Have you seen the movie Good Will Hunting? My guess is most of you have seen it by now. The reason I ask is because I started taking courses on the website Coursera. How are these related? Read further to find out.

Now listen, I am fully aware that Coursera has great information but may not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you aren’t familiar with it, go check it out. For me, being at home all day with a toddler, having limited funds and working at night are not conducive to attending actual college. Coursera is kind of like going to a university and sitting in on random classes around campus. It’s education dabbling, if you will. Sure, you can pay the money to receive “Specialization” certificates, but where are those useful? It’s not a degree and I haven’t seen a single job posting that required a bachelor’s degree or equivalent certificates. I browse the classes and find the free ones loosely related to what interests me. I’m cheap like that- see the above “limited funds” statement. $49 buys groceries for a week, people…*grumble

For months now, I have been coming around to my renewed desire to finish a degree. Thousands (millions?) of “non-traditional” past/future students such as myself face the idea of going back to school with a long list of doubts:

-Will my decade-old credits transfer?
-Do I remember how to do basic math?
-Should I be parenting young children if I can’t do basic math? (oops-different list of doubts!)
-Can I afford to take time away from “normal life” for this?
-Will my husband secretly regret telling me he would work while I go to school?
-Is it worth it for a piece of paper? (I know it’s more than that-relax!)
-What the hell am I getting myself into?

Ok, so everyone’s lists may not be exactly like mine but still- close enough, eh? So, back to Coursera. A few people suggested it as a way to kind of try out a bunch of different that I have thought at some point would interest me. I looked at it and decided to give it a go. I started in what I thought would be a good jumping off point- a class called Learning How to Learn. I loved it! I passed it with a 99% and enjoyed every minute of it. I could totally learn this way- by being interested in a topic and taking a class to learn more about it.

Here is my dilema: Would you hire someone with the knowledge needed to do the job but no degree? Why or why not? College is so very expensive. Would a person who (paid the damn $49 and) received a Coursera “specialization” in a field after taking classes from professors at Duke, UC San Diego and other amazing schools be someone you would hire? Or would you rather have someone who did things the traditional way? What about someone WITH a bachelor’s degree but from an online school? I’m really asking this. I would love a few comments on this post- pros and cons of each. Doesn’t (shouldn’t) it all boil down to retained knowledge and ability?

This post is incredibly scattered which is an accurate representation of my brain at the moment. Austin Annie is reading books and taking free online classes to wake up her dormant brain. What should my next step be? Help!

In the meantime, I am going to be taking these classes because the brain is a muscle…and my other muscles will have a post of their own coming soon.

Thanks for reading!