CS50x and Stanford's Startup Engineering one. Got me into programming and part of an exclusive club of MOOCs I've started AND finished.
+1 for Chuck Eesley's startup engineering one! how did your team experience pan out?
Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?
311–320 of 320 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?
#312Most 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…
Yes, I enjoyed the Pattison songwriting class as well. At first his applying the "strong" and "weak" concepts to every aspect of a song lyric seems overly simplistic, but it actually starts to make sense. I came into class with considerably previous experience in writing poetry, but thought I learned a lot from him and my peers. His breaking down a performance coaching example was also very instructive. Other music M…
100% miss for me. The main thing I learned from that course is that a "MOOC" relying on peer review for feedback is a colossal waste of time, and should have stayed as a video lecture series.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I enjoyed the Pattison songwriting class as well. At first his applying the "strong" and "weak" concepts to every aspect of a song lyric seems overly simplistic, but it actually starts to make sense. I came into class with considerably previous experience in writing poetry, but thought I learned a lot from him and my peers. His breaking down a performance coaching example was also very instructive. Other music M…
> The Berklee "Jazz Improvisation" class taught by Gary Burton. [...] On the down side, skill levels of the students varied widely, so peer review was more miss than hit. 100% miss for me. The main thing I learned from that course is that a "MOOC" relying on peer review for feedback is a colossal waste of time, and should have stayed as a video lecture series.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Nicest: Andrew Ng, Machine Learning, Coursera. Interesting topic, well-planned material, very well avoids going into the mathy details, but still conveys a feeling of understanding of the topic, so accessible to a wide audience. (Martin Odersky, Functional Programming Principles in Scala, Coursera, was almost equally nice, but had some rough edges in the first run.) Have to agree with all of this. I've taken Andrew…
+100 to Andrew NGs machine learning. Inspired me enough about the potential of online education to start a (now reasonably successful edtech) company!
Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?
#315Can anybody recommend any courses for learning WebGL?
You can read a couple of reviews here: https://www.coursetalk.com/providers/udacity/courses/interac...
Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?
#316Intro to finance - Gautam Kaul I am not sure if they still offer this course for free. I took it in 2011 and I really like it’s homework assignments. Gautam is also hilarious in his teaching style.
I've taken it around the same time, too. To this day the name of the professor brings a smile to my face. If I remember correctly, I didn't even plan to take this course (had no interest in finance), but after watching the Intro video I was hooked.
A good reminder and greatful to MOOCs and this course.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has anyone read her book and can comment on the differences? I own the book and have half-read it twice, it’s very underwhelming. At no point am I thinking “that’s going to change my way of doing X”
I'm halfway through the course and it's really basic and underwhelming. Most of the "techniques" are stuff you pick up in middle school. Also I find the teaching style, with those cute cartoons and sounds, extremely patronizing.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?
#318Learning how to learn, Barbara Oakley, Coursera. By far and away the best learning course I've taken in my life as well, I wish it had been available before I had completed my formal education.
Has anyone read her book and can comment on the differences? I own the book and have half-read it twice, it’s very underwhelming. At no point am I thinking “that’s going to change my way of doing X”
Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?
#319The "Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies" on Coursera helped me gain an understanding cryptocurrencies. Until I took that course I knew very little about the subject. It's possibly a little dated now, but it's a good primer. https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency/ I'd love to hear what other cryptocurrency courses others recommend. As many others mentioned, Andrew Ng's course on Machine Learning on Courser…
You might appreciate the Digital Currency MOOC from University of Nicosia, with Andreas Antonopoulos and Antonis Polemitis. https://digitalcurrency.unic.ac.cy/free-introductory-mooc/ Latest live stream (with Andreas Antonopoulos) goes into Ethereum and alternative uses of the blockchain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxyPNS5QmAI Edit - Actually, the latest live stream is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2…
Re: Ask HN: What are the best MOOCs you've taken?
#320Venture Deals . https://www.kauffmanfellows.org/online-course-venture-deals/