Terrific New Way To Get Electronics Training.
If you wish to get a good education in the field of electronics I would suggest that you first investigate whether a nearby junior college offers this subject and then try to determine how good a job they do at teaching it. A good indication is to have them tell you how many of their AA degree graduates get jobs in the field. If you have the money, time and perseverance to take electronic engineering at a college or university that is the best path by far. Any education institution you consider should be investigated first as to how competent they are. Please do not assume that all colleges and universities do the same level work. Some are better than others. Be aware of private technical colleges as many have problems. For those people who do not want to enter any regimen for learning electronics but take a more casual approach and just want to self learn the subject there are a number of options. I must tell you that holding a degree when looking for a job is very important. I must confess that I taught myself electronics before graduating from high school. I did this by reading some amazing books on the subject, building Eico and Heathkit projects. My parents also fed my passion by handing me home appliances that were broken and gave me a chance to fix them. I then went on to a junior college and took electronics training for one year before switching to the study of Sociology at a state university. While in college I joined the Navy Reserves and was sent to Memphis Tennessee for electronics training. My first good job in electronics was taking care of a television studio, control rooms for audio and TV and edit bays. I was self taught in video and audio. I did not have, and still do not have a degree in electronics. Do not follow my example. Try to get, at the very least, an AA degree.
I have a library of electronic, video audio, cine, lighting and related fields that is pretty impressive. I also have a passion for knowledge that covers history, philosophy, science and photography. For the longest time I have subscribed to The Great Courses, a business that provides education packages in DVD or Internet download. I have found their products to be excellent. I wait for their sales where you can really save money. Just about all their courses are taught by some of the best college and university faculty. Some courses are better than others and there are rankings showing in their catalog. I always read the reviews before buying any course. July 2014 I was shocked to find that they offered an electronics course. Just about all their courses are humanities and they offer almost no technology titles. This electronics course was brand new so there were no reviews to help me decide whether to buy it or not. It was discounted in the catalog and was on sale at a terrific price. I decided to break my rule of evaluating the review, which there were none being such a new product, and purchased the course. I did do an Internet search for the professor teaching the course, Richard Wolfson, and the search was quite impressive which tipped the scales for my decision. Because I purchased a digital download I was able to get the course pretty quickly and copied each lesson into my laptop and Apple Airport Extreme hard drive. Let me tell you that this course really made my socks roll up and down. I am really, really, impressed. Wolfson comes across as having a passion for the subject. He is really knows what he is talking about. The lesson progression from basic toward the more complex is excellent to the point of perfect. As a result, the course outline is very well laid out.
In any technical school you must have a lab segment where you are given lessons where you need to make circuits with components that make sense and then take measurements and report your findings. This task of going into a lab as part of your education was a complete surprise to me as I figured that this course could not offer this part of the normal education process. The lab lecture part was a shock for me to view. It seemed to work. Another shock for me is this is not a passive only viewing experience but you are expected to actually perform the experiments on your own. I must tell you that you will be required to go out and buy some simple electronic components but that in itself should be part of your education. Going into an electronics parts house is definitely an education. There are even short quizzes thrown in where you are expected to pause your viewing of the lesson and perform some calculation or duty and record your results. I really recommend this course. At the price I paid, it was a steal. If you take this course, you should gain a pretty darn good electronics training. Just pay particular attention to the safety issues so you do not get hurt.
Understanding Modern Electronics with Professor Richard Wolfson, Course number 1162.