Blockchain & FinTech are all the rage today. Many companies are looking for people skilled in these areas, and as with other leading edge technologies, these skillsets are hard to come by at quality. In this post, we look at some good coursework that would help people trying to gain some level of knowledge and expertise in these areas.
Excellent Content for Free
Coursera
offers some excellent content to learn trending and very in-demand subjects
like blockchain and fintech from top schools. These courses can be taken for
free on audit, or you can pay a nominal amount to earn a certificate that you
can put on your resume and LinkedIn profile online. My CV already has 30 or so
of these, so personally I now only take courses on an audit basis, because
beyond a point, continuing education on the CV gets lost in the noise, though
up-to-date skills are always widely sought out by employers.
That said, here are some courses and specializations that are useful to learn these topics:
Fintech Law and Policy from Duke University
These are all excellent courses – they cover the same ideas from different angles, and it is worth the time to learn things from various perspectives to gain mastery over the technical and business aspects, and the economics of how this technology might be applied in enterprises to deliver business value. These courses (particularly the UMich one) do a good job at demystifying the applications of blockchain, and help you cut through the hype. They also teach you how to analyze business fundamentals and design how best an application might utilize blockchain across various industries, if at all.
The Duke University course gives you a sense of the legal and regulatory issues that Fintech firms have to be aware of and comply with. While the focus in that course is predominantly USA-based regulations, it leaves you with a broad enough understanding to think carefully about the kinds of legal issues these firms might face in various other jurisdictions as well.
Coursera
Platform Issues
While
Coursera offers excellent content which is getting better, it is also getting
significantly worse as a platform from a usability perspective – with quality degrading considerably over the
last few months. Some issues I have noted in recent months with the Coursera platform:
1.
As it has gained in popularity, widespread use, and
increased revenue (many models available now including Coursera Plus) its pages
are no longer responsive to the point that using the site has many annoyances - slow loading being a major issue. Worse, there is a bug in their "in-progress" course display (same page displays though counter advances). I have raised this as an issue with them.
2. It loses which videos you have already watched,
and doesn’t mark progress accurately - happens quite frequently.
3. It logs you out at random times while you are
using the platform to learn, and you have to log in again. Happens with
annoying frequency.
4. What I also dislike is in a number of courses, there are peer-graded assignments. While these are not bad in and of themselves, the issue arises when there are not many others taking the course at the same time - since Coursera bills by duration enrolled, you have to wait for other students to become present on the platform in that course for you to earn your certificate, and this waiting can get costly. I learn at high speed, dedicating myself to completing a specialization in a few days - so many a times have to give up on the full specialization certificate to avoid having to spend more money waiting (I just get certificates for individual courses leading up to the capstone).
5.
It (occasionally) loses credentials earned on
the system, though if you contact them, they are able to recover these for you.
Content will keep bringing me back to Coursera, but it is unfortunate that with the platform gaining so much more in terms of visibility and revenue, the quality of the user experience is slipping. I also use other platforms like EdX, Udacity, Udemy, etc. and each has its own quirks. Please share in the comments what your experiences have been, and if you are aware of other courses in Fintech or blockchain that merit an honorary mention.
