I've been studying computer science for three years now. I graduated with my AAS in Computer Science from Renton Technical College in March of 2016. I took 1 month off to recoup, then in June, I started working on my BS in Software Development through an online course offered by Western Governors University.
In my first 6 months with WGU I wasn't asked to read or write a single line of code. I find that to be quite disheartening coming from a Bachelors course in Software Development. I've learned a lot of information from this course so far, but that information has been aimed at teaching me what I need to know to pass Comp TIA exams. In fact I've had to pass the Comp TIA A+, Network+ and Security+ so far. I'm not certain how many more they'll make me dredge through (my fault for not doing more research, and taking suggestions from my peers 😔). It's not that bad though. I like the structure, it saves me a ton of money, and I'll still end up with a regionally accredited degree.
Unfortunately, certifications are not enough for me. I want to be a great software developer. I am incredibly lucky in that my family has given me the opportunity to live at home free from rent. I'm lucky also, in that I have the opposite problem with money that most American twenty-somethings have. Instead of feeling like I need to spend my money on stuff, I feel like there isn't much stuff worth spending money on, so I save it - lots of it. I look at other guys my age and see them spending every paycheck on stuff they don't need, or worse, gambling it away. But let me get back to the point. It's not enough for me to earn a few industry certifications each semester, I don't have the money to pay for an MIT education, but I have enough to provide myself with all my basic necessities. Although I can't pay for a high quality university, I (and you) can still learn from high quality courses, many of which are free.
I recently discovered a free learning initiative called the Open Source Society. They might have other degree paths, but the one I found, and am most interested in, is marketed as a "Path to a free self-taught education in Computer Science!" They've got an interesting collection of 31 courses, most of which are taught by the same high quality universities I can't afford to attend. Here's a link to their Github repository if you're interested: https://github.com/open-source-society/computer-science
I started working through this coursework on December 22nd, 2016. I hope to complete all of the courses that don't already overlap the knowledge I have gained over the past 3 years of studying. This means I won't be completing them all. In fact, I skipped the very first one, 'Introduction to Computer Science - CS50' (Harvard). It's a pretty good course from what I've seen, but I watched many of the videos from this course when I first started taking computer science seriously a few years back, and I'm pretty certain I won't gain much by completing this one at this point. So where am I now?
Well, earlier today I completed 'Effective Thinking Through Mathematics' (The University of Texas at Austin). It's staged as a 5 week course, but It took me about 8-10 hours to watch and attempt all of the content. I'll have to get better at tracking my time. It's certainly a fantastic start to my goal, which is to complete all of the courses by the time I graduate with my Bachelors degree. It was also a very fun course to partake in. There isn't anything too complicated within this particular course. It's mostly a bunch of puzzles that are designed to teach you the importance of trying something - anything - when you reach a problem you're not sure how to solve, and to teach you to follow through with ideas, even if you're certain they will lead to the wrong answer. The puzzles were fun and challenging to solve, and the lessons learned were well worth the time spent.
With a fantastic start, but with 29 courses left to finish, I've got a long way to go. I hope to complete the whole course within a year and a half, while also staying on top of my other studies at WGU. I hope to spend about 40 hours a week on this course and 15-20 hours a week on my classes for WGU. I haven't touched this blog in something like two years, so I'm going to revive it and keep track of my progress here.
I was inspired by Scott Young's MIT Challenge: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/ but I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the same route as him, but when I reviewed the content in the OSS course, I saw that much of it was designed for online learning instead of being primarily designed for the classroom like much of what Scott completed. I decided what the hell, lets give it a shot, so here I am.
Like I said, I'll be using this blog to keep track of my progress and hopefully when I'm all said and done, I'll be able to offer some criticism about the course and be able to help others make an informed decision about embarking on a similar challenge.
It's getting late, I'm super tired, and this post is already losing quality and gaining in size. I'll end here before I get too carried away, and leave you with this thought.
The best thing you can do when faced with a problem is to just try something. Even if you know that which you are trying will fail, you'll be able to confidently eliminate one wrong answer, and likely gain insight toward reaching the right answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment