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Teach yourself real analysis over the internet. There are people who can, but not nearly as many as can learn it in a decent undergraduate math class. I imagine

Teach yourself real analysis over the internet. There are people who can, but not nearly as many as can learn it in a decent undergraduate math class. I imagine the same is true for other difficult subjects.

xiaoma 12y ago
I really recommend MIT's Open Courseware for this. Modern MOOC platforms such as Coursera and edX tend towards the lower level courses and prerequisites are a major problem for anyone looking to do an entire degree. OCW is great though. Motivated learners can go at a minimum of 2x the speed of university classes. The bigger problem is that not many people want to work through these kinds of courses. Universities motivate students through credentials, but open courseware is really just the people who love the education itself as opposed to the schooling and credentials.
- grayclhn 12y ago
  MIT's OCW is fantastic. It's not what I think most people have in mind when they talk about teaching themselves a subject over the internet (especially since many of the classes I'm familiar with have assigned textbooks and homework), but you make a good point. I disagree with the last two statements, though: > Universities motivate students through credentials, but open courseware is really just the people who love the education itself as opposed to the schooling and credentials. Universities also try to motivate students by putting a lot of people who want to learn the same material together at the same time, and by coordinating the pace, readings, etc. It's easier to get motivated to study if all of your friends are studying, whether or not there's a grade involved. It's easier to learn something difficult if you can ask specific questions from other people learning the material (ie classmates) or if you can ask them from an expert (the professor and TAs, ideally).
  - xiaoma 12y ago
    Believe it or not, students, TAs and professors of physical classes can all be found on the OCW forums. The sheer wealth of discussion is amazing, but the one big drawback is that the higher the level of the course, the less likely a quick response is. In some cases it's better to go to http://math.stackexchange.com/ http://math.stackexchange.com/ I totally agree about the textbook part of the equation, too. While I love the automated graders for CS courses on Coursera, I think it's a major, major flaw to de-emphasize textbooks in favor of lectures. It's different for language courses of course, but I've never encountered an engineering course in which lectures were a good use of time compared to working through the book and going to office hours as needed.

xiaoma 12y ago

I really recommend MIT's Open Courseware for this. Modern MOOC platforms such as Coursera and edX tend towards the lower level courses and prerequisites are a major problem for anyone looking to do an entire degree. OCW is great though. Motivated learners can go at a minimum of 2x the speed of university classes. The bigger problem is that not many people want to work through these kinds of courses. Universities motivate students through credentials, but open courseware is really just the people who love the education itself as opposed to the schooling and credentials.

grayclhn 12y ago
MIT's OCW is fantastic. It's not what I think most people have in mind when they talk about teaching themselves a subject over the internet (especially since many of the classes I'm familiar with have assigned textbooks and homework), but you make a good point. I disagree with the last two statements, though: > Universities motivate students through credentials, but open courseware is really just the people who love the education itself as opposed to the schooling and credentials. Universities also try to motivate students by putting a lot of people who want to learn the same material together at the same time, and by coordinating the pace, readings, etc. It's easier to get motivated to study if all of your friends are studying, whether or not there's a grade involved. It's easier to learn something difficult if you can ask specific questions from other people learning the material (ie classmates) or if you can ask them from an expert (the professor and TAs, ideally).
- xiaoma 12y ago
  Believe it or not, students, TAs and professors of physical classes can all be found on the OCW forums. The sheer wealth of discussion is amazing, but the one big drawback is that the higher the level of the course, the less likely a quick response is. In some cases it's better to go to http://math.stackexchange.com/ http://math.stackexchange.com/ I totally agree about the textbook part of the equation, too. While I love the automated graders for CS courses on Coursera, I think it's a major, major flaw to de-emphasize textbooks in favor of lectures. It's different for language courses of course, but I've never encountered an engineering course in which lectures were a good use of time compared to working through the book and going to office hours as needed.