What’s your thoughts on virtual marketing courses and certifications?
I recently completed an “Advanced AI for Digital Marketing” course. And although I learned a lot and am happy to be “certified”, the lifespan of these credentials is humorous.
AI is like a living organism, constantly mutating. How can anything I learn today still matter six months from now?
Some concepts, yes. But in many of the demos, the interfaces shown were older and outdated. It was a bit of a let down, but how could they possibly have the latest and greatest, right? I wondered if the shelf life of this course was on par with expired vanilla yogurt.
I realized that current blogs or YouTube videos produced days ago about a new tool or concept were the better way to get “certified”, at least for me. My Feedly.com account was where it’s at.
When the course format is a single talking face, hour after hour, the mind shifts. I was learning concepts, but felt more like just enduring. I noticed the speaker’s hair getting scuffled over multiple modules as he aged before my eyes. I wondered how tough it must have been to wear the same outfit multiple days in a row during the video shoots.
As time passed, ideas couldn’t be tested. I needed to maintain the course and couldn’t jump off and try something in a new Chrome tab. It was an educational mismatch. It was an attention span toleration camp.
As I’m already entwined with AI, the slow instructions became friction. Repetition dragged and carefully paced explanations brought out a resistance to them. This system rewards sitting still, opposed to moving forward.
The hypnotic background music and gentle animated graphics were meant to soothe… I guess. But, instead, they dulled. They signaled that nothing urgent was happening here.
If you’re someone new to AI and taking this course, viewing older versions of LLM platforms in the training will create confusion once you log into the current ones.
The course taught certainty in a domain that demands constant revision.
Watching someone explain a tool is easy. But using it, breaking it, adapting it, and updating your mental model is where the learning is more likely to happen.