Opening the catalogue of a big online course platform is a bit like walking into an endless library. Thousands of courses, hundreds of universities, titles that all look alike, and promises of new skills everywhere. It is very easy to get lost, start three courses at once, then finish none of them.
Before you sign up, take ten minutes to answer four questions. They require no particular knowledge, just a little honesty with yourself. And they will probably save you months of hesitation.
What is your goal?
This is the question that shapes all the others. Do you want to find a job or change careers? Prepare a return to study? Teach a subject? Or simply understand a field that has intrigued you for a long time?
Each of these goals calls for a different path. A job-oriented path ends with concrete projects you can show a recruiter. A path driven by scientific curiosity, on the other hand, takes the time to go deeper into the concepts, without necessarily aiming at an immediate application. The more precise your goal, and the more firmly dated, the easier it will be to choose, then to keep going.
What is your starting level?
We tend to underestimate or overestimate our level, and rarely judge it right. Yet it is often your starting level that decides whether you will see it through.
Every Mooc Atlas path shows the expected level in mathematics and programming. Take the time to read it carefully. If the gap with your current level is large, don’t force it: start with a refresher path instead. Two months spent consolidating your foundations save far more later, and avoid the most common cause of dropping out.
How much time do you have?
Think in hours, not weeks. The lengths platforms display, along the lines of “three months at ten hours a week”, are often optimistic estimates. What counts is the total number of course hours, and the number of hours you can really give each week.
A 300-hour path, for example, takes about seven months at ten hours a week. That is a lot, and entirely doable, provided you choose a length you can sustain without interruption. Better a shorter path seen through to the end than an ambitious one abandoned halfway.
What do you want to produce?
This is the question most often forgotten, and perhaps the most revealing. The projects offered after certain steps of a path are what remains when the course is over: an analysis, a program, a study, a dashboard. They are what you will show, and what you will remember.
So look at the projects in each path that appeals to you, and ask yourself which ones you genuinely want to build. It is probably the best sign that you will see it through: we finish more willingly what leads to something we want to make.
What next?
Once you have answered these four questions, the choice often almost makes itself. If you are still hesitating, our quiz suggests, in five questions, the paths that best match your profile. You can also browse all the Atlas paths, filtered by field, level or length.