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Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

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Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#81
post #53
post #40

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

Just don’t hold your breath for Cryptography 2

I was hoping it would finally be available this year. Now I think it's never going to happen.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#82

https://www.classcentral.com/collection/top-free-online-cour... (Not just on Coursera, but also others. You can filter for the Coursera ones.)

Not Coursera but I really enjoyed the "Intro to Complexity" course from the Sante Fe Institute; it's highly recommended on classcentral. It gives a broad overview of how complex systems emerge from simple phenomenon and shows how cross-disciplinary some of these insights are.

https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/104-introduction-...

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#83
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 don't know... I would summarize it as:

- You will get good at anything given enough practice, so don't worry about thinking you're bad at X

- As you get good at X, you will start to like it

- Pomodoro

I'm over-simplifying of course, but I felt like the course provided a lot of concepts with very little actionable advice.

It's a very popular course because it "feels good". It is motivating, and has a very positive message. I wouldn't consider it very useful for already highly motivated and self-driven people.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#84
post #10

I really enjoyed Tim Roughgarden's 'Algorithms' specialisation. The first half are actually on Stanford's online learning platform for free. https://www.coursera.org/specializations/algorithms

What level of math would you recommend for the courses?

This is always a difficult question, because it's always "high school level math" which is rarely true. Then again, some algo courses focus highly on math and proofs while others focus more on implementation.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#85
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.

it was mentioned 3 hours ago (by you)

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#88
post #4
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

The course is good, the book is better, in my opinion. Although it covers the same, but I like its presentation much better than the video course. Nisam/Schocken: "The Elements of Computing Systems" I have only finished the hardware part, so far, but skimming the rest I can't find Tetris anywhere. Is that really missing, although it's in the title? (I know that you can program Tetris on the machine you build in the c…

The second edition of the book is actually slated for release in July. You can preorder it on Amazon.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#89
I liked internet history, technology and security: https://www.coursera.org/learn/internet-history

It doesn't get very deep in terms of knowledge of networks, TCP/IP stack etc, it's a very lightweight course that's easy to get through, it was my gateway MOOCs years ago, instructor is great and there's great footage from the beginnings of the internet, it feels more like an interactive documentary than an online class.

Re: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?

#90
post #72
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 would recommend skipping this one. It contains fairly obvious advice, the information density is low and it isn't delivered very well. I really don't know why it's recommended so often.

It is recommended often because Learning How To Learn is a very fundamental part of your skill set which, sadly, many people either lack or do sub-optimal. Precisely because of that it can contain "obvious" device; because you are already (partly) familiar with it. I find it rather arrogant to say its useless for everyone. Its a fairly quick course, where you can spend more time on aspects if you desire.

This topic about the top Coursera courses or which ones you recommend comes up regularly here on HN.

On top of the mentioned Learning How To Learn I can recommend the following:

Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Comparing Theory and Practice by Edwin Bakker [1]

Securing Digital Democracy by J. Alex Halderman [2]

Cryptography I by Dan Boneh [3]. I didn't finish this one, but its very good...

[1] https://www.coursera.org/learn/terrorism

[2] https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-democracy

[3] https://www.coursera.org/learn/crypto

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