Education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It's about widening your knowledge and absorbing the truth about life.
....Shakuntala Devi
True knowledge does not only come from going to school or getting a degree although you cannot underestimate the role they play in growing your knowledge. The aim of this series is basically to bring substitute alternatives to school education. Not everyone has got the privilege or funds to attend college, but in this age we live in, that should not be an excuse or a hindrance from exploiting different basic to tertiary knowledge from many available sources out there.
Today's blog is about a free online course app called Stepik.
What is Stepik
Stepik is a free online course platform that offers tech related and computer science courses, ranging from programming in different languages to statistics, biometrics and data structures. Room is also made for many other skills (e.g Technical writing in English) which will be useful to their users.
Stepik is more than just a regular online course app. They operate in a school-like system which would basically turn it's users to mobile students. With this, you can learn from anywhere in the world. Stepik is totally free, all you need is a smartphone and a data bundle.
How To Use Stepik
The Stepik app is quite self-explanatory. It has a user-friendly interface which could be understood without any basic tutorials.
To start you simply download the app on Google Playstore, then you register either through gmail, facebook or a direct sign up.
Once you are logged in, there are five different tabs on the background screen;
Home
This tab contains your ongoing courses and popular courses on Stepik. You can join more that one course at a time. I don't know if there is a limit to the number of courses you can take at a time. I am presently taking three courses.
Search
Here you search for any course which you want to enroll for. Stepik has numerous courses in Mathematics, statistics, computer sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. So if you want to learn anything pertaining to these listed subjects, there is a high probability you'd find it on Stepik.
Profile
Here you can set notifications, view your achievements, edit your settings and view downloaded videos. Your downloaded videos can be viewed while offline also. In the settings, you have an option to view the video in an external video player just in case you have a video player that suits you better.
Certificates
Stepik rewards you with certificates which you can use in applying for online jobs. I'm still a new user on Stepik so I do not have any certificates yet, I failed my first course on Javascript, I'm that bad in programming, although I am taking the course again.
Notifications
Here you simply set what you want to receive notifications about on the platform.
All of these do not need any explanation on how to make use of them. This is "schooling made easy".
Amazing Stuffs About Stepik.
Stepik has a lot of amazing features that will entire any new user to remain with the platform. Here is just a few among them listed below.
Numerous Subjects
Stepik has over a hundred topics for you to choose from. Each course has its own scheduled period of time which it should run for. My first course on Stepik on "JavaScript for beginners" was scheduled to be completed in 4 hours while some last as long as four weeks.Professional Instructors
Stepik did a nice job in the selection of instructors. Some of the instructors on the platform are Ph.D. holders in their respective fields. They provide the students with top class lectures. Most of the lectures are already written, also with video tutorials to accompany them for easy understanding.
- Contests and Challenges
Stepik hosts contests and challenges between its users. This will increase the zeal and dedication of its users in studying harder. There is currently a Bioinformatics contest that will be held February 2019. The qualification round will be from 2nd February to 10th February, that's just three days from today. Prizes for the winners are unknown
- Interaction between Students.
You can connect with other students via the comment section. You can share your views about the course and help each other answer questions. Such interactive sessions like this will bring about competition between the students which will most likely bring positive outcomes.
- Awarding of Certificates
The world is going digital and even online certificates now adds huge value to your CV. Also, your online certificates could be used in getting online jobs, for example, on LinkedIn, you can apply with your Stepik certificate.
I decided to share this app with you all because, since my short time on it, it has been fun to use. It has also increased in me the zeal to learn a programming language. I have gotten some knowledge on Html from further studies, all thanks to my failed questions on Stepik. What motivates me might not really be a motivation to you, but Stepik also allocates for many other courses which are under STEAM education and also has great instructors and very useful educational videos.
As a student, you can also use this as a study tool. If I had known about this app earlier, I wouldn't have had problems which I experienced in Calculus in my first year in college. I came across a calculus course and looked through it, everything looked broken down to elementary level for easy understanding. Although I did not have the interest to enroll in the course.
SUMMARY
No knowledge is a waste. I might not become a professional programmer after this course but having some level of knowledge in interpreting some programming codes will definitely serve me well in this blockchain space. Knowledge is power, and more knowledge is more power. From how I have started on Stepik, I think it will be an enjoyable journey which I can carry out on my leisure time. You too should widen your spring of knowledge.
THANKS FOR READING
Links
Project Repository: https://github.com/StepicOrg/stepik-android
Project Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.stepic.droid
Resources
All pictures are screenshots from my mobile device
Github Link: https://github.com/tony-duke