Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/27/this-electrical-engineering-tr.html
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No, you really won’t.
None of these fine courses are about home wiring, and certainly not home wiring for consumers. They are industrial engineering courses. Saying they will teach you home wiring is like saying a quantum physics course will teach you how to build a sprinkler system for your lawn.
Pitching these courses to the wrong audience is a seriously transparent money grab with no benefit to the customer. They could be excellent, but only to the right audience.
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Yep, completely agree. If you’re looking for something more applicable to basic concepts (which are plenty fun to learn) something like this Lynda course will do you better: Electronics Foundations: Fundamentals Online Class | LinkedIn Learning, formerly Lynda.com
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no matter what size the community
Perhaps, but I imagine if the community ends up being mostly Amish, you might just see a downturn in demand.
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Electrician here. I charge twice as much to fix a problem made worse by failed attempts by the homeowner.
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Please, electricians just want us to think twisting wires together is hard. In reality anybody can do it. It’s not like electrical faults are the number one cause of fires in my city…
You don’t even need any of those fancy boxes electricians try to sell you, or any of that “circuit breaker” nonsense. Plus, this wiring looks super colorful on and infrared inspection camera.
/s
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Is this about electrical engineering, or electronic engineering?
Better, is it about appliance repair or electronic repair, or house wiring?
The entry seems to be over the place, a photo of elecfronics, but talk of house wiring, except being an electrician for the latter is not about engineering.
I seem to recall that one of the correspondent schools like NRI long ago had an appliance repair course, cheaper and simpler than learning electronics.
Being an electrician at the very least requires knowledge of electrical codes. People can often fix appliances and even electronics without a degree or even formal training.
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TECH SUPPORT: Sir, have you tried taking it apart and putting it back together again?
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19,000 clicks and emails later… this course is complete garbage. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT pay any money for this. Back away quietly. I’m glad I only paid $7 for these videos after the coupon but they aren’t even worth that much.
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The answer is unfortunately, “yes”. It’s a mishmash of topics, poorly understood and explained. Don’t waste your time or money.
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StackCommerce really seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel with this offering. It’s just so random. And not a topic where you’d really want to trust in un-vetted random videos. Using Photoshop wrong from videos isn’t going to kill people, industrial electrical engineering, on the other hand…
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Er… yes, but only halfway, I’m afraid.
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Just think how much better informed the public would be if code books were published!
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This is why I don’t do mains electrical stuff. It’s fun to watch Electroboom get zapped (still don’t get why he does these stunts someday he’s gonna get bit too bad) but I’m not keen to replicate such disasters. I’ll stick with scorching my fingers doing RF electronics thanks. 
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A lot of code publishers have recently done a much better job at making their texts available for free online viewing.
Conversely, having an electrical engineering degree doesn’t guarantee you can wire a house or fix an electrical appliance, or repair electronics. Electrical engineering is a pretty broad field.
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If you’re looking to do it professionally it also requires occupational licensing in most places. While occupational licensing is out of control in a lot of industries, it’s a damn good idea for electricians.
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I think when there’s overlap, it’s at least in part because someone has stepped over the barrier already. So it’s easier to open that mixer case because you’ve already opened up a tv set.
But of course there are engineers who don’t go near practical stuff, and so they never tried to do home repairs.
Or, someone I knew would never attempt to fix a dripping faucet because it was too foreign to her. She never took apart things as a kid.
That doen’t mean I can fix everything, just that I can give it a try.
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Not only do they not understand the difference between an electrician and an electrical engineer, but they don’t understand the difference between either of those and an industrial engineer.
This is a lateral move from offering a chemical engineering course bundle to people who want to learn how to fix their computers.
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From home wiring to designing on an industrial scale? In just 40 hours? Yeah, I’m skeptical.
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