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Sven Skoog
First and foremost --
I would say that further education is (almost) never a waste.
To drill deeper --
This particular (cyber-security) curriculum, under Coursera, is offered by the University of Maryland's extension school ("UMUC"). This is not a particularly well-regarded institution (better than U. Phoenix, NOVA, Strayer, beneath many state/city colleges), though of course good classes and good professors and good students can come from not-so-good schools.
There are five sub-courses in this curriculum track. Each course costs 49 USD (perhaps textbook/materials are extra), meaning the five-course curriculum is 250 USD. This is a very good (cheap) (cost-effective) value for the price. A single course at any other city/state college would cost more than these five combined.
The five sub-courses are Introductory ("Usable") Security, Software Security, Cryptography, Hardware Security, and Capstone Project. From looking at their descriptions, I would say one (Software) is very strong, one (Cryptography) is somewhat useful (above-average), and two (Usable, Hardware) will possibly never see any practical use during your career.
The fifth (final) (Capstone) project is a simulated cyber exercise where students are issued test-target systems and test-target analytic tools, and allowed to "probe, test, hack, break" the target system(s) in question. This exercise is closest to what cyber-security professionals do in the 'real world' -- I'm not sure how deep or detailed the project actually gets, but this looks like the 'best' experience-wise.
So: two strong courses (for $98 combined), one above-average course (for $49), and two courses which may not be very useful in the long run (for $98). This means you're paying $250 for ~3 useful classes' worth of content, which is $83.33 apiece, and coasting/sleeping through the other 2 less-useful classes so as to complete the curriculum.
I think this *is* worth pursuing. I think, at the end, you will walk away with two classes' worth of decent academic info, plus 18-24 hrs of direct hands-on (probing/testing/audit/penetration) experience. Just keep your expectations realistic.
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First and foremost --
I would say that further education is (almost) never a waste.
To drill deeper --
This particular (cyber-security) curriculum, under Coursera, is offered by the University of Maryland's extension school ("UMUC"). This is not a particularly well-regarded institution (better than U. Phoenix, NOVA, Strayer, beneath many state/city colleges), though of course good classes and good professors and good students can come from not-so-good schools.
There are five sub-courses in this curriculum track. Each course costs 49 USD (perhaps textbook/materials are extra), meaning the five-course curriculum is 250 USD. This is a very good (cheap) (cost-effective) value for the price. A single course at any other city/state college would cost more than these five combined.
The five sub-courses are Introductory ("Usable") Security, Software Security, Cryptography, Hardware Security, and Capstone Project. From looking at their descriptions, I would say one (Software) is very strong, one (Cryptography) is somewhat useful (above-average), and two (Usable, Hardware) will possibly never see any practical use during your career.
The fifth (final) (Capstone) project is a simulated cyber exercise where students are issued test-target systems and test-target analytic tools, and allowed to "probe, test, hack, break" the target system(s) in question. This exercise is closest to what cyber-security professionals do in the 'real world' -- I'm not sure how deep or detailed the project actually gets, but this looks like the 'best' experience-wise.
So: two strong courses (for $98 combined), one above-average course (for $49), and two courses which may not be very useful in the long run (for $98). This means you're paying $250 for ~3 useful classes' worth of content, which is $83.33 apiece, and coasting/sleeping through the other 2 less-useful classes so as to complete the curriculum.
I think this *is* worth pursuing. I think, at the end, you will walk away with two classes' worth of decent academic info, plus 18-24 hrs of direct hands-on (probing/testing/audit/penetration) experience. Just keep your expectations realistic.
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Continue reading...
