I very much agree with your points! I may have to check out some of the courses, but my time is limited. I’m a systems engineer that has been involved with crypto for years, but mostly with bitcoin-y like coins. This smart contracts stuff, while I understand it conceptually, has nuances I probably need to understand if I want to plan projects that would use it.
That’s mostly why I joined Steem - to learn it by using it. I’m also monitoring other blockchain based projects with different use cases to see how they are developing. It’s all very dynamic at this point and a challenge to keep abreast of it all. Having well organized courses is a great time saver when exploring new territory!
If you are a systems engineer I guess you wouldn't be starting from 0, which I am...
I've been going through HTML today and starting JavaScript right now, the course has the basic languages for those that don't know anything.
For those that already have previous knowledge of the basic programming languages (JavaScript, C++, Python,etc...) it's much quicker and doesn't require that much time, for example, Solidity the language do build Smart Contracts on Ethereum is very similar to JavaScript, on EOS it's C++, if you already know and grasp those languages you can focus on the Smart Contracts part which would make the whole course much quicker.
Give it a try, $5 isn't that much and for the amount of information it provides the course is really cheap... Ivan gives online books, videos, assignments, questions, programs, etc...
The courses are really well organized
While I don’t bill myself as a coder or developer (more like a toolmaker), I first started learning to code in high school in the ‘70s (Fortrash, er, FORTRAN, basic and APL). Now I define what the developers need to do ;)
That's some really raelly old stuff you got there xD Out of that list the only one which I've heard and seen is Basic.
That's a good job to have!