Why Coursera/Udemy/Open University/edX
Why not? Lifelong learning is not a slogan but a good lifestyle.
I used Duolingo couple of years back to pick up some fragments of Italian and Spanish before my travel and also did the English course to check my weak points. I find it “addictive” and it is good as learning and practising language needs lots of repetition. And Duolingo is great in that field, it catches you, begs you to do your daily routine. Also, it was comfortable during commuting time.
Time to time I searched on the Coursera (and the others’) website and according to my earlier knowledge and interest and I chose some courses to follow. When I was surfing between the topics I checked the institute and the tutors as usually the courses need good contact and honest cooperation with the other people. Recently I took part in Fashion as Design hosted by MoMA and enjoyed it, the best part was to see the fellow participants’ ideas. Each of us had a very different approach, and it made me sad to realize how much of my life was lost in the communist regime.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/fashion-design/home/info
The other was: Modern Art and Ideas, MoMA again. It was great to have good and cumulated info and opinion about the art.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/modern-art-ideas/home/info
The next was: The Age of Sustainable Development by Columbia University. This was more close to my professional background and it was a challenge to pass every week and make good results on the tests.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/sustainable-development/home/info
I failed the “Global Warming I: The Science and Modeling of Climate Change” by The University of Chicago.
It was very uncommon for me, not to pass the tests with bests results. David Archer has a good reputation, the learning materials were brilliant, the provided scientific tools were excellent. But it was confusing to use the non-metric imperial units. I just cannot deal with them, even I was familiar with the basics. My system to solve a problem is: before I do any calculation or detailed work, I try to “see” the result, try to guess the right answer for the question. But it does not go well with the non-SI system. So after 8 weeks I just lost my temper and left it. recently I checked back and decided to finish the course this summer.