diff --git a/FAQ.md b/FAQ.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b55f73 --- /dev/null +++ b/FAQ.md @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ +# Frequently Asked Questions + +This page answers some questions that we frequently receive about the curriculum. +If you have questions that aren't answered here, try asking through one of our [community channels](README.md#community). +If it seems important enough or we get asked that question a lot, we will probably add it here. + +Alternatively, you could [contribute](#CONTRIBUTING.md) an answer yourself. + +## Contents + +- [Are Coursera courses free to access?](#are-coursera-courses-free-to-access) +- [Does every resource in the main curriculum have to be free?](#does-every-resource-in-the-main-curriculum-have-to-be-free) +- [In what order should I take the courses?](#in-what-order-should-i-take-the-courses) +- [Is it necessary to purchase the Verified Upgrade for edX courses?](#is-it-necessary-to-purchase-the-verified-upgrade-for-edx-courses) +- [Why do you recommend skipping the second half of CS50?](#why-do-you-recommend-skipping-the-second-half-of-cs50) +- [Why doesn't the curriculum cover/ignore topic X?](#why-doesnt-the-curriculum-cover-ignore-topic-x) +- [Why is the curriculum missing some pre-requisites?](#why-is-the-curriculum-missing-some-pre-requisites) + +## Questions + +### Are Coursera courses free to access? + +Some courses that require payment to access probably do exist on Coursera, but we don't put those on our curriculum. +All Coursera courses that we put on the curriculum must, at minimum, be **free to audit**. +For some courses, all course features are available for free; +for others (especially those that are part of a specialization), you may only be able to access the lecture videos. +(If you find the policies have changed for any courses on our curriculum, please tell us!) + +Unfortunately, for some courses, Coursera's interface is [very aggressive](https://darkpatterns.org/) about convincing you that you have to pay. + +You may see something like this on the course page: +![Free Trial](http://i.imgur.com/KKDtDBF.png) + +When attempting to enroll in such a course: +- Click the blue "Enroll" or "Enroll Now" button. +- A pop-up will appear. +- **Do not click** "Start Free Trial", unless you do want to pay. +- Find the text that says "Audit this course" at the bottom. +- Click **Audit**. + +![Audit this course](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/3349406/27321369-95ca12e6-55cc-11e7-9b5c-f8fedd8fd643.png) + +### Does every resource in the main curriculum have to be free? + +Yes, because we have to draw a line. +As soon as we require paid resources in the main curriculum, we might as well tell people to pay half a million dollars to attend a university. +We are an Internet-based community of learners, not a business, so free is the most sensible price and ensures that the only price you need pay is the price of Internet access. + +At the same time, we recognize that education is scarce resource and therefore requires payment to instructors to make it sustainable in the long term. +Therefore, we respect the business model of websites like edX, which make their materials free but with some paid add-ons, like official certificates or extra interaction with course instructors. + +So we only require that the *learning materials* of a resource be free to access, not that every possible add-on be free. +It would be ideal if graded assignments were always free but if we had this requirement, we would have to exclude any resource that doesn't have graded assignments at all. +Plus, there are other ways to get feedback on your work, and OSSU is a do-it-yourself education. + +### In what order should I take the courses? + +You have a few different options: +- You can progress linearly from top to bottom of the page. +- You can progress linearly through each individual section, but studying different sections in parallel. +- You can design your own custom progression using the pre-requisites to guide you. + +We have designed the curriculum to work for any of the above three styles. + +### Is it necessary to purchase the Verified Upgrade for edX courses? + +If you just want to watch the videos, it is never necessary for any edX course on our curriculum. + +CS50 doesn't use edX's grading system; it grades all assignments for free. + +The [Software Development](https://www.edx.org/micromasters/software-development) courses have mostly free quizzes and assignments, but their Final Projects will only be graded by a human if you pay. + +### Why do you recommend skipping the second half of CS50? + +The strongest and most useful part of CS50 is the part where they teach C. +We wish to retain this in the curriculum for now because it is one of the few chances the student has to play with manual memory management in a (relatively) low-level language. +Everything after that gets a bit too easy and shallow, to the point that we believe the student's time will be better spent in MIT's Introduction to Computer Science course. + +That being said, feel free to finish CS50 if you like it and want to. +But don't skip the MIT Intro course. + +### Why doesn't the curriculum cover/ignore topic X? + +We have several goals that we have to balance: +- Ensure students learn the timeless principles of computer science in the best possible way, pedagogically speaking. +- Ensure students are given sufficient knowledge of today's systems to be employable in the near future. +- Ensure students are exposed to enough cutting-edge knowledge that they won't be left behind when technology changes, which it always does. +- Keep the curriculum brief enough that it can be completed in a reasonable amount of time. + +Therefore, not everything can be included, but we strive to be eclectic so that students are both employable and well-armed for change. + +### Why is the curriculum missing some pre-requisites? + +The curriculum assumes two things: +- You are reasonably fluent in English. +- You have gotten through a standard high school curriculum that included physics and pre-calculus. + +Without these assumptions, the curriculum would be out of control with trying to fill in your knowledge gaps. +But those who for whatever reason didn't get all the way through high school math and physics are in luck: you can find the content you need on [Khan Academy](https://www.khanacademy.org/). + +Of course, if you find that the curriculum is missing a pre-requisite for a course that isn't part of a normal high school curriculum, please let us know! \ No newline at end of file