41–50 of 57 posts
I am amazed that Stanford is taking this idea and running with it. Khan Academy established the need and feasibility of the parallel education system. It is much better than the other types of open course ware. I am beginning to think there are going to be a lot more. And I am desperately wishing for some electrical engineering classes.
EE classes of the signal processing variety?
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I'm taking ML now and it's pretty darned good.
ML class is good, but I'm bit disappointed regarding programming assignments - it is just a translation of the given math formulas to the Octave/MATLAB syntax.
Although I've been struck by the fact that they expect most people to do loop iteration until forced into vectorized concepts - I've been forcing myself to do it all as linear algebra from the start, as that's what I see as the point of the class.
I'm stunned... I've already signed up for ML, was thinking crypto, and now this? Some people dream of winning the lottery, I would be happy for a 6 month sabbatical from my full time job to immerse myself in these classes. I've currently taking the AI class and a enjoy it immensely. I feel the my 'bag of programming tools' has grown exponentially with all the stuff I'm learning.
Hell, due to the amount of interesting courses they've been pumping out lately, I'm more inclined to take a whole year off just to study.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
EE classes of the signal processing variety?
Yeah, would mark out if that happened.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
ML class is good, but I'm bit disappointed regarding programming assignments - it is just a translation of the given math formulas to the Octave/MATLAB syntax.
While that's not an inaccurate representation, I think "just" translating the math to Octave/MATLAB's pretty powerful vector algebra language isn't as trivial as you seem to find it. I've had some seriously epiphanic moments. For me, at least, this class is striking a pretty good balance. Although I've been struck by the fact that they expect most people to do loop iteration until forced into vectorized concepts - I'…
What are the expectations for someone who signs up for a course? Are there ramifications if one does not complete the material? I want to sign up for this, but I have three other college classes to take at the same time (with extracurriculars), and I'm not positive I could keep up for the entire semester.
In addition, at least for the ones that happened this fall, if you are taking the advanced stream, you can drop down to the beginner one at any time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm taking ML now and it's pretty darned good.
ML class is good, but I'm bit disappointed regarding programming assignments - it is just a translation of the given math formulas to the Octave/MATLAB syntax.
The ideal situation is that other Universities get into the game, so we can pick and choose courses from specific professors - one course from MIT and another from Stanford and so on. Another thing I'd like to see is this idea expanding beyond CS to, say, Math and Physics. Within CS it would be great to see courses on Compilers, Operating Systems and so on. Yes I am greedy :p (and the courses are addictive!)
Why stop there? I hope we'll get an online version of every university course out there!
I think these courses are great, but how is Stanford benefiting from them? If Stanford has to expend all this effort without realizing a benefit of some sort, why should they continue? I'm worried they'll stop, so it'd be reassuring to know they benefit somehow.
Self interest aside, this is a winner take all market. The best producers aren't limited to selling their wares to a finite number of customers, as they are with brick and mortar universities. It's like a musician performing live music in local bars, versus selling his album on iTunes - a man can only be in one place at one time, so the demand of local bars can afford several bands play and fame. But for privately listening to music, recordable media means there is no limit to how many fans a superstar can accomodate, lowering the demand for all the runner-ups, to the point where no one but the top stars can stay in business.
But of course, there's still room for several players across subjects, rather than within subjects. Lady Gaga does not threaten Bob Dylan much.
If Stanford successfully finds a way to monetize this model, they will have a large competitive advantage. They will be able to lure the best professors in the world with handsome sums, because they are best placed to sell their lectures to hundreds of thousands. It would take a significant outlay of capital for anyone else to get a start.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
ML class is good, but I'm bit disappointed regarding programming assignments - it is just a translation of the given math formulas to the Octave/MATLAB syntax.
I agree with your description but I'm not sure if I'd call it disappointing. However I think it'd be really exciting if the class offered some sort of final project where you had to use the algorithms on some new domain of your own choosing (although of course you don't need a class to do this on your own).
But otherwise, it is really a great course - such an amount of practical information in such a short time.