O'reilly School of Tech question

Discussion in 'IT and Computer-Related Degrees' started by djryval, Apr 20, 2010.

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  1. djryval

    djryval New Member

    Has anyone recently taken any courses or completed a certificate from here?
    Online Certificate Programs -- O'Reilly School of Technology

    I know there was a very brief discussion about 2 years ago on this topic, but maybe someone on here has some updated info about their experience. Do these courses/certificates actually provide any real value to your resume? I can't find any reviews online, nor any discussion about anyone having seen their job prospects increase after completing these programs. They have added several new certificates in the past year or so.
     
  2. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    I posted about this a little less than a year ago here:

    http://forums.degreeinfo.com/computer-related-degrees/31239-orielly-school-courses-sale-they-any-good.html

    One positive thing about these courses is that the certificate is awarded by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ... which sounds a lot better on a resume than "O'Reilly School" :)

    I've considered doing one of these myself but haven't taken the plunge yet. I've noticed that they seem to have frequent deals (ie, discounts on their courses) so check back every once in awhile to see what special offers they have.
     
  3. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

  4. djryval

    djryval New Member

    Thanks man. Are you currently working in the IT field?
     
  5. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    Not currently. I've been doing writing & content management for a few years, but I'm considering getting back into IT, so it seems like doing one of these O'Reilly certs would be cheap way to actually learn stuff and add a "resume booster".

    This is another one I'm considering ... Fort Hays' MIS certificate is a bit more expensive than the O'Reilly program though, coming in at around $2,700 ... but this is a graduate-level certificate rather than O'Reilly's which is continuing-ed and seems more like undergrad level:
    Fort Hays State University - Graduate Certificate in Management Information Systems
     
  6. djryval

    djryval New Member

    That's a little bit expensive but very manageable since it's only 4 courses. I guess it depends on what type of training you are looking to get and your career goals because the MIS certificate appears to be quite different than learning a programming language. For me, I've struggled trying to figure out my next step to be honest. Right now I've worked in software tech support (mostly remote support) for 10 years, but I don't have an industry certs, just a BS degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Concentrations in Math and Marketing). I like IT work, but I feel that I need to update my skills and focus on boosting my resume in order to take it to the next level. I work for such a small company that we don't offer any type of CE or position upgrades - I'm at the highest level I will ever be with the company. I wear a lot of hats around the office and do pretty much everything when it comes to supporting our clients. I want to add some solid, up-to-date IT training to my resume so I'm researching online schools as much as I can.
     
  7. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    Since the O'Reilly PHP/MySQL program is on sale this week (50% off if you register for all four courses in the certificate) I decided to bite the bullet and sign up. I already have done some PHP programming but figure this would be a good way to hone my skills, and maybe learn the "right" way to do things since to this point I'm entirely self taught.

    After a resolving a tech issue (I never received my confirmation email with my password even though I had the appropriate domains whitelisted, but after emailing tech support they replied with my password) I tried out the first two lessons in the first course.

    Having already had some experience with PHP, the lessons were relatively easy. They give code examples which can be executed in their virtual PHP environment so you can run PHP code and see the results. For someone with previous programming experience, I can see how it would be valuable, but if a person has no previous coding knowledge then they might feel a bit lost. The interface is decent but you can tell that it's a few years old. My only other experience with online learning was using BlackBoard which I wasn't a huge fan of, but this is about on par with that in terms of design/usability. Each lesson for the course (the intro course has 14 lessons) has at least one "objective" (assignment that must be handed in) and a quiz or two ... both seem to be graded manually by someone at O'Reilly.

    I'll post more once I get further into the courses or if anyone has any questions. (Probably won't get to course 2 of 4 until next month sometime.)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 20, 2010
  8. djryval

    djryval New Member

    Thanks for the update. I'll be interested in reading more about what you learn from the course. Do you think it will provide enough experience to list php programming as a skill on your resume? How does the online portfolio work?
     
  9. djryval

    djryval New Member

    Just curious how the classes have gone so far and if you (emmzee) think they were worth your time and investment.
     
  10. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    Hiya, unfortunately I haven't made a lot of progress since my last post, I have been busy lately and so other things have taken priority since I am taking these courses for my own knowledge/edification and not for a job or anything. I think after completing the PHP courses you could say you "know PHP" at list it on your resume. The final assignment for the first of the four courses is to code a rudimentary storefront & shopping cart.

    If you have some previous programming experience I think the courses would be quite valuable. For someone with no previous experience, it will be a much rougher go ... there were times when I thought "If I didn't already know kinda how this works, I'd be a bit lost."
     
  11. djryval

    djryval New Member

    Thanks for the reply. I do have some programming knowledge from previous coursework, and I also work very closely with a head programmer in my current job (although I am in tech support). Hopefully that would help me not be completely thrown off base, but I am looking to upgrading and adding some new skills and these courses look like a good way to do that without enrolling in full blown university class.
     
  12. djryval

    djryval New Member

    anyone else have any experience with these certificate programs?
     

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