Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020?

#21

Post by frankie_t » Fri, Jul 03, 2020, 2:05 PM UTC

_tk_ wrote: post #7

Meta: I have had the same question as well and I'm sure that I will have it again in six months. IMO this submission has potential to be a regularly re-submitted post like 'Who is hiring?'.

Well, essentially what I was asking is "is there any good new stuff or is this movement dead", meaning the 2012ish hype of open university knowledge, so I don't think it's a question of a recurring nature.

Most of the replies here are more suitable to "what are good moocs", which is fine and what I more or less expected anyway.

As to regularly resubmitted post, this kind of touches the issues I asked. If there aren't many (or none) good new materials then there is no much point reposting same things again and again, similar threads from 2016 or 2018 will do. Some communities post a compilation of what new courses are gonna start soon. I don't find these useful, because they end up being just a huge dump of everything. I guess what I would find interesting is a recurring post about learning that goes like like "what are you learning/learnt recently/this year/this season" and why a mentioned source of learning was good. This naturally will focus on quality rather than quantity.

Re: Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020?

#22

Post by niclo » Fri, Jul 03, 2020, 2:16 PM UTC

I don't think you can call it mind-expanding or intellectually stimulating, but I'm currently following the MOOC about modern Web Development from the University of Helsinki https://fullstackopen.com/.

I think it's quite solid and valuable, has a good amount of exercises and I really like the frameworks/technologies they teach (React/Express/TypeScript/GraphQL).

Also trying to expand on my own the topics and concepts they introduce, so I think at the end it's gonna be a very good long-time investment.

For more specific stuff like Algorithms and Data Structures or Programming Languages knowledge, I usually prefer books over MOOCs.

Re: Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020?

#23

Post by jp0d » Fri, Jul 03, 2020, 2:20 PM UTC

I'm taking the Micromasters in Statistics and Data Science from MIT. It's awesome and now I want to continue studying and probably get my masters after this. It's very rigorous though. I'm not doing this for job prospects. I already work as a data analyst. I'm looking forward to learning the theoretical aspects of the mathematics and of course its applications.

Re: Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020?

#24

Post by maerF0x0 » Fri, Jul 03, 2020, 2:36 PM UTC

Ideally we'll get to a point where there is a really well produced course on everything such that new courses will only be required for entirely new fields.

I was commenting to a friend the other day that it's insane that we hire 1000s of teachers to teach roughly the same math class 2x per year for 40 years. Instead I'd rather a fraction of those make a truly fantastic video course and then the remaining fraction could be hands on helpers/instructors for those who need help. This is kind of khan academy, but I'd like to see that happen in the public school system.

Re: Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020?

#25

Post by Kinrany » Fri, Jul 03, 2020, 2:40 PM UTC

maerF0x0 wrote: post #24

Ideally we'll get to a point where there is a really well produced course on everything such that new courses will only be required for entirely new fields. I was commenting to a friend the other day that it's insane that we hire 1000s of teachers to teach roughly the same math class 2x per year for 40 years. Instead I'd rather a fraction of those make a truly fantastic video course and then the remaining fraction co…

The discoveries from new fields will probably always have a ripple effect and indirectly improve our understanding of other fields.

Same as software libraries: we do invent new ways of doing the same thing from time to time.

Still, switching to using one of the few top courses by default would be a huge improvement.

Re: Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020?

#26

Post by aklemm » Fri, Jul 03, 2020, 2:43 PM UTC

hackart wrote: post #17

otras wrote: post #10

MIT's 6.824: Distributed Systems (taught by Robert Morris) is completely open and available online, and it includes video lectures, notes, readings, and programming assignments from as recent as Spring 2020 (including half of the lectures recorded from home as the pandemic strikes). The assignments even include auto-graded testing scripts, so you can verify your solution to the assignments. It's not necessarily a MOO…

I agree. One of the best courses i had taken on Coursera was the Algorithms series by Robert Sedgewick. Apart from going through the lectures, i had obtained a great satisfaction from solving the assignments. But this year, i have taken up the lab assignments for the following: https://cs144.github.io/ https://tc.gts3.org/cs3210/2020/spring/info.html Both have been recommended earlier on HN. Next on my list is 6.824

Any idea where to get the lecture videos for CS144?

Re: Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020?

#27

Post by xwdv » Fri, Jul 03, 2020, 2:46 PM UTC

maerF0x0 wrote: post #24

Ideally we'll get to a point where there is a really well produced course on everything such that new courses will only be required for entirely new fields. I was commenting to a friend the other day that it's insane that we hire 1000s of teachers to teach roughly the same math class 2x per year for 40 years. Instead I'd rather a fraction of those make a truly fantastic video course and then the remaining fraction co…

Not a good idea. One course to rule them all in a field creates a risk of massive amounts of people learning bad information and reinforcing it through sheer majority. Better for people to learn the same information in different ways and from different sources.

Re: Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020?

#28

Post by dominotw » Fri, Jul 03, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

otras wrote: post #10

MIT's 6.824: Distributed Systems (taught by Robert Morris) is completely open and available online, and it includes video lectures, notes, readings, and programming assignments from as recent as Spring 2020 (including half of the lectures recorded from home as the pandemic strikes). The assignments even include auto-graded testing scripts, so you can verify your solution to the assignments. It's not necessarily a MOO…

hey this is what i am doing right now to prep for 'system design interviews'

Re: Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020?

#29

Post by dominotw » Fri, Jul 03, 2020, 2:56 PM UTC

I am hoping to train more for my ski instructor certification this year.

But i am doing 'mountains 101' during the pandemic https://www.coursera.org/learn/mountains-101

Re: Ask HN: Did you take any fresh MOOCs as of 2020?

#30

Post by intellectronica » Fri, Jul 03, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

I took https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/the-mind-is-flat and it was great. Loved the book and the course was a great complement. The platform is nothing to write home about but the course itself was so good it didn't matter at all.