My course is the famous one by Samskritabharati (https://www.samskritabharati.in/). It's a correspondence program, but they do conduct introductory contact classes as well. They also deliver materials overseas. Samskritabharati also has online video lectures (http://www.samskritashikshanam.in/), but they are in Hindi.
There's also the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan in India (http://www.sanskrit.nic.in/) who have a two year introductory correspondence course. I believe they deliver overseas as well. I did the first year of their course with the help of a tutor I hired from urbanpro.com, but (as with all things GoI) I found the experience to be far less satisfactory than Samskritabharati's.
Two "Western"-style books that I would recommend are:
* Devavanipravesika (An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language) by Robert Goldman
* Samskrita-SubodhinI (A Sanskrit Primer) by Madhav Deshpande.
One thing I want to do is to work through these books once I am done with Samskritabharati just to cement the things I have learnt.
The nice thing about Samskritabharati's course is that it doesn't just teach the language, but it also introduces you in a gentle (but unapologetic!) way to the whole tradition that flourished through it's medium. They also publish books in Sanskrit, which may also help you in your education.
I have audited a few introductory courses from vyoma samskrita pathashala (https://sanskritfromhome.in).
There's also the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan in India (http://www.sanskrit.nic.in/) who have a two year introductory correspondence course. I believe they deliver overseas as well. I did the first year of their course with the help of a tutor I hired from urbanpro.com, but (as with all things GoI) I found the experience to be far less satisfactory than Samskritabharati's.
If you can read Hindi, you can also look at the school textbooks by NCERT as well, which are available for free (http://ncert.nic.in/textbook/textbook.htm)
Two "Western"-style books that I would recommend are:
* Devavanipravesika (An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language) by Robert Goldman
* Samskrita-SubodhinI (A Sanskrit Primer) by Madhav Deshpande.
One thing I want to do is to work through these books once I am done with Samskritabharati just to cement the things I have learnt.
The nice thing about Samskritabharati's course is that it doesn't just teach the language, but it also introduces you in a gentle (but unapologetic!) way to the whole tradition that flourished through it's medium. They also publish books in Sanskrit, which may also help you in your education.
Good luck!