Free stuff is nice, but obviously, we are on the internet and here it is not called free. It is called a hook.
Definitely, internet hooks are for the most part a lot more filling than those stupid food samples in the shops. Those things are far too tiny for me to determine how much I would need to call a meal.
In internet-free stuff you tend to get quite a lot and what many have realised is, that maybe they should not be feeding people enough to be satisfied or no one will buy anything.
All fair and square I would say but when it comes to learning things I think many places are becoming more irritating than beneficial.
Coursera and EDX have been long touted as the main places to truly learn anything in a structured and free way has become an irritating game of "Hide and go seek."
Yes, they do give you the full course material when you audit, but it irks me to no end that they then lock the actual assignments.
Now if you are anything like me then you learn by struggling. I guess you could then ask what is the issue. If I learn through struggling then struggling to make my own assignment to practise is good right?
To that, I say: "GOOD DAY."
I think it is bothersome that they lock a critical piece like that away and that is that.
Now is that worse than the types that lure you in with only 3 chapters and then nothing? No.
It does not make sense though to lock the assignments though, it is right there, I can see it, just bloody show it so I can read the problem, struggle with the problem and learn. Dammit Dammit.
If there are no assignments available it is just an info dump, and although the dump looks neatly stacked it is still just a dump.
It just makes it feel that free learning, one of the most important things, instead of the promise it showed towards becoming unified and seamless is instead moving towards being fractured and focused on monetizing every aspect.
It seems like the start of micro transactions in exchange for getting snippets of "wisdom".