Beginnings
When I first joined the Zero Tuition College website (ztcollege.com) a little over a year ago, the founder, Blake Boles, had started this initiative known as Assignments (now recognizable from his book). The purpose was to have site users create projects for each other to participate in. If you took on a project, it would show up on your individual page, and so on. Each assignment was assessed for the deliverables, the cost, the resources necessary, and the value gained by completing the project. Everything from "start your own start-up" to "get an internship" to "create your personal 100 books reading list" was on this site (okay, the last one was one I submitted myself). After a quick email exchange with Mr. Boles, I found out that the assignments were discontinued due to lack of participation and general not-fitting-in with the evolving goals of ZTC. With his permission, I have decided to reinstate these user-created projects for a couple of reasons:
1. When asked for resources to complete a project, we are able to access online and other resources that I, and others, may not be aware of, thus increasing our field of knowledge.
2. Even self-learners like a little structure every now and then. Sometimes completing projects, challenging in both real-world applicability and general learning, can help give direction towards tangible products that can be produced from specific tasks and applied towards a portfolio. They can give ideas about how to create deliverables for projects the individual might be working on, and they can be fun.
3. They can inspire people to take on tasks they may not have even thought of doing before.
1. When asked for resources to complete a project, we are able to access online and other resources that I, and others, may not be aware of, thus increasing our field of knowledge.
2. Even self-learners like a little structure every now and then. Sometimes completing projects, challenging in both real-world applicability and general learning, can help give direction towards tangible products that can be produced from specific tasks and applied towards a portfolio. They can give ideas about how to create deliverables for projects the individual might be working on, and they can be fun.
3. They can inspire people to take on tasks they may not have even thought of doing before.
With this in mind...
I'd like to invite you to take a look through the assignments that will slowly accumulate on this site to see if any inspire you or give you ideas about how to proceed with your own projects. If you'd like to propose a project, fill out the short form at the bottom with: [a] a project title; [b] project description [c] resources [d] projected cost to complete. If you'd like me to include your name as part of the assignment listing, please specify what you'd like me to list you as. Otherwise, I will leave the assignment anonymous. And if you complete any of the projects or have general comments about how they could be better, you can fill out the form as well.