I do have conflicting thoughts when looking at this:
To be honest design education has always been a muddy world. It's one of those things where you could either pay A LOT or pay nothing and the results might just be the same.
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Completely agree, those prices are crazy.
For beginners I would recommend books that touch on design principles. There’s a lot good YouTube videos, free specific ebooks by @uxpin or @InVisionApp and actually a @skillshare membership is pretty great.