Put in a section for standalone courses

[DonDebonair]

The education section really doesn't lend itself well for things like MOOCs (Coursera, Udacitiy etc.), because there's no degree involved, and only one course etc. Maybe there should be separate section for courses like that? Just like on LinkedIn :)

[wdoekes]

Can't you just fit that in education[0].institution "Misc." ? Put infinite dates in start/end and put those courses in the courses list.

[DonDebonair]

I'd rather not do that, for a couple of reasons:

• I think it's important to be able to list the dates of the individual courses because it allows one to gauge how up-to-date the knowledge is.
• MOOCs and other ways of acquiring knowledge and expertise are increasingly prevalent in the tech industry, and in other areas as well. The eduction model as it currently is described, adheres too much to the old, established standards of educating yourself, which is becoming more and more obsolete. It's becoming more and more accepted to shop around for different courses, certificates etc. at different places. We should cater to (not so) alternative forms of education :)

[vote539]

The way LinkedIn solves this issue is by sorting courses according to institution, and for courses taken outside of an institution, it puts a header that says "Independent Coursework".

I agree that we should err on the side of catering to alternative forms of education.

[DonDebonair]

Actually, I looked into this, and LinkedIn seems to have 3 different education-related entities: educations, certifications and courses. The latter is a bit useless in the context of MOOCs, because it has to be linked to either an "education" or a (work) position. Certifications seems to be the place on LinkedIn in which to put things like Coursera courses.

Anyways, this is what the LinkedIn API returns when selecting those sections from my own profile:

<person>
  <id>bCix3kLyF5</id>
  <first-name>Daniel</first-name>
  <last-name>Debie</last-name>
  <certifications total="4">
    <certification>
      <id>62</id>
      <name>Oracle Certified Professional, Java SE 6 Programmer</name>
    </certification>
    <certification>
      <id>172</id>
      <name>Functional Programming Principles in Scala</name>
    </certification>
    <certification>
      <id>173</id>
      <name>Principles of Reactive Programming</name>
    </certification>
    <certification>
      <id>218</id>
      <name>Machine Learning</name>
    </certification>
  </certifications>
  <educations total="3">
    <education>
      <id>50915889</id>
      <school-name>Rotterdam University of Applied Science</school-name>
      <notes>•    Top 3 of my class (100+ students) 
• I've developed the following major products in addition to the regular courses:
-   Python framework for analysing Twitter data
-   iOS app for connecting friends across different Social Networks and viewing information streams in a network-agnostic way
-   2D 8-bit style platform game in Flash called "Awesome Ultimate Dino Adventure"
-   Fully functioning webshop using PHP/MySQL/jQuery
-   Android app for tracking the development & growth of a baby
-   DJ application for the Microsoft Surface, developed using C#, XNA and WPF

"Daniel Debie is een hardwerkende en vakbekwame informaticastudent en ICT’er. Hij combineert zijn voltijdstudie met een deeltijdbaan als Lead Developer. Dit vereist motivatie, discipline, doorzettingsvermogen, focus en zelfstandigheid. Tijdens het schrijven van het boek ‘Analytisch denken en helder schrijven’ heeft Daniel als proeflezer mij waardevolle feedback gegeven. Deze feedback heb ik in het boek verwerkt."
- Hossein Chamani</notes>
      <degree>Bachelor</degree>
      <field-of-study>Computer Science</field-of-study>
      <start-date>
        <year>2009</year>
      </start-date>
      <end-date>
        <year>2012</year>
      </end-date>
    </education>
    <education>
      <id>50917135</id>
      <school-name>Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht</school-name>
      <notes />
      <activities />
      <degree>BMus with Honours</degree>
      <field-of-study>Music & Performance</field-of-study>
      <start-date>
        <year>2001</year>
      </start-date>
      <end-date>
        <year>2005</year>
      </end-date>
    </education>
    <education>
      <id>50917069</id>
      <school-name>Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten</school-name>
      <notes />
      <activities />
      <degree />
      <field-of-study>Music</field-of-study>
      <start-date>
        <year>1999</year>
      </start-date>
      <end-date>
        <year>2001</year>
      </end-date>
    </education>
  </educations>
</person>

API call: https://api.linkedin.com/v1/people/~:(id,first-name,last-name,certifications,educations,courses)

My advice: have 2 sections for this - education and certification. The latter can be used for both traditional certificates (Oracle Certified Bla) and courses from MOOCs.

[chills42]

I agree, education and certification would cover this nicely, as those are somewhat distinct groups. Courses could easily fall under "education" (although it may look a little odd to have single courses on the same level as degrees).

[thomastoye]

+1 for adding a certification section. It feels awkward and out of place to add a CCNA (for example) under education.

[osg]

+1 for representing alternative forms of education +1 for certification Just as courses do not fit nicely into education (because they do not result in a degree), they do not fit nicely into a certification section because they do not necessarily result in certification.

[DonDebonair]

Hmmm, but what about all the courses that do provide certificates. I did 3 courses on Coursera, and all 3 resulted in a certificate. The more options we provide, the harder it becomes to choose :) Maybe add courses with an optional certificate field?

[wdoekes]

Agree with DandyDev:

• courses
• certificates
• education

That's one too many for my taste. I'd say:

• either we move the courses into the education, or
• we add some kind of certificate field to either the courses or the education

[osg]

After thinking about this again, I am much more inclined to include courses that result in a certification. As a simple example, if I take a photography course, I would not add it to my resume. When thinking about the coursework that I have done, most have resulted in a certificate.

+1 for keeping it simple (two rather than three types), with the optional field for certification. +1 for adding it to courses rather than education.

[osg]

That said, I would also like to just add the certificate than list all the courses. Is that possible?

[thomasdavis]

This hasn't been a persistently requested addition over the years, most users run with the theme developers of which haven't implemented as much detail.