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OSSU: Path to a free, self-taught education in computer science

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Re: OSSU: Path to a free, self-taught education in computer science

#61

Post by dento »

nivenkos wrote: post #48

Nand2Tetris and Roughgarden, looks like an excellent syllabus tbh. Unfortunately it's pretty worthless without a paper degree. It's cool that Finland is now having open online registration for Finnish citizens to do online courses like https://fullstackopen.com/en/ It's a shame something like that doesn't exist in every country.

In Finland you can usually complete first year of the bachelors studies without enrolling to the university. Some of the courses, like first programming courses in CS, are free. Others cost a small fee, around 75€ per course. If you decide to enroll in the uni later, those will be acknowledged as well. They also have Digital Education For All program that has all of the first year studies for free.

I personally did complete about six months worth of studies while still in the secondary education.

Re: OSSU: Path to a free, self-taught education in computer science

#62

Post by AussieWog93 »

_vbnz wrote: post #49
psyc wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t go to college, and I don’t include an education section on my resume. In 23 years in the industry, I’ve never been asked.

With 23 years in industry, you were joining back when CS degrees were less common. This is like the "boomer handshake" meme. Nowadays you need a degree.

I used to work with a guy who dropped out of a gamedev course at a second-tier university. Graduate SWE at a respectable/selective company and all.

Admittedly, this was at a company with about 500 employees and 1 part-time HR person (who quit 6 months later and wasn't replaced).

Re: OSSU: Path to a free, self-taught education in computer science

#63

Post by nivenkos »

dento wrote: post #61
nivenkos wrote: post #48

Nand2Tetris and Roughgarden, looks like an excellent syllabus tbh. Unfortunately it's pretty worthless without a paper degree. It's cool that Finland is now having open online registration for Finnish citizens to do online courses like https://fullstackopen.com/en/ It's a shame something like that doesn't exist in every country.

In Finland you can usually complete first year of the bachelors studies without enrolling to the university. Some of the courses, like first programming courses in CS, are free. Others cost a small fee, around 75€ per course. If you decide to enroll in the uni later, those will be acknowledged as well. They also have Digital Education For All program that has all of the first year studies for free. I personally did c…

Yeah, it seems so awesome. And using the Personnummer / BankID to allow all the registration online, etc.

Lightyears ahead of the rest of Europe.

Re: OSSU: Path to a free, self-taught education in computer science

#64

Post by psiconaut »

nicoburns wrote: post #58
CleverLikeAnOx wrote: post #55

A lot of comments are dismissing this because it doesn't provide a credential upon completion. But you don't get mad at a hammer for not putting staples in paper, nor get mad at a stapler for not putting nails in wood. This is a tool that gives empowers you to educate yourself, not a tool that gives you a credential. As someone with a deep love of learning and knowledge, I am delighted that this exists.

I think the reason fo this emphasis is that there are already plenty of resources for self-learning CS. Indeed a lot of the mainstream universities make their course materials available. The bit that is not typically available is the credential, so if we truly want to disrupt the edcuation model then that's the bit that needs to be solved.

yes, but please consider that pursuing such disruption and getting a self-taught education might be orthogonal problems. event though there are many resources, I appreciate the effort put into curating a selection of those.

Re: OSSU: Path to a free, self-taught education in computer science

#66

Post by exdsq »

This is a nice way to learn CS in your own time. Sure there's no piece of paper at the end but it should help improve your skills & remove any sort of impostor syndrome junior self-taught devs might have.

Some of these comments remind me of an argument in "The Case Against Education" by Bryan Caplan that degrees are more about signalling than anything else nowadays.

If you have two candidates applying for a job. One audited MIT classes for four years completing all problem sets but not receiving any credits. The other cheated and dragged their way to a low-GPA degree but has the qualification. Who would be more likely to get a job offer?

Re: OSSU: Path to a free, self-taught education in computer science

#67

Post by narag »

CleverLikeAnOx wrote: post #55

A lot of comments are dismissing this because it doesn't provide a credential upon completion. But you don't get mad at a hammer for not putting staples in paper, nor get mad at a stapler for not putting nails in wood. This is a tool that gives empowers you to educate yourself, not a tool that gives you a credential. As someone with a deep love of learning and knowledge, I am delighted that this exists.

A lot of comments are dismissing this because it doesn't provide a credential upon completion.

Obvious solution would be decoupling teaching and certification. Actually, having both performed by the same institutions seems like a conflict of interest.

Re: OSSU: Path to a free, self-taught education in computer science

#68

Post by ChrisRR »

CleverLikeAnOx wrote: post #55

A lot of comments are dismissing this because it doesn't provide a credential upon completion. But you don't get mad at a hammer for not putting staples in paper, nor get mad at a stapler for not putting nails in wood. This is a tool that gives empowers you to educate yourself, not a tool that gives you a credential. As someone with a deep love of learning and knowledge, I am delighted that this exists.

Exactly. I think if you're the sort of person who can self teach yourself an entire CS degree in your spare time, that's going to look very good on your CV, accreditation or not.

The issue would be getting past the automated CV checkers or recruiters that will throw out any applicants that don't have a certain grade

Re: OSSU: Path to a free, self-taught education in computer science

#70

Post by mosselman »

narag wrote: post #67
CleverLikeAnOx wrote: post #55

A lot of comments are dismissing this because it doesn't provide a credential upon completion. But you don't get mad at a hammer for not putting staples in paper, nor get mad at a stapler for not putting nails in wood. This is a tool that gives empowers you to educate yourself, not a tool that gives you a credential. As someone with a deep love of learning and knowledge, I am delighted that this exists.

A lot of comments are dismissing this because it doesn't provide a credential upon completion. Obvious solution would be decoupling teaching and certification. Actually, having both performed by the same institutions seems like a conflict of interest.

Another solution would be to have apprenticeship as you had them in olden days: You can become an apprentice at one or preferably a few craftsmen (IT companies) for a given number of years. They'd teach you, pay you and in the end evaluate you. You can do that in parallel to following something like the given materials in OSSU.

Germany has apprenticeships as far as I am aware, I don't know enough about it though.

edit: Yes! Having certification and teaching done by one organisation _IS_ a huge conflict of interest. Splitting these up without changing the fundamentals (courses and exams/assignments) woudln't do much to fix this I think as you'd either have clumsy evaluations or organisations that just help each other out in order to gain from a slightly different system.

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