Coursera

Categories: Information

“And I’m never going back to my old school”

–Donald Fagen and Walter Becker

Learning is one of those things that we never get to stop doing. I can remember at various times in my life looking forward to the end of school, whether just the end of the year or a graduation, but even then I never really wanted to stop learning.

Which is a good thing, since I can’t afford to. If I don’t work to keep up with changing technologies, pretty soon I won’t be able to do my job any more. That would not be a Good Thing.

There are several routes I take to keep up knowledge in my field; many of you probably do the same things. I subscribe to several professional journals (paper and electronic), read blogs written by other IT folks, participate in online discussion forums, sometimes even read books.

And, just this last year, I’ve been going back to school. Not pursuing an advanced degree – I’ve considered that, but not at this time. No, I’ve been taking online courses through Coursera, just for the sake of learning things that will be useful to me.

Coursera is a clearing house for MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses. They’re provided (in a number of languages) by universities all over the world, for the low, low cost of free. (Some of the courses have options for getting certificates; this usually involves a cost, but the cost to take a course for your own personal benefit is zero.)

It can take some discipline to work through a course like these, especially if you know you’re not paying for it, but it can be worth it. I’ve learned a lot this last year, and I’m looking forward to starting a new course on Friday.

Give Coursera a shot – there may be something you’ll find useful or interesting, something that will help you do your job better. And if we all get better, imagine how great OCES can be.