I'm currently taking courses via Umass for a BS in IT. I've taken a few courses here before, and had good results. The guy who taught my perl course actually looked at your code submissions, and commented on them. However, his timing was little bit off, and the final project for the class was far more complex than the knoweldge gained so far. (complete web based bb with a huge set of features).
It really is a mixed bag. The funny thing is, it seems the teachers that really put the effort into the online courses are NOT the same ones that teach daytime classes. Of the 6 courses I've taken, I'd rate 2 teachers great, 2 mediocre, and 2 seemed to hardly care. The top 3 were local professionals with fulltime day jobs, and the 3 worst were fulltime professors at the university (2 umass/amherst, 1 umass/lowell. - altho the lowell one seemed to feel bad about not getting enough time in)
I started and dropped out of school to work in the internet boom, and am just now returning via distance/online learning. When I was going days, you'd get about 2-3 50 minute lectures per week. Maybe 1 or 2 quests answered during class, and quite frankly, most of the professors 'posted hours' were joke. Hardly there, or just too many people waiting. Online, at least their lack of interest can be documented and shown to the people who cut their checks.
One thing you have to keep in mind is that its just like day classes. There are good ones and bad ones. I've taken to researching professors at various online websites, and just plain googling them to see if they've kept current or are just waiting for the return of fortran.
Read the radio shack website for the necessary clue of WHY they're doing this.
Companies don't give things away for free just for fun. There's always a catch that allows them to make money. In this case, its marketing info.
This is a quote from the faq at
Radio Shack
"What happens to my personal information (like my name, address, and e-mail address) when I register and use the:CueCat?
Any personal information (such as your name, address and e-mail address) collected online
when you register and use your new:CueCat is held and owned by Digital Convergence
Corporation (not RadioShack). To view Digital Convergence's privacy policy, Click here.
Unless you give Digital Convergence permission to share your personal information with us,
or unless you register or purchase on RadioShack.com or volunteer information at a
RadioShack store, you and your shopping habits remain anonymous to RadioShack.com.
Click here to view RadioShack.com's privacy policy."
They only gave you this "handy" device because they want you to register and and scan lots of barcodes, so they have lots and lots of information about your personal interests, so they can sell your information to direct marketers (think human spam).
When you write a linux driver, you bypass all the secret sending of private info to their servers, which means they can't make money off you.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm currently taking courses via Umass for a BS in IT. I've taken a few courses here before, and had good results. The guy who taught my perl course actually looked at your code submissions, and commented on them. However, his timing was little bit off, and the final project for the class was far more complex than the knoweldge gained so far. (complete web based bb with a huge set of features).
It really is a mixed bag. The funny thing is, it seems the teachers that really put the effort into the online courses are NOT the same ones that teach daytime classes. Of the 6 courses I've taken, I'd rate 2 teachers great, 2 mediocre, and 2 seemed to hardly care. The top 3 were local professionals with fulltime day jobs, and the 3 worst were fulltime professors at the university (2 umass/amherst, 1 umass/lowell. - altho the lowell one seemed to feel bad about not getting enough time in)
I started and dropped out of school to work in the internet boom, and am just now returning via distance/online learning. When I was going days, you'd get about 2-3 50 minute lectures per week. Maybe 1 or 2 quests answered during class, and quite frankly, most of the professors 'posted hours' were joke. Hardly there, or just too many people waiting. Online, at least their lack of interest can be documented and shown to the people who cut their checks.
One thing you have to keep in mind is that its just like day classes. There are good ones and bad ones. I've taken to researching professors at various online websites, and just plain googling them to see if they've kept current or are just waiting for the return of fortran.
Read the radio shack website for the necessary clue of WHY they're doing this. Companies don't give things away for free just for fun. There's always a catch that allows them to make money. In this case, its marketing info. This is a quote from the faq at Radio Shack "What happens to my personal information (like my name, address, and e-mail address) when I register and use the :CueCat?
Any personal information (such as your name, address and e-mail address) collected online
when you register and use your new :CueCat is held and owned by Digital Convergence
Corporation (not RadioShack). To view Digital Convergence's privacy policy, Click here.
Unless you give Digital Convergence permission to share your personal information with us,
or unless you register or purchase on RadioShack.com or volunteer information at a
RadioShack store, you and your shopping habits remain anonymous to RadioShack.com.
Click here to view RadioShack.com's privacy policy."
They only gave you this "handy" device because they want you to register and and scan lots of barcodes, so they have lots and lots of information about your personal interests, so they can sell your information to direct marketers (think human spam).
When you write a linux driver, you bypass all the secret sending of private info to their servers, which means they can't make money off you.