News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by chl on Monday December 30, 2013 @08:32PM (#6988359)
All in all, Eric Lander's 7.00x (Introduction to Biology) probably was the best of all the courses I completed in 2013. Lander is a fantastic lecturer -- it wasn't uncommon that his lectures (or shall I say performances) ended in applause.

Going beyond "just" videos and multiple-choice quizzes, the MITx folks built/assembled an impressive array of mostly web-based tools (e.g. a 3D molecule viewer, a molecule editor, a simplified version of genome viewers used by actual biologists) to support the learning enterprise.

Here's a glowing review that (unlike my scribblings here) starts to do the 7.00x experience justice: http://okazakifragments.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/the-best-mo...

Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by jacalata on Monday December 30, 2013 @08:53PM (#6988438)
I really enjoyed Programming Languages by Dan Grossman (U. Washington) on Coursera. Well organised course, smoothly run. https://class.coursera.org/proglang-002
Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by waynerad on Monday December 30, 2013 @11:13PM (#6988907)
Machine Learning. I thought it was a really tough class and took more time than they say (they say workload: 5-7 hours/week -- maybe if you are perfect and your code never has bugs that you need to spend time debugging -- the course is based on programming assignments in Octave where you have to demonstrate mastery of machine learning concepts), but I put in a lot of extra time, mastered everything, finished with a 100. Andrew Ng is a top-notch teacher, even though his speaking style is very low-key. https://www.coursera.org/course/ml
Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by vijucat on Monday December 30, 2013 @11:56PM (#6989054)
I finally made time for "Functional Programming in Scala" and it was fun.

However, I must add that when I tried to use Scala in the real-world, it was considerably more complicated due to implicits, CanBuildFrom, and other "invisible hands" (not merely synactic sugar, mind you).

Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by tjr on Monday December 30, 2013 @11:49PM (#6989030)
Learning Creative Learning: http://learn.media.mit.edu (for as long as they keep the site up anyway)

Introduced me to some new ideas about learning, and solidified some ambiguous thoughts I already had. Much fun.

Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by oakenclast on Monday December 30, 2013 @08:23PM (#6988336)
Maps and the Geospatial Revolution on Coursera
Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by michael_fine on Monday December 30, 2013 @10:16PM (#6988739)
Intro to Machine Learning on Coursera was pretty great, just the right level of difficulty for a novice high schooler.
Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by krrishd on Monday December 30, 2013 @10:21PM (#6988749)
I'm a high schooler. My knowledge is mainly in the front-end realm, with the vast majority of 'programming' I do being in JavaScript. Do you think I would be able to take it successfully?
Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by lucasrp on Thursday January 09, 2014 @12:39PM (#7031862)
Im a beginner um programming, and did machine learning course right after a introdutory course (CS50 and 6.00x at Edx).

I've been able to do the whole course, but only because i have good math skills. My impression is that math skills (calculus and linear algebra) are much more needed than coding skills in this course.

Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by krrishd on Thursday January 09, 2014 @04:20PM (#7033346)
Im currently taking calculus, but im not sure if I have already dealt with linear algebra before. Is it its own subject, or does Algebra and Algebra II cover the content?
Re:Ask HN: What were some good MOOCs you participated in in ... by krrishd on Monday December 30, 2013 @10:14PM (#6988726)
Startup Engineering from Stanford on Coursera. Life changer for me.