Stanford to host more online classes

#1

Post by ivoflipse » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 8:48 AM UTC

Stanford to host more online classes
cs101-class.org

Re: Stanford to host more online classes

#2

Post by lambada » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 9:06 AM UTC

Although I had to drop the previous classes due to time, this looks promising. Particularly with the unified style; that is the one thing that seemed to hurt this years effort - The most widely advertised course (AI) had the worst layout and 'features'.

Re: Stanford to host more online classes

#3

Post by roxtar » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 9:10 AM UTC

The SaaS class (http://www.saas-class.org/) is missing in the title. Looks exciting!

Re: Stanford to host more online classes

#4

Post by dirtyaura » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 9:16 AM UTC

lambada wrote: post #2

Although I had to drop the previous classes due to time, this looks promising. Particularly with the unified style; that is the one thing that seemed to hurt this years effort - The most widely advertised course (AI) had the worst layout and 'features'.

Both ML and DB classes are better executed than AI class. AI class is backed with a broken platform by a small startup, whereas ML class was run by code developed in Stanford. AI class also had jarring video editing which totally broke the rhythm. Both ML class and e.g. Khan Academy has this natural flow that is pleasure to follow.

To me it has been surprising how big difference in experience the technical execution between classes made. Both Norvig and Thrun are clearly good teachers, but AI class failed because of the poor technical implementation.

Re: Stanford to host more online classes

#5

Post by tutysara » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 9:25 AM UTC

This is fantastic. I would also like to do some course in mathematics (under graduate level calculus, discrete mathematics ) to improve my skills. Are there any good places/resources where I can learn these things (video lectures with quizzes in between will be a nice choice). I am also ready to take a paid certified course if some reputed college is offering them online.

Re: Stanford to host more online classes

#6

Post by thmcmahon » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 9:32 AM UTC

tutysara wrote: post #5

This is fantastic. I would also like to do some course in mathematics (under graduate level calculus, discrete mathematics ) to improve my skills. Are there any good places/resources where I can learn these things (video lectures with quizzes in between will be a nice choice). I am also ready to take a paid certified course if some reputed college is offering them online.

Maths is certainly not my strong point, but you should check out khanacademy.org. There might be some videos there.

Re: Stanford to host more online classes

#7

Post by frobozz » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 9:32 AM UTC

lambada wrote: post #2

Although I had to drop the previous classes due to time, this looks promising. Particularly with the unified style; that is the one thing that seemed to hurt this years effort - The most widely advertised course (AI) had the worst layout and 'features'.

What kind of time commitment does it require?

Re: Stanford to host more online classes

#8

Post by HickyAU » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 9:33 AM UTC

All of these courses look so appealing, I want to do ALL OF THEM (except maybe CS101).

Re: Stanford to host more online classes

#9

Post by karpathy » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 9:37 AM UTC

I get easily excited about education-related topics so I may be over-reacting, but I think these classes will jump-start an educational revolution, and that people will start to fully appreciate just how inefficient traditional teaching methods are.

Some people like to say that this is nothing new because video lectures were posted on the internet for several years now (for example MIT Open Courseware etc.), but I think this misses the point entirely. There is a huge difference between low-quality video/audio recording of a prof mumbling for an hour and post-processed, perfected snippets of videos presented in a coherent fashion, and most importantly with supplementary materials that encourage people to actually apply their knowledge and get feedback. In addition, the fact that many people take the class at the same time also enhances the experience for everyone, and we've seen study groups form everywhere around internet.

Full disclosure, by the way, I'm a CS PhD student at Stanford and I am a (voluntary) co-creator of the programming assignments for the current ML class. It is a lot of work, but the way I see it, we only have to put great assignments together a single time, and thousands of people can enjoy them and benefit from them for years and years to come. That is what I call time well spent.

I hope all these classes go well, and I'm looking forward to telling my kids about what education used to be like in the old days. I have a feeling that they'll find it hard to believe me.

Re: Stanford to host more online classes

#10

Post by retrovirus » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 9:38 AM UTC

dirtyaura wrote: post #4

lambada wrote: post #2

Although I had to drop the previous classes due to time, this looks promising. Particularly with the unified style; that is the one thing that seemed to hurt this years effort - The most widely advertised course (AI) had the worst layout and 'features'.

Both ML and DB classes are better executed than AI class. AI class is backed with a broken platform by a small startup, whereas ML class was run by code developed in Stanford. AI class also had jarring video editing which totally broke the rhythm. Both ML class and e.g. Khan Academy has this natural flow that is pleasure to follow. To me it has been surprising how big difference in experience the technical execution…

Spot on :) I'm currently taking both the ML and AI classes and the difference is disturbing.

I'm sure things will improve in the next iteration, though, and after all I'm very grateful that all these courses are publicly available for free.