PHP and MySQL O'Reilly online courses: waste of money?

[jocampo]

Hi all,

I am thinking in taking one of the O'Reilly online courses for PHP or maybe the one for MySQL. They are not so cheap, about $400.00 each one and to be certified you must complete four.

Comments, anyone? I am an experienced MS-SQL dba but would like to expand my knowledge with PHP or MySQL; kind of an additional stuff to put on my resume but with more weight than a common MySQL or PHP certification.

The courses are supported by University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education.

Thanks in advance,

[perspectoff]

Univ of Illinois at Urbana Champaign is a class organization.

Since the original Mozilla web browser was developed there and it was one of the first three supercomputer centers in the US, there clearly is a lot of computer expertise there.

O'Reilly has been the premiere tech book company for a few decades, now. You probably get as much information reading one of their books (on the subjects you want to learn), but if you want to learn in an environment where you can ask questions interactively, well, isn't that what schools are for in the first place (whether online or in a classroom?)

Anyone can struggle through learning most things on their own. So your question is, as always, do you want accelerated learning for the money, or do you have more time and less money?

[jocampo]

Univ of Illinois at Urbana Champaign is a class organization.

Since the original Mozilla web browser was developed there and it was one of the first three supercomputer centers in the US, there clearly is a lot of computer expertise there.

O'Reilly has been the premiere tech book company for a few decades, now. You probably get as much information reading one of their books (on the subjects you want to learn), but if you want to learn in an environment where you can ask questions interactively, well, isn't that what schools are for in the first place (whether online or in a classroom?)

Anyone can struggle through learning most things on their own. So your question is, as always, do you want accelerated learning for the money, or do you have more time and less money?

Good point!

Actually, I'm a self learner. Most if not all of my IT knowledge is based on self study, including my MS-SQL and Microsoft certs. But at this point of my life and with not available time for a full time University enrollment, I am looking for something that will cert my knowledge but will also have some University endorsement.

Yeah, some of the O'Reilly books are great! But I just Google about the O'Reilly courses and little or not much info about it. If someone here took one and would like to share experience, would be fantastic to me.

Fortunately, I do have the money, but I am not willing to spend it on something that has little or not value in terms of recognition and academic weight, like course's content. This, I don't know, those things are better to validate with someone who took it already.

[juancarlospaco]

php is a waste of money you say?, mmm..., +1

[perspectoff]

Good point!

Actually, I'm a self learner. Most if not all of my IT knowledge is based on self study, including my MS-SQL and Microsoft certs. But at this point of my life and with not available time for a full time University enrollment, I am looking for something that will cert my knowledge but will also have some University endorsement.

Yeah, some of the O'Reilly books are great! But I just Google about the O'Reilly courses and little or not much info about it. If someone here took one and would like to share experience, would be fantastic to me.

Fortunately, I do have the money, but I am not willing to spend it on something that has little or not value in terms of recognition and academic weight, like course's content. This, I don't know, those things are better to validate with someone who took it already.

Well, O'Reilly started putting extra content online a few years ago. They started by giving small certificates to access the online content (for free) when you buy one of their books.

By the time a book goes to press, it is usually outdated by a year. In the computer world, a year out-of-date is a long time. (If you want to be amused, look at some of the books published on Ubuntu several years ago, for example). Online content is able to be updated real-time, so an online wiki or course is usually more up-to-date, IMO.

O'Reilly sets their book writers to writing the online content as well, so I think you get pretty up-to-date stuff.

I personally don't think it's a waste of money, and if I were hiring, it would be a plus to me to see it on a resume.

Nowadays with Moodle it is pretty easy to set up an online course. (See

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:All#Moodle

or

http://kubuntuguide.org/All#Moodle

for example.)

The question is whether the content is any good, and I have always found O'Reilly's content to be spot on and easy to go through.

[jocampo]

php is a waste of money you say?, mmm..., +1

Not really :-)

What I said or was asking is that if paying that amount of money for these specific courses is a waste of money or not. I personally consider PHP and MySQL really good IT concepts to learn, especially if you are into database administration or related fields. Of course, my own opinion, other believe ASP.NET or MS-SQL is better.

Anyway, not deviating the main topic here; I am not questioning if PHP or MySQL are useful or not, but the O'Reilly classes. ;-)

[kent.chuk]

I took all 4 courses. Not a waste of time. It was not easy. I read books for years and 8 months of this study was far faster and superior...like mentioned above. The lab is like running wamp; but on their server.

You do a lot of mysql at the mysql prompt and end up making various projects with advanced concepts. After the courses; using object oriented PHP like Codeigniter and any other php / mysql script was far less challenging and not unsolvable.

I regretted never doing it sooner. You can look around and rarely see 4 courses dedicated to php / mysql from anyone.

Kent

[Bandit]

Hi all,

I am thinking in taking one of the O'Reilly online courses for PHP or maybe the one for MySQL. They are not so cheap, about $400.00 each one and to be certified you must complete four.

Comments, anyone? I am an experienced MS-SQL dba but would like to expand my knowledge with PHP or MySQL; kind of an additional stuff to put on my resume but with more weight than a common MySQL or PHP certification.

The courses are supported by University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education.

Thanks in advance,

Most colleges teach PHP now. I had two semesters of Server Side Programming in PHP. At least those go towards a degree and have someone to teach you. Also most colleges have testing centers that let you purchase a voucher to take certifications.

BTW who said PHP is a waste of money doesnt know _______.

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

php is a waste of money you say?, mmm..., +1
Disagree. I program ASP.NET at work and don't really like it. On the other hand, despite having a lot less experience in PHP I find that developing is a real treat.

[johnnybelfast]

$400 isn't alot of money compared to how much you would make as a php/mysql developer. It's a great way to learn, and it's always nice to have a certificate to prove you know a skill.