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Ask HN: What did you like about your favorite courses?

2 pointsby mathie25almost 4 years ago
I work at a SaaS company in security and I am a part-time lecturer in Management Information Systems at my local university. I&#x27;m mainly teaching an entry-level MIS course (mostly online with 200-300 students), and an advanced class at the master&#x27;s level (about 50 students online).<p>I&#x27;m always looking at improving my courses and I was wondering what did you like about the favorite courses you had (e.g. teaching method, assignments&#x2F;projects, guests from the industry, etc.) Thanks!

1 comment

readonthegoappalmost 4 years ago
i think 95% of my class enjoyment was based on how interested i was in the subject.<p>but i think things like the following are cool:<p>* teaching something that provides actual understanding of some real-world concept, such that it opens a door for them to go get more understanding if they so wish. so, e.g. maybe it&#x27;s explaining what a browser is doing when you click on a link, then simulating it from curl, then eventually telnet.<p>* maybe have them do an MVP using one of say 10 different low-code tools - there&#x27;s literally a new one every day. anvil.works. the new anvil-like competitor that showed up here yest. webflow. bubble. andalo. etc. that&#x27;d introduce various concepts of mvp&#x2F;agile&#x2F;requirements&#x2F;scope creep&#x2F;deployment&#x2F;etc.<p>* teach them how to use postman - how it&#x27;s a UI alternative to curl.<p>* maybe exercise they have to find an api and use it to show something on a web page.<p>* demo the ghostery addon on the college&#x27;s home page to show the 50 trackers that show up and talk about what the heck is going on.<p>* demo google tag manager and what it&#x27;s used for.<p>* talk about the EFF and how the US is becoming a totalitarian state like China with &#x27;surveillance capitalism&#x27; - i.e. introduce shoshana zuboff -- i just learned some of her older stuff seems rockin, too.<p>* introduce hacker news.<p>* ask the students if they have plans for careers, etc. then build lessons&#x2F;speakers around that.<p>* talk about career paths? this always sounded so boring to me, but i think it would not necessarily have to be.<p>* of course talk about what you know best, security, maybe introduce whatever you think is important there -- the most common types of attacks would be cool, maybe demo, etc. OWASP.<p>* rdbms basics, sql, nosql.<p>* navigating the command line and either vi&#x2F;m or emacs. need to know 20 basic commands, ssh (not telnet anymore), just enough to not be scared of it all.<p>* RPA&#x2F;automation tools - if that&#x27;s even possible to demo.<p>* integration-type tools like Zapier - that can be thought of in the context of automation, but not necessarily RPA. i don&#x27;t even know what RPA is.<p>* cloud providers - aws, azure, etc. create an account maybe? maybe possible w&#x2F;o using credit card. set up a simple script&#x2F;app&#x2F;mvp.<p>* what is scrum&#x2F;agile and why do 50% of all developers rightfully despise it?<p>* intro to devops&#x2F;ci&#x2F;cd.<p>* intro to qa and basic qa tools - selenium, celery, browserstack, etc.<p>* intro to indiehackers site&#x2F;pod, techcrunch.<p>* which certifications should they pursue based on x&#x2F;y&#x2F;z?<p>* what is ai&#x2F;ml, and how does it apply to the world, ie. is it going to put most devs (and everyone) out of a job? prob.<p>* what about less-technical roles that are good for MIS folks, like project&#x2F;product mgmt, etc.? how to get there?<p>those are specific-ish examples, but i think they could be useful to englighten and get folks interested, and maybe even help a few become better-engaged citizens.