Bitcoin Forum

So between iTunes U, Open University, the Khan Academy, and the entirety of the Internet, we have a lot of data to work with to smart ourselves with, but no real way to organize it into anything practical. I want to start a wiki or something in order to get all of these Podcasts and such into one place, not just to aggregate them together, but to get it sorted out to the point that you could get the equivalent of a Independent Study Credit, take a CLEP test, or otherwise skip out on a college course you would already know about. In short, the data's out there, and I think we should try and shape it into a decent curriculum, and I'm willing to start an instawallet and toss a couple Bitcoins/Litecoins if it wasn't a good enough idea as is.

Edit: If we decide to go with a wikia, I got a sister concept that should be looked at as well. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70067.0)

So, you're thinking of pulling enough free content together to develop a (multiple?) "degree-sized" calendar of study?

Also, Open University is not free, I think you may be thinking of Open Courseware?

Yeah, on both counts. Although it's more of a Gen Ed Credit scenario, where you have to take a certain prerequisite that you can test out of if you have a sufficient independent study base. A proper four year is a little out of my scale at the moment, but with Acadamia the way it is, who knows what happens next?

I applaud this effort. If you want to go more into depth on certain topics that interest me:

Category Theory: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCatsters

Algebraic Topology and other more advanced math: http://www.youtube.com/user/njwildberger/featured

Quantum Computing: http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/quantum-computing-for-the-determined/

Computational Finance: http://www.algorithm.cs.sunysb.edu/computationalfinance/ (with lecture notes at http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~skiena/691/lectures/)

There are probably others, but I can't think of them right now.

I think that it would be difficult to find and tap into the niche that would desire something like this. You would have to take steps to make your program more valuable to potential learners. Some ideas:

• The program easier to use than finding the right book or freely-available resource
• It provides better learning than simply reading a book or using open courseware, perhaps utilizing different learning styles or game-based learning
• It is comprehensive and will provide "equivalent" knowledge to an associate's/bachelor's degree
• It provides student-to-student interaction and perhaps a cohort learning model
• It provides a volunteer "mentor" or "facilitator" (who works for bitcoin tips?)
• It is endorsed by people who know what they are doing
• It is built around a community that offers "badges" or something to encourage completion
• It can be transferred at a later date for actual college credit
• The content fits a specific niche where free learning material is difficult to find

Also, I would suggest that you use either a Ning network or Moodle/Sakai for the "courses" if you want them to be more robust, otherwise wikispaces offers wikis with forums, which may be helpful. I am experienced in Moodle and could help if you go that route.

If you're going to start with the bitcoin community, you might actually create "courses" that teaches about bitcoin. You might also do tech-related courses (solar/programming/hardware), since bitcoin followers seem to be more tech-oriented than the general public.

names: coincollege.org, bituniversity.org, btclearn.org