Online learning is taking off
Education is changing–big time! I don’t think we’ll see many people leave or bypass universities for another 10 years, but we are getting back on track for the ‘Information Age’ (as social media and memes settle in to their new home).
Online learning has evolved tremendously over the past year, with new offerings from some of the world’s most famous professors and experts. Amazing programmers have created accessible, often beautiful, interfaces with intuitive lessons and exercises. People are experimenting with delivery methods ranging from YouTube videos and podcasts to interactive code tutorials and multiple choice questions. These are exciting times!
Here are a few of my favorites:
- Khan Academy - https://www.khanacademy.org/
- Coursera - https://www.coursera.org
- Udacity - https://www.udacity.com/
- MIT’s Open Courseware - https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
- Stanford’s offerings - https://see.stanford.edu/see/courses.aspx
- Yale Open Courses - https://oyc.yale.edu/
- Academic Earth - https://academicearth.org/
- EdX - https://www.edx.org/
- Institute for Advanced Studies - https://www.ias.edu/
- Code Academy - https://codeacademy.com/
- Code School - https://www.codeschool.com/
- InfoQ - https://www.infoq.com/
- TED - https://www.ted.com/
(Updated with Coursera: Thanks, Sean!)
I’ve also found some gems like
- MSDN Channel9’s Functional Programming Fundamentals https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/C9-Lectures-Erik-Meijer-Functional-Programming-Fundamentals
- John Resig’s Learning Advanced JavaScript https://ejohn.org/apps/learn/
- Nathan’s University, https://nathansuniversity.appspot.com/, which aims to teach you how to create your own programming language.
Any virtually any other subject has lectures appearing on sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Blip.tv, Lanyrd (to name a few).
So much to learn! I think we’ll see a lot more innovation with formats, content, and pricing. It’s a great time to be alive :)
Have you found another online learning site that looks promising or disruptive? How does/would online affect/have affected your education? Would you skip college and jump straight to starting a business knowing that so much knowledge is at your fingertips?