Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 320 posts

Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?

#271

Post by bluesmonk »

I've recently discovered that videos don't cut it for me. I fall asleep or get distracted doing side research of what is being discussed.

The only one I've finished is edX's CS50. As an electrical power engineer, I used to code in matlab as a hobby: Optimization problems, Power flows, and stuff.

This mooc gently took me by the hand and gave me what is basic to change my career. I quit my job as an EPE and now work as a software engineer, and now I can't stop learning. The course is real fun and challenging at the same time.

Another one that is interesting is mind and machines in edx, kinda thoughtful and different and yet interesting approach to artificial intelligence.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?

#272

Post by grblovrflowerrr »

sampo wrote: post #26

Most fun: Pat Pattison, Songwriting, Coursera. Very good lectures, very good material, very well presented. Teaches a lot about writing song lyrics in just 6 weeks, breaks it nicely down to steps and recipes. I used to think that the best feature of MOOCs is the automatic grading and feedback from programming homework, but in this course, for the homework songwriting you gave and got feedback from 3-5 random people i…

This thread's full of really valuable information, so I've compiled these and a bunch of the other courses mentioned here into a big document[1]. I've also added quotes from this thread, with links back to the original comments.

[1] https://www.notion.so/MOOCs-recommended-by-Hacker-News-e1070...

EDIT: the previous link pointed to one of the headers in the page, instead of the page itself.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?

#273

Post by popeko »

rripken wrote: post #73

I've taken 10 GaTech OMSCS courses via Udacity. Two of my favorites (so far): Intro to Computer Vision: https://www.udacity.com/course/introduction-to-computer-visi... Reinforcement Learning: https://www.udacity.com/course/reinforcement-learning--ud600 I found the Isbell+Littman combo to work so well that I also took the ML course. I know some people complain about their humor but it was perfect for me. I could liste…

I'm currently taking Intro to CV, and can attest it is indeed quite superb - the professor has a fantastic way of explaining theory, and goes over a really large number of topics. His antics with the videographer are also quite hilarious

Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?

#274

Post by sizeofchar »

tzs wrote: post #211

• MITx "Introduction to Solid State Chemistry" [1]. I've never been good at chemistry, but this course managed to make it clear to me. • MITx "Circuits and Electronics" [2][3][4] (three links because they have split it into three courses since I took it). Most electronics courses have not worked well for me. Some fail by using analogies that don't work for me. The analogies are either to things I don't understand, or…

Also did Computation Structures from MITx and I think it was the best of the roughly 20 MOOCs I took. Too bad few people seem to have done it as well.

In the third part of the course, the content moved to the software connecting to the BETA, the processor we built in earlier parts. The last problem set was to build a very simple OS, in assembly, with interrupts, privileged mode, and running up to 3 concurring processes, all in less than 1000 instructions, macros included.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?

#275

Post by atomicnumber1 »

CS50x (Introduction to Programming) [1]: Very well structured. Excellent and very Enthusiastic Teacher & staffs. It was the most fun MOOC I took

Learning How to learn [2]: Life changing. I wish I did it sooner.

ops-class (Operating Systems) [3]: This is by far the toughest MOOC I've taken. The Assignments are really tough. Although not impossible. Just the right amount of tough, I guess. I'm currently in the last few weeks and I've really enjoyed it every bit so far.

Interesting (Not Yet Completed): Introduction to Quantum Physics (2013) [4]: My god, I just love the teacher's enthusiasm. After few lectures, I realised I need to first brush up on classical physics before moving further (which obviously was the requirement that I ignored).

[1]: https://www.edx.org/course/cs50s-introduction-computer-scien...

[2]: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

[3]: https://www.edx.org/course/cs50s-introduction-computer-scien...

[4]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUl4u3cNGP61-9PEhRogn...

Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?

#276

Post by imh »

diab0lic wrote: post #126
bitL wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PGM was brutal... At Stanford straight As students were happy just to pass...

I've been meaning to either take the course or read the book. I'm curious if you've read the book [0] and how you would compare or if you'd recommend one, the other or both. [0] https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/probabilistic-graphical-model...

I read the book nearly cover to cover. I can't recommend it enough, but it's an enormous time and energy investment.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?

#277

Post by siddboots »

MadSudaca wrote: post #255
nbouscal wrote: post #244

Linear Dynamical Systems by Stephen Boyd of Stanford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf1264iFr-w&list=PL06960BA52... Programming Languages by Dan Grossman of University of Washington: https://www.coursera.org/learn/programming-languages

what's good about the first one?

I've also gone over those lectures a couple of times. I'm not even sure why I started watching them, since I knew absolutely nothing about linear dynamical systems before hand, but it really changed my life! It taught me techniques that I now use all the time, and I think are very neglected within my field (data analysis/forecasting).

If your not familiar with it, it's an extremely versatile framework for modeling and analysis of all kinds of systems. It will give you new insights into linear algebra, time series analysis, stochastic models, Fourier analysis, Laplace transforms, and many other areas.

He's a brilliant (and enthusiastic) teacher, and he has lots of resources on line, including a text-book length exercise-set which I've printed out and had bound because it is so awesome.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?

#278

Post by zaphirplane »

syndacks wrote: post #236

Colt Steele's the Web Developer Boot Camp was the first online course I took. I was committed to a career change/learning how to program/do web development and his course was the structure I needed at the time. It helped me land my first coding gig too. Thanks Colt. But now I realize how much I don't know :) and why the CS kids I work with have a leg up. I've tried making my way through teachyourselfcs.com, mostly ju…

Power and respect to you for doing what you want. I strongly disagree that a $10 course gives a person the same learning as a 4 year university degree, I have worked with people that have been to university and people that “got” into the job and there is a large difference. Of course that isn’t always 100% true, there are exceptional people. I’m sure this will be down modded

Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?

#279

Post by jpfr »

sewercake wrote: post #260
jpfr wrote: post #157

MIT OCW contains quite a few true gems. These lectures will still be worth watching 100 years from now. - Differential Equations from 2015: https://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-009-learn-differential-... - The original SICP recordings from 1986: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...

what makes the differential equation course so good, in your mind?

Gilbert Strang is a lengendary teacher.

In addition to the other Gilbert Strang ODE courses, this one comes with videos for numerical solutions. From the inventor of Matlab himself.

Post reply on HN