Continuing Education Options

Updated 27 SEP 2016

There are a number of opportunities to engage in lifelong learning. The traditional college is a great place to start, and community colleges are great for most of the standard courses. However, you may want to branch out and learn something about your hobbies or just a very specific skill that is not available from a traditional college. Today there are a number of educational options that are hosted online. Often called MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses), these sources cover a wide variety of topics from art to science. Some of these offer certificates or nano-degrees from some of the top colleges. Others offer the course for free without certificates and some even offer subscription based models that allow you to take as many courses as you want. It can be argued that these courses offer participants a distinct career advantage.

These organizations offer a great opportunity for continuing professional education (CPE) or professional development. I encourage you to explore some of the options and possible take a few course to see what they are like. It couldn’t hurt your resume! Also these are great resources that internet users can utilize to begin their career in cyber security. To become a cyber security professional, basic math, engineering and computer science skills need to be acquired. With these resources you can learn the basic skills needed for a career in cyber security.

Needless to say, there are many options out there. Here are a few to get you started. If you know of other great educational sources you can comment below.

Online Training

• Udemy

• https://www.udemy.com

• Pay per course, ranging from $19 and up. According to their website they offer 40,000 courses.

• Lynda.com (Owned by LinkedIn)

• https://www.lynda.com

• Subscription based. “Over 4000 courses in Business, Technology and Creative Skills taught by industry experts.”

• Courserera

• https://www.coursera.org

• Free courses with a paid option to get a certificate.

• EdX

• https://www.edx.org

• Offering courses from top colleges. Now offering MicroMasters programs that are basically certificate programs. “MicroMasters programs are a series of graduate level courses from top universities designed to advance your career.” Fee per course ranging from $100 to $300 and for the MicroMasters have an average of 5 to 6 courses.

• The Great Courses

• http://www.thegreatcourses.com

• Audio and video lectures by top professors available online, download, or DVD/CD. No certificates available.

• Udacity

• https://www.udacity.com

• Offering nano degrees, basically, certificate programs. There is a flat fee for the nano degree program approximately $800 and takes about nine months to complete.

• NovoEd

• https://novoed.com/

• Much like EdX

• Class Central

• https://www.class-central.com/

• Standford Engineering Everywhere (SEE)

• https://see.stanford.edu/

• Part of Stanford Center for Professional Development

• Microsoft

• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/training.aspx

• https://academy.microsoft.com/en-us/professional-degree/data-science

• PluralSight

• https://www.pluralsight.com

• KnowledgeNet

• https://www.knowledgenet.com

• UCertify IT Certification Training

• Classes, practice exams, and labs for a fee.

• http://www.ucertify.com/

• quizlet.com

• Platform to create and share study tools like quizzes or flashcards etc...

• https://quizlet.com/

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Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)

A MOOC is an online course aimed at large-scale interactive participation and open access over the Internet. Anyone with an Internet connection can access MOOCs teaching mathematics, computer science, technology, history and many other focuses from top universities.

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