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>The material in a CS degree is pretty accessible for self study Whether or not it is, I have yet to meet anyone who has done self study who has studied theory

by Ologn 12y ago

>The material in a CS degree is pretty accessible for self study Whether or not it is, I have yet to meet anyone who has done self study who has studied theory of computation, mutual exclusion, and that sort of stuff, month on end, like CS students do. Everyone seems to go straight to what is immediately useful, like the syntax of Objective C and so forth. Also, the big technological leap allowing this was the Gutenberg printing press, not MOOCs and the like. Theoretically one just needs the textbooks and some other materials to self-study almost any topic. Yet people have still been going to universities for centuries. The movable type printing press was the major innovation for this, MOOCs have been relatively minor in comparison to this thus far, yet people have still gone to universities for the past few centuries. > Also of critical importance, CS materials tend to be strongly represented in MOOCs I did not find this to be the case. Some subjects we went into in class that I did not understand or wanted to look into more indepth, I would go online looking at Youtube videos, MOOCs, various materials etc. I was usually disappointed. If I was lucky I would get a poorly shot Youtube video of some professor with a thick foreign accent explaining the subject, often poorly.

xiaoma 12y ago
>I have yet to meet anyone who has done self study who has studied theory of computation, mutual exclusion, and that sort of stuff, month on end, like CS students do. Now you have :) Ullman's Automata course was my favorites: https://www.coursera.org/course/automata https://www.coursera.org/course/automata I find the MIT OCW superior to MOOCs for multi-course sequences, btw. If you want to do a full degree, use OCW. Coursera/edX auto graders are great for classes with programming assignments, but since there are so many classes from so many schools prereqs are a problem. If you're interested I wrote this comparison of the options late last year: http://logicmason.com/2013/self-directed-programming-and-computer-science-study-through-moocs/ http://logicmason.com/2013/self-directed-programming-and-com...
yen223 12y ago
I'm a 'self-learner' (graduated with a non-CS degree) who went through the Machine Learning course on Coursera, which inspired me to pursue my Master's in Computer Science You are right about self-learners avoiding heavy academic subjects. The huge problem with self-learning is that I had a moron for a teacher. There's just too many unknown unknowns - I didn't know what I was missing out on. Oh, and the credential helps too. Immigration departments don't look at Github profiles :)
- ciaranm 12y ago
  > Immigration departments don't look at Github profiles :) That's a fantastic point, and one which has probably been overlooked so far in this thread. Yes, it's entirely possible you'll be able to find a great job/company in your home country, but good luck getting a skilled workers visa in any major country without having 'professional' level qualifications.

by Ologn 12y ago

xiaoma 12y ago

>I have yet to meet anyone who has done self study who has studied theory of computation, mutual exclusion, and that sort of stuff, month on end, like CS students do. Now you have :) Ullman's Automata course was my favorites: https://www.coursera.org/course/automata https://www.coursera.org/course/automata I find the MIT OCW superior to MOOCs for multi-course sequences, btw. If you want to do a full degree, use OCW. Coursera/edX auto graders are great for classes with programming assignments, but since there are so many classes from so many schools prereqs are a problem. If you're interested I wrote this comparison of the options late last year: http://logicmason.com/2013/self-directed-programming-and-computer-science-study-through-moocs/ http://logicmason.com/2013/self-directed-programming-and-com...

yen223 12y ago

I'm a 'self-learner' (graduated with a non-CS degree) who went through the Machine Learning course on Coursera, which inspired me to pursue my Master's in Computer Science You are right about self-learners avoiding heavy academic subjects. The huge problem with self-learning is that I had a moron for a teacher. There's just too many unknown unknowns - I didn't know what I was missing out on. Oh, and the credential helps too. Immigration departments don't look at Github profiles :)

ciaranm 12y ago
> Immigration departments don't look at Github profiles :) That's a fantastic point, and one which has probably been overlooked so far in this thread. Yes, it's entirely possible you'll be able to find a great job/company in your home country, but good luck getting a skilled workers visa in any major country without having 'professional' level qualifications.