The time management part is difficult. I tried to keep up with ML but because I kept thinking, I'll do it over the weekend, I got a couple of weeks behind and ended up dropping. I'd love to join a study group in conjunction with the class - then I have the social pressure to keep up (but not necessarily share grades..)

I think independent study groups are the big win from this. This isn't the first time high quality videos have been online (the full "regular" ML class can be viewed on youtube), but because it's more "real-time" it allows for groups of people to work through the material together. It would be significantly more difficult to co-ordinate that with the MIT videos that you can watch whenever you'd like.

Both are great resources, and I don't know that the Stanford classes will be able to sustain their ability to get people to create their own study groups. Our study group here in Cleveland Ohio gets 5 - 10 people each week, but we're drawing from areas almost an hour away. Future ML and AI classes will have a tougher time having that same draw, as those most interested will have already gone through the material and would be much less likely to drive an hour each week for a study group.

Survey classes like the ML and AI class work very well with this format. I'm looking forward to seeing how it fits with more specific classes. There are times in the AI class that are a bit "hand-wavy", which is OK for an over-view/survey class. I'd find that a bit more annoying on something like the upcoming natural language processing class.

"Future ML and AI classes will have a tougher time having that same draw"

Really? Or are you pioneers? I know reading your comment just greatly increased the probability that I will take another class (currently in db-class) and seek out a study group next time.

I'm a big fan of the study group setting for these classes. It's been a great way to find and work with like-minded people. I'd encourage you to find one for future classes, but I'm not sure how sustainable they are.

The AI and ML classes drew a lot of attention to start with (over 100k signups). Follow up or repeat classes will obviously draw less interest. I'm interested in seeing how that translates to viable study group sizes. The good news is that the minimum viable size of a study group is fairly small.

thanks, I agree with you-- there is something psychologically interesting about it that I can't quite understand, but it certainly seems like this format better maintains student motivation. It's a step in the right direction at least... just the first iteration of a gradient descent ahead of us ;)

Also, good point about the programming exercises. Especially with topics like this I think it is easy to fall into trap of thinking you "got it" if you just watch the videos. Programming exercises force you to think it through on a whole different level and, I think, lead to better understanding and retention.

Anyway, great, I hope you stick with the class!

> there is something psychologically interesting about it that I can't quite understand

I swear, it's an extra pleasure hearing a song I like on the radio (over just playing it myself), knowing that a lot of other people are listening to it too. Maybe that's a new form of 'social computing' to be exploited :).

I've been watching Susskind's physics lectures on youtube, which are also from Stanford (continuing education). They're just video of the lectures, no homework or quizzes.

They're great stuff and he's really gotten me to understand a lot of the "why" of physics rather than just the "how".

Having said that, I'd love to have homework along with them, even just suggested problems with an answer key.