I sat through an Unix Administration (redhat focused) class, which had other linux classes and prerequisites before it. The students barely understood what they were doing or what any of it was even for. They followed and got good grades and passed the course, they weren't obtuse. But a lot of them could not understand the application of the material.
I will let someone else comment on the course path. The real "path" is downloading a linux distro of your choice and getting an old PC and installing it and playing with it(or multiple distros, seeing the differences in distros help). Then when comfortable, making it your main computer that you use every day. Then when comfortable, taking on projects using linux ex) file servers, media servers, mail servers, web servers, video camera servers, phone servers, etc...
Each step will be a learning experience... and seeking information for each experience will provide experience... you use most of it from that point on, and then honestly, it NEVER stops. My first lesson...download and burn an iso and install.. I didn't even know what an iso was... But I remember how much I learned about other related stuff while researching that. If you absolutely commit to making your linux "projects" work, the research you will have to do will be your best education. Utilize all the forums for references, there are plenty of them out there and people are usually helpful.