Goodbye open education

I am sure that most of those who read and write on Habré are constantly learning something. The modern world is such that knowledge, especially in areas where development is proceeding at a high speed, if not completely outdated, then become less relevant. And immediately new knowledge appears, which also needs to be mastered. However, it’s interesting!

But there is one caveat – in order to acquire new knowledge and skills, one desire is often not enough, you still need the basics, basic knowledge that was obtained at school, university, on your own, but it is desirable that they develop into a system. Actually, that is why education in the same universities is often called systemic. Yes, it doesn’t always happen, but it does happen.
Why a long introduction? Now I will explain.

About eight years ago, I don’t remember exactly, I met an excellent Russian resource, “Open Education“The name reflected the essence well – it laid out the academic courses of Russian universities in various disciplines and all this was completely free. The quality of the courses was different, but having the desire and time, it was quite possible to gain knowledge, and, if necessary, to count the course taken as passed , passing the exam and adding the subject to the diploma.This was already paid, which is quite fair, since it required the presence of examiner teachers.
He took various courses with pleasure, ranging from astronomy – very interesting, mathematics like graph theory and mathematical analysis, which once upon a time did not fit well in my head and ending with the theory of logic and argumentation – the course is very difficult, oddly enough.
Without false modesty, I will say that at my suggestion, a dozen people were carried away by such a pastime, developing their brains 🙂
And then came the year 2023, in the spring of which open education courses began to disappear. Previously, any of them, which you have already passed, was available for repetition, but then they suddenly disappeared. And then all the courses disappeared to appear only on a paid basis. At the same time, the cost of some has become significant.
In short, education is over.
As far as I know, the resource was created and maintained by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, so the introduction of payment for everything, especially now, when education is so needed in the country, seems somewhat strange and incomprehensible.