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Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

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Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#61

Post by SilasX »

joshlk wrote: post #2

Nand to Tetris: how a computer is built from the ground up. Starting from nand logic gates all the way to OO programming https://www.coursera.org/learn/build-a-computer

Seconding this. It's the most fun I've ever had on a technical project (with the possible exception of tptacek's microcorruption.com), and really opened my eyes to all the problems you have to solve to get a working computer.

Note: you can also complete all the course materials just by going to nand2tetris.org.

My presentation slides promoting nand2tetris to the Austin python group: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fGf2eZVOM2lHL8hFVyd2...

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#63

Post by BoiledCabbage »

omarhaneef wrote: post #52
Nowado wrote: post #41

I have no idea how 'Machine Learning' from Ng is not mentioned. It's fine in teaching you introductory (although it seems to cover more basics than a lot of other courses do, somehow) ML. But more importantly, it's a well designed course. You can see how each piece uses previous pieces and how it solves problems and edge cases not covered earlier.

I appreciate his attention to pedagogy. Even small things like noticing that students learn better with Matlab/Octave than with R or Python is the kind of observation that takes a combination of knowledge, effort and caring about teaching.

I could be wrong, but I think it has nothing to do with that, and now to do with the course being so old that R and Python weren't the standard ML languages yet.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#64

Post by vvillena »

adeel_siddiqui wrote: post #13

Programming Languages, Dan Grossman, UW. https://www.coursera.org/learn/programming-languages It is a 3 part course and a bit more intensive than other courses on Coursera with challenging assignments. It helped me gain a deeper understanding of statically vs dynamically typed languages. Designing a tiny language in Part B is the best part of the course. Concludes with a nice comparison between OOP and functional lan…

Did this one when it was just one single course. The content is great, but the best thing by fat is the teacher. Dan Grossman is a natural teaching talent, and this course shows how one single teacher can make a difference.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#65

Post by kostarelo »

yawz wrote: post #15

Dr Barbara Oakley’s “Learning How to Learn” [0] is great. Edit: It gives an important understanding on how our minds function and how we learn, which, I think, forms the basis of effective work. Knowing how to work, and being an effective learner are incredibly important qualities in life. [0] https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

I really enjoyed that course my-self as well.

One thing that stood out for me was that I realised that the basic concept of the course was already familiar to me. Breaking down something new to learn into chunks, then forming a high-level picture of the unknown landscape and then starting to connect those chunks as you go deeper into the details.

I wonder how many people have already in some way used that process to learn something new without realising that it is indeed the most efficient way for the brain to learn a new concept.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#66

Post by shuckles »

BoiledCabbage wrote: post #63
omarhaneef wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate his attention to pedagogy. Even small things like noticing that students learn better with Matlab/Octave than with R or Python is the kind of observation that takes a combination of knowledge, effort and caring about teaching.

I could be wrong, but I think it has nothing to do with that, and now to do with the course being so old that R and Python weren't the standard ML languages yet.

You are right. Recent offerings of the course are in Python: cs229.Stanford.edu.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#67

Post by gmiller123456 »

Differential Equations in Action https://www.udacity.com/course/differential-equations-in-act...

It's not an intense differential equations course, and I don't think you even need calculus to understand or complete the exercises. It has a lot of really great, well, explained, fun exercises like computing a gravitational slingshot, computing the spread of an epidemic, then N-body problem, and others. The exercises are solved programmatically, not with math equations.

America's Unwritten Constitution https://www.coursera.org/learn/unwritten-constitution America's Written Constitution https://www.coursera.org/learn/written-constitution

If you're American, you'll likely find both of these courses extremely interesting. What they (probably) taught you in grade/high school was very overly simplified, or just wrong. This is geared toward people who have no background in law. I don't remember there being amazing exercises to do, but there were a lot of mind blowing facts I learned about things the constitution does and doesn't cover.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#68

Post by visarga »

Nowado wrote: post #49
iou wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes!! Though I did it a long time ago and I'm not sure if it's been modernised for current ML norms?

AFAIK it wasn't. Ng just makes new courses for new methods. That said, I'm yet to see better coverage of that topics (If someone knows, I'd really like to get them. I forget pieces every now and then, and having more efficient refresh method is always welcome).

I hope everyone was referring to Andrew's blackboard course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzxYlbK2c7E&list=PLA89DCFA6A...

instead of the one that started Coursera:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPLop4L2eGk&list=PLLssT5z_Ds...

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#69

Post by closeparen »

davuinci wrote: post #48

Financial Markets course [0] taught by Robert Shiller (Nobel laureate) is a phenomenal course to understand the basics of financial markets. He explains how financial markets work from an engineering perspective which is an interesting approach in contrast to other similar courses. [0] https://www.coursera.org/learn/financial-markets-global

I tried this course and found it nearly unwatchable due to the editing. Rapid cuts jump around topics and rooms and days without any transitions and without any logical continuity either. Shiller frequently references things he probably said 5 minutes ago in the actual lecture, but won’t say for 10 more videos in the Coursera edit.

I cannot find anyone else talking about this in the reviews; they are all glowing. Wondering if I’m crazy, if Coursera is glitching just for me, or if no one actually watched the videos.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#70

Post by adkadskhj »

iou wrote: post #40

Cryptography 1, time well spent. ~3000 reviews at 4.8 stars https://www.coursera.org/learn/crypto

I invest a lot of time in data storage and synchronization tools (i'm a fan of immutable stores), but i know very little about crypto.

I'd like to know enough to be able to confidently use existing tools to encrypt data at rest, transit, pub/priv key, etc.

Would this course give me such a foundation to achieve this?

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