[honeybee]

This is a strange question. I am looking for options to upgrade my knowledge/management. I would also love my wife to join into the course.

Some background:

I have been working as an IT project manager for a few years now, and have already completed a short course on project management (based on the PMBoK). I am currently working as national level IT manager in an ITES company.

My wife works as a team leader in a private placement company and is looking at a big leap in her duties and responsibilities.

The topics of improvement we are looking at are people/team management, business/client communication, client management.

A short term course (a few months part time/week ends) is what we are interested in. Budget is approx 10-15k pax, but can be stretched a little if the institute and the course content is good.

I need to know which institutes can offer a good but short course. Preferred locations would be central suburbs of Mumbai. Correspondence courses are low priority, and classroom sessions with group discussions and assignments have preference.

[joe1980]

Guys,

Not sure if some of you is already aware of this. I have been doing a couple of courses from Coursera and I'm finding them worth the time and effort. Just wanted to share this information with you all.

coursera.org

They offer courses from world renowned universities and professors. Stanford, MIT to name a few have some of their courses offered online. You even get a certificate of completion once you pass the exam. If anyone of you already attending the Scala course for example, would know what it means to work on the weekly assignments. The quality of the courses and the content is awesome and it really takes effort on our side to work on the assignments.

I would recommend anyone to have a look at it. If we have a bunch of us attending a particular course, we can form a study group here.

Happy learning!

[rajesh1868]

You are not alone. Infact I am in the middle of my first Scala class right now. I started late so setting up the environment required.

Also Did Alogorithms by Sedgewick and registered for a maths course just for being in touch again. The beauty is they also have courses like Intro to Finance planning, History etc.
Check udacity.com as well.

[joe1980]

Great. I just managed to finish Week2 assignments on the Scala course. There are a thousand ways to program a piece of logic and the course expects you to do it "the" one way they expect. I had a hard time thinking and working out the exercises for the Week1 and Week2 assignments. Will have to wait and see what's in store for the coming weeks!

[msdivy]

I am currently into Cryptography course. Believe me, you can't take it lightly. Syllabus & contents are close to regular engineering semester course. The advantages are,
1) You can pause the prof
2) Unlimited replays

Overall, it boils down to how much you can extract from this opportunity.

PS: I have also signed up for 'A History of the World since 1300'. This is light course and keeps me occupied for atleast 2 days of commute in a week.

[phamilyman]

On a side note, here is a startup in the exact same field promoted by two seniors from my alma mater - https://www.virtuq.in/ - they don't have the same muscle behind them as coursera but they are doing a pretty decent job themselves as far as the coursework and the single minded dedication on quality is concerned.

Further, their honesty is rather refreshing: https://www.virtuq.in/faqs.html#what...dulecompletion

[iSpoke]

When I started for Work Integrated Learning Program (WILP) from BITS Pilani, somewhere in April 2011, starting one such thread was on my mind until I became very less frequent visitor of Team-BHP then.

Originally Posted by Jaguar

I don't know about this program but I have done Online MS from PACE University, NY which is considered as a full-time program and not correspondence like the ones in India.
Unfortunately, in India, that program is only offered to certain company employees and not to the general public cause even the exams are conducted online, which can be taken from home and there is a trust factor involved. I suggest you look for similar offerings from foreign universities as well before making up your mind. Not that the Indian ones are bad, but the complete online ones don't require you to attend regular lectures which is a plus point for working professionals.

I've been doing MS in Software Systems (MSSS) from BITS, Pilani. And they treat this course as a full-time course like you mentions about other universities abroad. They don't call it a Distance Learning rather named it WILP. I'm not sure of it in my case, but heard from ex-students that just a couple of years back BITS was awarding the same Certificates to On-campus and Off-campus students - There was no distinctions (this year 2012 heard from a senior that his provisional certificate shows Off-campus, really doesn't matter if you are here for learning). With my ~1.5 year of experience with BITS, they are extremely professional and agile in implementing newer techniques\technologies to ease our learning experience. More information can be found on their website.

Please let me know if anybody is having any queries about Off-Campus MS @BITS, it will be my pleasure to answer queries at Team-BHP!

Originally Posted by TracerBullet

@Gooney: Unfortunately I didn't join. I didn't really make up my mind whether to do MS or Executive MBA. Still sitting on the fence :(

Well, though I've always been into technical things, almost similar was the dilemma for me whenever it was time to think about higher education. Right from the year 2004-05 when I was a bachelor without any responsibilities until 2011 a married man with an EMI. For my case the Executive MBA option was just following a herd, driven out of hefty payouts. Finally it has to be technical, so went ahead with what I'm better at and not what is doing better in market.

My only advice (yeah, its free) to you (sitting on fence), jump off!

[revvedup]

Hello folks, I am a currently looking at getting my CFD skills upgraded and. certified. I plan to do this on STAR CCM+, and have made some initial enquiries with CD-ADAPCO.

Have any other mechanical/electrical engineers undertaken any other courses to upgrade and learn new skills relevant to their careers ? If so, where ?

[revvedup]

I have started the following course on Coursera and have been doing it for a few weeks now. Pretty cool and informative, I think.

https://www.coursera.org/course/statistics

Another good resource for MOOCs is

https://www.edx.org/course-list/alls...courses?page=2

[joe1980]

Anyone doing this course on Reactive Functional Programming?

https://class.coursera.org/reactive-002

[Samurai]

Just discovered this Online MS in CS from Georgia Tech University in USA. Long ago, I did distance MBA from an university ranked 318 according to the latest QS World University Rankings. It has proven extremely useful in my career.

But I have forever hoped that MS computer science was available through similar channel. May be too late for me, but it can be highly convenient for younger working professionals. Georgia Tech is ranked #19 in the world for Engineering & technology. Imagine doing MS in Georgia Tech University for $7000 while working in India.

http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/

[Oxy]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Just discovered this Online MS in CS from Georgia Tech University in USA. Long ago, I did distance MBA from an university ranked 318 according to the latest QS World University Rankings. It has proven extremely useful in my career.

But I have forever hoped that MS computer science was available through similar channel. May be too late for me, but it can be highly convenient for younger working professionals. Georgia Tech is ranked #19 in the world for Engineering & technology. Imagine doing MS in Georgia Tech University for $7000 while working in India.

http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/

Thanks for this, it seems to be unbelievable value.

I am trying to figure if this would make sense for me. I have spent 12 years working within the IT services industry. The highest qualification that I hold currently is a BCA from IGNOU, and I am not looking to become a pure project manager, want to grow within the technical career path. Currently working as a senior developer/team lead at my organisation.

What do you reckon?

[Samurai]

If you are looking for technical career path, this MS might be a good option. Mind you, the entire study material of this MS is available for free via Udacity. That is how my staff discovered it. But if you want a MS degree, you need to spend the $$ and write exams.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by Oxy

Thanks for this, it seems to be unbelievable value.

I am trying to figure if this would make sense for me. I have spent 12 years working within the IT services industry. The highest qualification that I hold currently is a BCA from IGNOU, and I am not looking to become a pure project manager, want to grow within the technical career path. Currently working as a senior developer/team lead at my organisation.

What do you reckon?

Just adding my 2 paisa. Almost in a similar space as you. 12 years experience, into Project Management line and all stuff associated with Agille. Wanted to restore focus on a technical growth path. Enjoy stuff related to data and analytics. Did some basics from Coursera, but could not give it the focus I wanted.

Finally searched around for programs from major institutes and applied for and got selected for this Big Data Analytics Program from IIM Bangalore. Just got started last month. It is expensive and covers a lot of things in a short time, but on the plus side, the teaching and extensive material shared is very good and you are forced to put in the effort. In addition I hope that the IIM tag will be of help once the course is completed successfully.

So depending on your area of interest, would be worthwhile to look around for specialized courses in the area of interest.

Edit: The course shared by Samurai is definitely fantastic value for money. Most 1-1.5 year certificate programs for executives cost equal or more than this (Including the IIM program mentioned). Here you get a full MS from a top University.

[scorpion_blore]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Just discovered this Online MS in CS from Georgia Tech University in USA. Long ago, I did distance MBA from an university ranked 318 according to the latest QS World University Rankings. It has proven extremely useful in my career.

But I have forever hoped that MS computer science was available through similar channel. May be too late for me, but it can be highly convenient for younger working professionals. Georgia Tech is ranked #19 in the world for Engineering & technology. Imagine doing MS in Georgia Tech University for $7000 while working in India.

http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/

I did MTech from BITS Pilani, and it cost me around 150k for 4 semesters. Even though this course cost is almost thrice as that of BITS Pilani, I'm sure it would be rewarding in the long run.

I have 8+ years of experience with BTech and MTech. I'm currently looking for further specialization. I'm in the crossroads now deciding whether to go ahead with technical or management courses. Mind says to go ahead with the technical course, heart says otherwise. *sigh*