I think the problem with self learning is making the information digestable enough and regular gratification to the user about the things they've just learned (challenges that gradually increase in difficulty).
Highlight which of the sites offer that (with icons?) and it would help user pick the right sites based on their patience level e.g..
I think the finality of learning "courses" of traditional education has something to it. There's something to be said for having a task at hand and accomplishing a series of steps rather that lead to something rather than a mashup of useful tutorials and lectures (no-matter how brilliant they are), that don't have an underlying current, theme or curriculum to them.
This is actually something I was thinking about. For instance, say someone wants to learn Ruby. They could go to noexcuselist and find a step-by-step process that someone has made using only free resources. Does that sound like something that would be useful? The hard part is, I'd have to expand the site and make it social, so people can post their own guides. I definitely don't have the technical expertise for that.
Highlight which of the sites offer that (with icons?) and it would help user pick the right sites based on their patience level e.g..