dward
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My alma mater MIT has been leading the way in what is known as open courseware for some time. When I graduated in 2005, this was just getting started. I recently took a look at the offerings and am impressed. You can enroll in any of these open courses for free. You have to take tests and turn in problem sets and you get college credit for it. Did I mention that it's free. Currently tuition and housing runs about $60k, so that's quite a deal.
While glancing through the open courses I found a course that might be of interest to my friends here at TRF: Introduction to Propulsion Systems. Lecture one is the rocket equation. There was a later lecture on nozzles. Even if you don't enroll in the course, you can read over the course notes (pdf) and try your hand at the problem sets. You can enroll as a listener as well. In that case, you don't get a grade, but you can watch the lectures (video) and have your problem sets graded (feedback) and questions answered by the course TA.
Some MIT vernacular in case you come across it:
We call homework problem sets.
We don't refer to majors by their names but by their number, e.g. chemistry is course 5, physics is course 8.
Buildings are also referred to by their number, the big dome from Good Will Hunting is called building 10. Doubt that will be important for an online course.
The school year is pretty much the same as everywhere else on the semester system except our Spring semester starts in February and January is called IAP or independent activity period.
A lecture is what most people refer to as a class, i.e. professor at chalkboard writing and talking. They are generally about an hour to an hour and a half long and two or three times a week.
A recitation is an extra lecture or general discussion outside of class. They are generally an hour long and once a week. Ask questions, get help with problem sets, etc.
A TA is a teaching assistant and they lead the recitations. They are almost always graduate students. They usually do most of the teaching and grading.
I'm sure they have made the web site easy to understand for all, but while scanning I did see TA, recitation, and problem set used. There are other courses too. Here is the main open courseware page: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/
While glancing through the open courses I found a course that might be of interest to my friends here at TRF: Introduction to Propulsion Systems. Lecture one is the rocket equation. There was a later lecture on nozzles. Even if you don't enroll in the course, you can read over the course notes (pdf) and try your hand at the problem sets. You can enroll as a listener as well. In that case, you don't get a grade, but you can watch the lectures (video) and have your problem sets graded (feedback) and questions answered by the course TA.
Some MIT vernacular in case you come across it:
We call homework problem sets.
We don't refer to majors by their names but by their number, e.g. chemistry is course 5, physics is course 8.
Buildings are also referred to by their number, the big dome from Good Will Hunting is called building 10. Doubt that will be important for an online course.
The school year is pretty much the same as everywhere else on the semester system except our Spring semester starts in February and January is called IAP or independent activity period.
A lecture is what most people refer to as a class, i.e. professor at chalkboard writing and talking. They are generally about an hour to an hour and a half long and two or three times a week.
A recitation is an extra lecture or general discussion outside of class. They are generally an hour long and once a week. Ask questions, get help with problem sets, etc.
A TA is a teaching assistant and they lead the recitations. They are almost always graduate students. They usually do most of the teaching and grading.
I'm sure they have made the web site easy to understand for all, but while scanning I did see TA, recitation, and problem set used. There are other courses too. Here is the main open courseware page: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/
