It's never too late to learn

With pilot season almost upon us my job is about to get very busy for the next five months or so. But outside of this hectic, deadline-heavy time of year my job tends to be fairly low-key. This leaves me with a lot of free time on my hands and in the past I haven’t been particularly good at using it efficiently.

I mentioned recently that I started learning French again via the website DuoLingo, and that’s been great in eating about 30-45 minutes a day, but that still leaves a lot of unproductive time that could be better spent. How could I fill that remain space? Where might I find the answers that I sought? And who exactly murdered Professor Plum in the Dining Room with the Lead Pipe?!

While the final question continues to elude me, the first two were given a potential answer by one of my friends, Emily. She had recently stumbled across the website for Coursera, which is a company that has partnered with a number of top universities in the world to offer some of their courses online for free. I have no idea how this is possible but I’m all for taking advantage of it. Here are two of the classes I’m currently looking at:

Programming Languages (10 weeks; Workload 8-12 hours/week):

Course Format: "Video segments have short question-and-answer sections, but the main work will be 6-8 homework assignments that will involve writing small programs. Students are likely to be asked to review a few solutions by other students in order to get and receive feedback on programming style. Critiquing other’s work and receiving comments about your own are invaluable learning experiences."

Introduction to Finance (15 weeks; Workload 6-8 hours/week):

Course Format: "The class will consist of videos, broken up into bite-size pieces with their lengths varying based on the topic. Almost every video segment will have opportunities for you to assess your knowledge. You are strongly encouraged to take every opportunity to work on the problems/examples before you view my analysis. There will also be standalone assignments every week that are not part of videos, and a (not optional) final exam. Doing the assignments is the way you will learn the material."

I’m not sure I should jump in right now, but it’s definitely something I’ll pursue in the summer at the very latest. There’s always more to learn and I think continuing your education can only make someone a more well-rounded individual, so if like myself you find that you have a lot of spare time on your hands you should definitely check this site out.

UPDATE: One of my other friends just mentioned Code Academy as another source of free, furthering education.