New Free Stanford classes...

[naturalist.atheist]

They have been busy...

Lean Launchpad
Technical Entrepreneurship
Making Green Buildings
Information Theory
CS101
Machine Learning (again)
Software as a Service
Human-Computer Interaction
Natural Language Processing
Game Theory
Probabilistic Graphical Models
Cryptography
Design and Analysis of Algorithms I

You can sign up at any of these by going to the bottom of the screen @

Design and Analysis of Algorithms I (http://www.algo-class.org/)

[LadyShea]

That's pretty awesome. MIT offers some free courses as well. It's a good time to be an autodidact.

[ceptimus]

Thanks.

I signed up for the Machine Learning course that begins in January. I expect to have a little more free time early next year - enough time to squeeze in the coursework, I hope! :crossed:

[Deadlokd]

Thanks! I just signed up for cryptography but I'm wondering if I should have picked Game Theory. It looks awesome.

[LadyShea]

I signed up for the Lean Launchpad entrepreneurship course. I am trying to talk my main client into a "relaunch", to sort of start over. This will be most helpful in that endeavor, should they decide to run with my idea.

[SR71]

I'm thinking about the CS101 class. I didn't take CS in college, but a few courses involved programming PLD's like Xilinx, we did some stuff with 8086's like generate waveforms and minor video output, we goofed around with ucontrollers quite a bit. A lot of the programming was the ljump, call, mov sort of thing. I learned all the ways to code numbers, bcd, hex, etc. The courses were oriented much more toward physical control systems than data processing, except for one ungodly course in digital signal processing. I think that was like the Senior math hurdle, not as if anyone will ever ask me to write a filter. :D One course in C, one in C+. I haven't coded beans in 8 years. Huh, it says for zero experience. Sounds good, I'm signing up.

TMI? Sorry gaiz. :yawn:

Thanks much for the link, naturalist.atheist! :wave:

[SR71]

I signed up for the Lean Launchpad entrepreneurship course. I am trying to talk my main client into a "relaunch", to sort of start over. This will be most helpful in that endeavor, should they decide to run with my idea.

That would be my second choice. It fits with a theme of trying to launch operations on a shoestring, a little any ways. Good for you, hope it's fun and you learn a lot! :wave:

[naturalist.atheist]

I've signed up for all of them except machine learning, green construction and CS101. Hopefully only a few of them will compel me to continue. Otherwise I may have to give up sleep.

[naturalist.atheist]

They've added a new course: Anatomy (http://www.anatomy-class.org/)

[naturalist.atheist]

Thanks.

I signed up for the Machine Learning course that begins in January. I expect to have a little more free time early next year - enough time to squeeze in the coursework, I hope! :crossed:

If you have a good math background, particularly linear algebra then you shouldn't have that much trouble. All the exercises use a tool called Octave which with a little fiddling you can express most of the assignments in a few lines of vector/matrix notation.

I am finding the course very interesting. I hope I find the opportunity to apply what I've learnt.

[naturalist.atheist]

They have added two more courses:
Computer Security (http://www.security-class.org/)
Model Thinking (http://www.modelthinker-class.org/)

[naturalist.atheist]

If you are interested in the Machine Learning class but don't think your linear algebra is up to it MIT has a great course given by Gilbert Strang: MIT OpenCourseWare | Mathematics | 18.06 Linear Algebra, Spring 2010 | Home (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra-spring-2010/)

The class textbook is available on google books:

Introduction to linear algebra - Gilbert Strang - Google Books (http://books.google.com/books/about/Introduction_to_linear_algebra.html?id=Gv4pCVyoUVYC)

I don't know if google books will let you read all the book but you can read parts.

[naturalist.atheist]

Many of these classes start Jan 23, (five days). So get ready .... get set .....

[ceptimus]

I got an email about my signing up for the Machine Learning Class. Apparently over 44,000 people have signed up for it, and there are likely to be some delays before the class begins. They've not set a new date for the start of class as they say they don't want to announce a date only to miss the deadline again.

So far, in preparation, I've downloaded and installed Octave on an Ubuntu machine, played with that a bit, and watched some of the videos naturalist.atheist linked to.

[Deadlokd]

58 000 signed up to the Cryptography class and it has been delayed too. Not sure the numbers on the anatomy class but that has also been delayed.

[naturalist.atheist]

Yeah, I just received several emails and they all allude to administrative issues. When the machine learning class ended the statement of accomplishment was delayed two weeks. From what I gathered the statement of accomplishment given by the ai class used the Stanford letterhead but were not signed. The ml statements had no letterhead but were signed. Many of the students wanted a certificate kept on file at Stanford as verified credit and some students got nasty about it. I also expect that MITs plans to offer credit also plays into this.

I doubt the issue is over technical problems.

[ceptimus]

Why should anyone think they should get any sort of credit / statement / certificate for completing a completely free course? Shouldn't the class members just be grateful to these organisations for providing them with free teaching?

[naturalist.atheist]

Why should anyone think they should get any sort of credit / statement / certificate for completing a completely free course? Shouldn't the class members just be grateful to these organisations for providing them with free teaching?

This same observation regarding gift horses and mouths was presented many times by other students including myself. But people being what they are, I guess Stanford should have anticipated this. Also with enrollment across these courses numbering in the hundreds of thousands, there is a heck of an economic opportunity here by making available some sort of certificate from Stanford for a small fee even if there is no academic credit associated with it. If it were a $100.00 or less I'd buy it. This could amount to hundreds of millions of extra revenue a year for essentially providing a great public service.

[ThreeLawsSafe]

Why should anyone think they should get any sort of credit / statement / certificate for completing a completely free course? Shouldn't the class members just be grateful to these organisations for providing them with free teaching?

This same observation regarding gift horses and mouths was presented many times by other students including myself. But people being what they are, I guess Stanford should have anticipated this. Also with enrollment across these courses numbering in the hundreds of thousands, there is a heck of an economic opportunity here by making available some sort of certificate from Stanford for a small fee even if there is no academic credit associated with it. If it were a $100.00 or less I'd buy it. This could amount to hundreds of millions of extra revenue a year for essentially providing a great public service.

I second that motion. I'd be willing to pay for any number of the classes I've found at MIT and even Khan Academy. I'm certainly grateful for these institutions offering courses purely for free, but I'd be happy to pay. Perhaps a voluntary donation would be appropriate.

[ceptimus]

Up till today, two of the coursera courses I'd signed up for (machine learning and computer vision) were on hold. I've been keeping busy with the model thinking class though.

Anyway, today, both courses have gone live! The timing is not so good for me, as I have lots to do at work now - a couple of months ago, things were easier.

Still, the courses are free, so even if I 'fail' them, I'll still have learned something. :winner:

Anyone interested still has time to sign up. Lots of different subjects to pick from. All free.

Start here (https://www.coursera.org/courses)

:psst: There is 'A History of the World since 1300' class starting in September, that might interest a certain admin. Also 'Greek and Roman Mythology'. :yup:

I wonder which posters might like the 'Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World' course? :chin:

Similarly for 'Listening to World Music', starting in July. :chin:

[naturalist.atheist]

I'm taking the ML class again because there are some fellow students who want to give it a go and I volunteered to lead the study group. In the meantime I am struggling with the Probabilistic Graphical Models class. The instructor of the PGM course has not made much of an effort to reach a broad audience whereas the ML instructor did a fantastic job. I've been watching some of the current ML videos and it looks like he's improved them.

Also Coursera has added a number of courses from Princeton.