College is way to expensive to seriously consider studying history there, but it can be a way to quickly introduce someone to a broad range of periods of history that may introduce someone into a specific history they enjoy. Think of someone who decides Russian history is interesting (as I do) and only knew so because of the material introduced in class. In my specific case, I just found an interesting book at Barnes and Nobles on the topic of Russian history, so it was rather luck there. However this can be democratized to with people developing a list. Think of a history buff who publishes a list of 10 books covering a broad range of periods.

[AK-33]

Robotics engineering would be another example of needing to attend a brick-and-mortar institution because you're not going to spend millions of dollars building your own robotics lab in your garage.

There used to be a time when academia was a profession; today, it's a business. It's becoming less and less about nurturing the student body and helping individuals become functionally useful members of society and more and more about milking them out of their tuition. Then again, there also used to be a time when only smart people got into college. Today, you could probably find a Masters program in underwater basket weaving.

Online courses are shorter, much less expensive, more modular and to the point. I'd prefer them over a whole semester of just about any subject.

[WarFox]

What I would like to see is more hackerspaces and hackerspaces that are affordable. Sometimes they can have many things a lab can have (at least as far as electronics and tools), but the membership rates can be pretty steep. So maybe things like robotics can some at least somewhat out of the university. Or at least for non-insane projects.

[cwade12c]

2 minutes ago, WarFox said:

What I would like to see is more hackerspaces and hackerspaces that are affordable. Sometimes they can have many things a lab can have (at least as far as electronics and tools), but the membership rates can be pretty steep. So maybe things like robotics can some at least somewhat out of the university. Or at least for non-insane projects.

Somehow I've never heard of this. Are these like labs or spaces where people can get together to hack/tinker/modify? When I went to university, we had a "green room" with an isolated network and were allowed to mess around. 

  

9 hours ago, AK-33 said:

There used to be a time when academia was a profession; today, it's a business. It's becoming less and less about nurturing the student body and helping individuals become functionally useful members of society and more and more about milking them out of their tuition. Then again, there also used to be a time when only smart people got into college. Today, you could probably find a Masters program in underwater basket weaving.

This is too true!

Edited August 24, 2021 by cwade12c

[WarFox]

@cwade12c Yea so generally a group of people go in a building or a space and they essentially cost share the space and investments on tools. Usually other people can join. The best hackerspace I've seen was down in San Diego when I was stationed there. One of the local hams on the 440 repeater I frequented all the time is an EE at Qualcomm and either was a member or was one of the founders of the San Diego one that I checked out. Each hackerspace can vary, it just depends on the space an equipment. If I remember, the one in San Diego had it's standalone building with a garage. The garage had a lift and everything. You could go in there and someone was doing maintenance, swapping an engine or tinkering. Most of them have full electronics labs with scopes and analyzers. If you have one close they are pretty cool. Just remember I said that they vary. It depends on how much money they have for tools or if they get donations. Some have a monthly membership and some have a day rate. Some have classes. Some will reduce the membership cost if you have a skill or knowledge in an area and are willing to  dedicate a few hours a week to hosting a class or just being available to help others. So if they have a CNC machine, they may cut someone slack on membership if they have knowledge and are willing to spend 3 hours every Saturday just helping out. 

For cost reference, the one in San Diego was I think close to $200/month.

 

https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/San_Diego

Edit:

You may be more familiar with the term makerspace. It can be essentially the same thing, but the term hackerspace was more before the revolution of arduino, RPIs, and other SBC/MicroControllers.

Edited August 25, 2021 by WarFox