I'm attempting to fumble my way through learning Old English. I haven't been overly successful, though I can read and understand quite a bit more than I could before I started, so I guess that's some success. I've been using U of C's website.

That is a truly awesome website; I've been using it too. I'm learning Old English (I do wish they hadn't changed the name, it confuses so many people) to help me get inside the heads of the Anglo-Saxons.

The professor I took got us printed copies of The Elements of Old English by Samuel Moore, which was more than adequate, not in copyright, and apparently up on the internet, though for some reason with the wrong title page. (And with crappy formatting in places, but everything else seems to be fine.)

I first learnt OE at a course at my university. In addition to tons of handouts, we used Peter Baker's Introduction to Old English, which is quite a nice elementary book. I should think it would be a good book for learning OE on your own, too.

I'm thirding the Calgary course and seconding the Baker book. Here it is in electronic form. I think that's all of it, from memory.

Also nice is Anglo-Saxon Aloud.

We used Reading Old English: A Primer and First Reader by Robert Hasenfratz and Thomas Jambeck.

I don't think most undergraduate English degrees require Old English, it's not even a common elective.

I've been wrestling with this language for 15 years. The problem is that all the teaching materials suck. Or rather, there are no teaching materials. I started with an 'invitation to old English and Anglo-saxon England' and 'Sweet's Anglo Saxon primer'. Both of which are superb books but are not language teaching materials, and this goes for pretty much everything else you can buy apart from Steve Pollington's First steps in old English.

These books are descriptions of the grammar of the language. Compare pretty much any book on old English with beginner's language course in any living language and you'll understand what I'm talking about. So, if you're finding it difficult, don't worry it's not your fault, it's the materials.

I learn the language by reading, writing and speaking as much as I can. I started an old English group with two other people and used TEFL methods to teach vocabulary and structures. We focused solely on speaking and listening for about 75 - 80% of the sessions. Despite previously being able to limp through Beowulf and being able to read a little more quickly through some simple prose, I found that my Old English composition and reading comprehension skyrocketed. Now I can read Beowulf almost as well as I can a difficult poem in Swedish (my second language).

I plan on creating a series of youtube videos teaching Old English in an effective, engaging way based on my group, but don't hold your breath. Annoying things keep getting in the way of cool projects, like having to earn a living.