I've been studying nanotechnology since about 2006 and have been taking online courses to learn more on the subject to develop devices. The number of online open source courses is grown tremendously over the years.
MIT OpenCourseWare offers 2100 courses now. MIT, Harvard, University of California Berkeley, and the University of Texas System have join together to offer online courses via
edX.
Coursera offers 200 courses from 33 different universities. This is impressive. It's awesome. The quality of the courses is excellent.
So, with all these courses available which ones do I take to achieve my objectives? It's not clear what courses to take to learn the equivalent of a MS in nanotechnology over the long term, for example. Thus, I've been wanting a tool to help me track and decide what free open sources courses to take to help me too complete this goal. It occurred to me that other people might find this useful too so I created
the 4-brane Project.
At present,
the 4-brane Project shows an example of what a full implementation might provide. Six example users are used to illustrate how it works. The six profiles include:
| Independent learner | Dirk completed two years at a community college and is looking to take open source courses learn the equivalent of a BS in computer science. |
| Recent College grad | Artur completed a BS in computer science and works doing web development. Arthur wants to keep current with the latest tools. |
| Technical professional | Nell has a MS in EE and would like to develop skills in business with an MBA, and Entrepreneurship. |
| Business professional | Teela is a business professional and would like to stay current with the rapid change in technology in her field. |
| Freelance consultant | Lara is a freelance consultant and would like to keep her skill current between contracts and learn new skills to be competitive for new contracts. |
| Researcher | Hari is a well known researcher. He would like to learn cross disciplinary technology. |
These examples link directly to over 200 very cool courses. Explore the site. If you like it
sign up and give some feedback.
The 4-brane Project Forum is also open to discuss the site and subject with others. My hypothesis is that learning over a lifetime leads to personal and professional prosperity.