Stanford's Free Computer Science Courses 161
mikejuk writes "Stanford University is offering the online world more of its undergraduate level CS courses. These free courses consist of You Tube videos with computer-marked quizzes and programming assignments. The ball had been started rolling by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig's free online version of their Stanford AI class, for which they hoped to reach an audience in the order of a hundred thousand, a target which they seem to have achieved. As well as the previously announced Machine learning course you can now sign up to any of: Computer Science 101, Software as a Service, Human-Computer Interaction, Natural Language Processing, Game Theory, Probabilistic Graphical Models, Cryptography and Design and Analysis of Algorithms. Almost a complete computer science course and they are adding more. Introductory videos and details are available from each courses website."
Re:Well, how about reading up on it first? (Score:4, Informative)
Registration for the current AI course is closed, but I'm sure they'll be running it again. Also you can see the lectures on youtube.
Re:Amazing Stuff (Score:4, Informative)
The last time I looked, MIT does not have lectures online. On the other hand, all the free (and not free) Stanford lectures I've seen have been wonderful.
Re:Credit (Score:4, Informative)
You can receive credit. Look into Stanford Center for Professional Development @ http://scpd.stanford.edu/.
NOTE: This cost 4k+ per 4 unit course.
Re:AI Class (Score:5, Informative)
I'm taking all three courses being offered right now: AI, machine learning, and intro to databases. The AI class uses its own unique software platform, while the other two share one (which will presumably be used for most or all of next quarter's classes).
I like the other two much better than the AI class for several reasons: first, because they make those mid-lecture quizzes optional and also allow the lectures to be downloaded instead of streamed. Second, I like how, unlike the AI class, the other two have actual programming exercises. Third, I like how the homework questions for the other two are presented in a normal web form format (whereas the AI class "homeworks" require you to watch a video of the instructor reading the questions) and also allow multiple submissions.
Re:AI Class (Score:5, Informative)
By the way, as a concrete example of what I dislike about the AI class: we just took the midterm (I got a 96%!), and I'm trying to find out which of the 15 questions I missed. To do so, I have to go re-stream each question video in turn until I figure out which one I got wrong.
In contrast, when I took the database class midterm, immediately upon submitting the web form containing my answers, I was served a page containing my score, the questions, my responses, and an explanation of each -- in a few kB of HTML, not a tedious half-hour of video.
Re:Amazing Stuff (Score:3, Informative)
MIT has some lectures online. For example, Gilbert Strang's excellent linear algebra video lectures are available, as well as some other classes he's taught.
Re:Amazing Stuff (Score:5, Informative)
Re:AI Class (Score:5, Informative)
To do so, I have to go re-stream each question video in turn until I figure out which one I got wrong.
No you don't. Click the "Progress" navbar link. Click Homework / Exams. Click the right-pointing arrow on the left edge of the Midterm header to expand a list of questions and how many sub-questions you got correct out of the number possible. Say you missed a part on Question 01. Click the Question 01 link. It will take you directly to the answer page and show your wrong answers in red.
I only got a 91%, but seem to have scored higher on the "using the web interface" section. ;-)
Re:Future of education (Score:3, Informative)
$100k? You're doing it wrong if you're going $100k into debt. It hasn't been that long since I graduated and I was only looking at a fraction of that. Most recently I spent a year at grad school for under $5k for all school related expenses.
Re:AI Class (Score:2, Informative)
Yeah, I've switched to using Safari's Activity monitor to identify the .flv file, option-double-clicking to download the file, and moving onto the next lecture as soon as the download starts. Then there's a bit of tedious re-naming of the files, but once I finish, I have nicely labeled .flv files I can quickly review / fast forward / rewind / whatnot.
The only things I lack are answer videos. I'm thinking of going back and grabbing them, but it's still slightly time-consuming and not always useful.