Coursera

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

If you enjoy the Khan Academy and other awesome sources of free education, you'll likely love this site. I just signed up for the 'Modern World: 1760 to Present' course that starts on Monday. Pretty pumped. Has anyone taken a course through this site? How was it?

https://www.coursera.org/

[smalllife]

I got most of the way through "Operations Management" but had a busy week or two and didn't complete one of the home work assignments.  It was a great and engaging way to learn the information, but ultimately I didn't have the time to finish the course as it was designed. 

Attempted to start another course but the professor was highly annoying (it really is all about the professor isn't it?).  I have another one starting in a week or two that I'm looking forward to.

Another thing I found is that I can look at the courses and check out their "suggested reading" from the library.  Same information, different method. 

Overall I really like the site.

[GoStumpy]

I just learned about "Coursera" a few days ago, and I would really like to take the Finance course... definitely need some prereq's before that though!  Hellooo Khan Academy!

[kolorado]

I've taken two so far, Introduction to Finance and Greek and Roman Mythology. The finance course was not set up very well. The quizzes did not mesh with what was taught in the lectures, it was heavily dependent on number crunching at a Calculus level or beyond and using the suggested textbook which was never referenced in lectures. Since I never went past Algebra 2 I was mostly lost. I had the same problem in high school that I had in the class, it simply takes forever to figure out how to do higher math with a book and not an actual teacher. So I was spending over 10 hours a week, which I really couldn't spare, for a supposed 6 hour course.  I was actually mystified that anyone who could crunch numbers to the degree required to complete the quizzes while still be lacking enough in the concepts of finance would need the course in the first place. Not every Coursera course is really "free". I bought $70 worth of materials(calculator and textbook)for the course.
The Mythology course was completely awesome! Not only were the lectures engaging, but the materials selected, the order in which we digested them, the questions on the quizzes as well as the essays and teacher feedback were top notch. It was extremely well thought out and user friendly. I bought $80 worth of texts for the course but have been selling them online and should recoup $50-60 of what I spent.
This month I am starting Personal Finance and Nutrition(which should require no text purchases) but I am also going through Introduction to Finance again. I missed qualifying for the certificate on it by 5% on the final but that's not the reason I want to try again. I simply don't have enough understanding of higher math to work through all the concepts covered and I want to. Maybe if I take the class 2 or 3 times I will have gone over the textbook enough to calculate better. I'm also curious if the course has changed at all; new lectures and better quizzes perhaps? Hope so.

[sol]

I was just having this discussion with a friend of mine a few days ago, and he sent me the following links.

http://www.udacity.com/
Udacity -- Learn. Think. Do. Highger Education for Free

https://www.coursera.org/
Coursera -- Take the World's Best Courses, Online, For Free.

https://www.edx.org/
edX -- The Future of Online Education...For anyone, anywhere,
anytime. Explore free courses from edX universities

https://www.canvas.net/
Canvas Network -- Open online learning, as defined by you.
Connecting students, teachers and institutions, through an
open, online course network.

http://www.udemy.com/
Udemy --  Start Learning from the World's Top Instructors

http://www.class-central.com/
Class Central -- Class Central is a free online course aka
MOOC aggregator from top universites like Stanford, MIT,
Harvard, etc. offered via Coursera, Udacity, edX, Canvas
Network, & others

http://on.wsj.com/TFoLhl
Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2013. p.B8:
Online Courses Look for a Business Model

[shadowmoss]

I have signed up for 3 courses at Coursea.  One I dropped immediately because the math was way beyond me.  The second, the instructor was annoying and I didn't have the patience to sit through the lections in the length of time allowed.  Also, again, he would use math not defined beforehand, and say things like 'so it is obvious the conclusion is...' when nothing was obvious at all.  The third was hysterical and I enjoyed the instructor, but I'm finding that timed classes just move too fast for me to absorb the videos in a week.  I wish there was a set up where I could just do the videos and classes at my own pace, knowing that I wouldn't have real-time feedback.  Most of the course is automated anyway.

All that said, I love on-line classes and it is the only way I'm gonig to be able to attend any kind of training.  For techie's looking for certifications, Professor Messer at http://www.professormesser.com/ is set up the way I can handle.

[grantmeaname]

Also, again, he would use math not defined beforehand, and say things like 'so it is obvious the conclusion is...' when nothing was obvious at all.

A math professor once taught my class something valuable: in math, when someone says "obviously" or "clearly", your bullshit alarm should start screaming! If they want a point to be obvious, they will write or speak with great clarity. If they want to hide the fact that the connection between concepts is a bit fuzzy, or don't want to take the time to explain something, or that they don't fully understand the link themselves, they'll say it's "clear" -- then, if you question it, it's you and not them who's lacking.

[Zamboni]

^Yes, I teach science and this is definitely true.  When we interview people for a teaching position, we give them a small topic in the introductory class that most people don't understand, and the arm waving by candidates as they are "explaining" it is mind boggling.  When someone actually does explain it, then he or she gets the job.

I'm reviving this thread because I've sort of taken two Coursera courses:
Introduction to Genetics and Evolution (taught by Mohamed Noor)
and
A Beginners Guide to Irrational Behavior (taught by Dan Ariely) 
Both were great!  The professors were wonderful, and the videos were fun to watch.

In neither case did I bother completing everything to get the certificate, but I still feel that I learned a lot from watching the videos.  The second one would be particularly interesting to Mustachians as he talks about how people value things (effort is valued more highly by consumers and expertise, for example) and how people are irrational about money decisions, among other things.

Now I'm going to go for the Introduction to Finance class.  I'm a little wary based upon the review about, but I'll do my best!  This time I am going to actually try to get the certificate as a goal, but I'm not sure there is enough time in my day to complete everything that is required.

Editing to add that, now that I've watched the first few videos, I'm not sure I'm going to make it through this course.  It's more about corporate finance from what I can tell, and I'm more interested in personal finance.  Is there a good personal finance course somewhere, perhaps on EdX or Udacity?

[rach]

I've taken a number of courses and have found most of them to be great. I didn't buy any extra materials so they really were free.  I also took the Introduction to Finance class and it's true that the quizzes went far beyond what was in the lectures. What made it harder was that model answers weren't given so you became dependent on people on the forum explaining the correct approach. Sometimes that worked, many times it didn't. The issue was not about math-ability I think (I'm an astrophysicist and decent with numbers) but the lack of explanation. The subjects covered by the class would have been very helpful. I'm hoping the professor will learn from the feedback from the last class and the next offering will be better. I might try it again.

The "Irrational Behavior" class just finished and really was fantastic. It offered some great insights into why people make the purchasing decisions they do. I'm about to take the "Big Data" class then hopefully something on advanced statistics. I've also taken "Introduction to Sociology", "Image and Video Processing" (advanced math involved, not for the faint hearted), and "Fundamentals of Personal Finance Planning". The latter had a very different focus to the "Introduction to Finance" class previously mentioned. It was a pretty basic overview of how taxes and benefits work in the US but could be useful for a complete beginner. Most people on this site could skip it, I think.

I really think these online classes are a terrific resource and can't believe some people haven't even heard of them!

[Shandi76]

I also took Dan Ariely's A Beginner's Buide to Irrational Behavior course, and agree it was fantastic. I did all the reading, quizzes, and the final exam, but the written assignment was only available for about 9 days and it coincided with a very busy time for me so in the end I never completed it. It was also peer marked, and a lot of people were whining on the forums about their marks.

I haven't signed up to any other courses because nothing else on offer seems as interesting as Dan's course.

Sol, thanks for the list of MOOC providers. I might see if any others have more interesting courses starting soon.

[Leisured]

I also recommend

http://academicearth.org/

and also

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

[TinyLightsBelow]

Hi guys! I recently took Nutrition for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, as well as The Social Context of Mental Health and Illness. Both of them were fascinating and broadened my horizons.

I am also about a week from finishing up with The Fiction of Relationship, which is easily one of the best courses I have ever taken. I cannot speak highly enough of it.

[grantmeaname]

I am also about a week from finishing up with The Fiction of Relationship, which is easily one of the best courses I have ever taken. I cannot speak highly enough of it.

Looks really good!

What did you think of Light in August? I read it in high school and loved it, but I seldom find other readers who enjoy Faulkner.

[oldtoyota]

I am signed up for Intro to Finance via Coursera. We'll see how it goes!

[CommonCents]

I TA'd one.  :)  The professor taped his lectures from his in-person class, but otherwise, I ran it all - selecting readings to creating assignments.  I enjoyed improving my knowledge and earning a little extra cash to go in my stash!

[SavingMon(k)ey]

I took Intro to Sustainability with Jonathan Tomkin.  It was very good. Now I'm in Creativity, Innovation, and Change. Good so far!

[Rust]

Why don't we create a stash course for folks to take.

design assignments, have videos, etc.

Then when folks come in and are like hey what should I do about this car.  We could link them to lesson 3 or something like that.

[melalvai]

I've taken or started 5 Coursera classes and mostly had a positive experience with all of them. One I didn't get past the 1st lecture-- but the lovely thing about them being free is you can drop any time with no penalty. I didn't get all angry & self-righteous (as so many people did in the class forums), I just quit the class! My husband started a couple courses with me and dropped out halfway because he got so annoyed at the students on the forums. I have an easy solution for that. I mostly don't read the forums. They can be helpful, but if they're not, I just don't read them. (A simple, obvious solution and I don't understand why he--and all the complainypants on the class forums--don't realize that!)

My favorite was Food and Sustainability, which didn't have traditional lecture-style videos. Each week we had a few short readings, a quiz or sometimes a poll, and a video interview of an expert in a subtopic of the overall topic, like economics or food transportation or agriculture. But best of all were the creative and interactive homework assignments, such as: make a dish. Record and research where the ingredients came from and where they originated. Share your experience on the forums, and comment on 3 other people's experience.

Or: Interview 2 people (interview questions were provided). One student picked her elderly grandmother and her young nephew. I picked 2 people from different cultures.

Currently I'm taking the History of Humankind. The instructor is inspired by Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel". It's not a rehashing of the book, but if you've read the book that'll give you an idea of where he's going. He puts out some pretty controversial ideas but he does a good job of explaining the evidence & his rationale and he sure makes you think!

My professor friends all hate Coursera because they feel threatened that they are going to lose their jobs to MOOCs. They claim that students can't learn as well from a video as from an instructor in a class. My answer to the first concern is, "times they are a'changin'." My answer to the second is "It depends on the instructor and on the student." Their last concern is that a multiple choice test can't effectively assess knowledge. That is probably true. I don't have an answer for that. Other than that maybe they don't need to worry so much about their jobs, because they'll just be spending all their time grading tests instead of teaching the material.

[CommonCents]

My professor friends all hate Coursera because they feel threatened that they are going to lose their jobs to MOOCs. They claim that students can't learn as well from a video as from an instructor in a class. My answer to the first concern is, "times they are a'changin'." My answer to the second is "It depends on the instructor and on the student." Their last concern is that a multiple choice test can't effectively assess knowledge. That is probably true. I don't have an answer for that. Other than that maybe they don't need to worry so much about their jobs, because they'll just be spending all their time grading tests instead of teaching the material.

I would tell your friends not to worry.  :)  Speaking on the professor side, there really is something lacking in the online interaction and engaging students.  I also don't think the classes get into the same depth of material as you do in a full quarter or semester class, so I think some of the calls to get class credit for it are pushing it.

One thing I found frustrating as a teacher was the expectation for immediate responses to any issues.  For example, I live in Boston.  On the day of the Boston marathon bombings, I actually posted that I would be unavailable to respond to anything for 24 hours because of it.  I still had some people berating me for not getting back to them sooner, even though it was within 48 hours.  (Note: Assignments were not due during or near this time.)  The expectations for what the students were entitled to was absolutely ridiculous, compared to the expectations in the live classes I've taught.  It's because of that I don't know that I'll ever teach one again. 

Students are also universally unhappy about grading mechanism regardless of whether you do multiple choice or student graded essays.  (For a free model, it is not feasible to grade over 1000 papers personally.)  There are flaws to both.

One the positive side, it's widely accessibly to more people than college courses otherwise normally would be.  It's also teaching those who truly are interested in the material, which is always a joy.  Basically in short, it has it's place and I don't see it as taking over traditional classrooms anytime soon.

[Zamboni]

My professor friends all hate Coursera because they feel threatened that they are going to lose their jobs to MOOCs.

Well, my local printing shop went out of business when everyone was able to just print from the laserjet on their desk.  That's just the way it goes.  I'm sure those engraved invitations were superior to what I can print at home, too, but that didn't stop the revolution.  It takes a ton of work, and a willingness to learn new technologies, to create even a blog like this one, nevermind a MOOC with interactive quizzes (they are not all multiple choice, by the way) and dozens of videos.  Faculty who are willing to take that on and do that work will be fine.  To make a long story short, I have no sympathy.

I've really enjoyed Coursera.  I had a great time in Dan Ariely's Irrational behavior course, and I've already put some of what I learned from that to good use in my life.  I signed up for Modern Poetry and just got too busy to really finish it, but it was great fun and I'll try again next fall.  Next I'm planning to take Data Analysis and Statistical Inference after the holidays.

[Li]

I just finished the Coursera course "Navigating Climate Change" from UBC.  I didn't have time to complete the assignments but did watch the videos, do some of the readings and some of the quizzes.  It's a great course and I think I will take it again if it is offered for free. 

[Frugalteacher]

I definitely agree that MOOC's are eventually going to create some really unique scenarios for competition with colleges and universities; however, I also think there will always be a need for brick and mortar colleges for two main reasons. The first mostly applies to the sciences, but some things you just can't do online. If you're getting any sort of advanced degree in fields like chemistry, biology, or certain types of engineering there is a huge lab component to the degree. No matter how incredible the video or lecture is some things you just need to do hands on. My second reason is an aspect of motivation. In my opinion mustachians tend to be more self motivated then the poplulation as a whole. I know when I was in college there were many students who wouldn't be able to handle the freedom and personal responsibility of an online class.

[MgoSam]

In case anyone is interested, "Welcome to a Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior" by Dan Arrielly is being offered again in March. I just signed up.

[MicroRN]

^Yes, I teach science and this is definitely true.  When we interview people for a teaching position, we give them a small topic in the introductory class that most people don't understand, and the arm waving by candidates as they are "explaining" it is mind boggling.  When someone actually does explain it, then he or she gets the job.

Before I went into nursing, I got a B.S. in biology, and one of the most useful classes I took was "Explaining Molecular Cell Biology."  We would be given a topic, and have to break it down and present it on an 8th grade level, with no assumptions that the person knew the building block information.  Frustrating, but incredibly helpful.  I use the skills I developed there and while teaching test prep every day with my patients. 

I love Coursera.  It's not the same as really taking a college course to me, but I can learn easily from reading and video lectures.  I've done 4 courses through there so far, and plan to do some more.       

[sheepstache]

http://www.class-central.com/
Class Central -- Class Central is a free online course aka
MOOC aggregator from top universites like Stanford, MIT,
Harvard, etc. offered via Coursera, Udacity, edX, Canvas
Network, & others

Oh, very helpful, thanks.

[Hatawa]

In case anyone is interested, "Welcome to a Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior" by Dan Arrielly is being offered again in March. I just signed up.

thanks for the info, MgoSam! I am "watching" the course but did not get a notification in my e-mail. Looking forward to learning lots of interesting stuff!

[macskabagoly]

In case anyone is interested, "Welcome to a Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior" by Dan Arrielly is being offered again in March. I just signed up.

thanks for the info, MgoSam! I am "watching" the course but did not get a notification in my e-mail. Looking forward to learning lots of interesting stuff!

I've signed up for this course today. This will be my 5th Coursera course, I'm looking forward to it as many of you recommended it.

[arebelspy]

In case anyone is interested, "Welcome to a Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior" by Dan Arrielly is being offered again in March. I just signed up.

Here's more details.  http://lifehacker.com/this-course-in-behavioral-economics-explains-why-we-do-1539106412

Many of us enjoyed his book Predictably Irrational, which we did a Mustachian Book Club study on:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/mustachian-book-club/predictably-irrational-discussion-thread/

[smalllife]

Just wanted to throw this course out there:

https://www.coursera.org/course/career

Ignoring the title ("Enhance Your Career and Employability Skills"), the basic outline seems like it would be a great guided course on identifying your strengths, values, and framing the types of pursuits which are suited for a particular individual.  It could be used for the "what should I do after FI", "should I change careers when not FI", etc. type of questions that people have as they navigate their journey.

[naturelover]

smalllife - your post reminded me that I signed up for that class. Looking fwd to it.

I have done some of Computer Science 101 in self-paced mode and need to pick it back up. I found the instructor's videos very engaging.

My husband did their songwriting class a while back and enjoyed the content but didn't care for the peer-review feedback system.

[Zamboni]

Coursera is really interesting as a disruptive force in education.  Academics are fretting about it.  Will the big and prestigious schools put the little schools out of business?  Are the Profs giving away the farm?  Or will the assumed knowledge base of those entering college just get pushed up as a result of these types of opportunities?

Higher education costs have been rising much too rapidly, so this backlash of completely free education is a welcome change.

At the same time, I'm baffled by the business model of Coursera, EdX, Udacity and the like.  There is no advertising that I can see (I saw one short term link to buy Dan Ariely's book, but most courses have no advertising links other than signing up for premium service, basically.)  Will the "premium service" model work?  Do the big, prestigious schools even care?  Or are they just trying to wipe out the little guys?  Or is something else entirely going on?

[basd]

I'm thinking about joining a course on Coursera as well. Don't know whether I will have the time to complete it (work + small child) but I have been wanting to freshen up my mathematical skills in a way related to my field (IT).

So Cryptography I it is going to be, probably. Starts next week.

[grantmeaname]

Coursera is really interesting as a disruptive force in education.  Academics are fretting about it.

There was a really good WSJ special report about this a couple months ago. The report author argued that MOOCs have lots of potential but that the attrition rate and typical student outcomes were so much dramatically worse than real in-person classes that universities have absolutely nothing to worry about in the near future. That may change if/when that problem is solved. And I've never seen an academic fret about it, though I imagine university administrators might.

Will the big and prestigious schools put the little schools out of business?

We don't see that with tire stores, online specialty retailers, or restaurants. So I don't see why that would start to happen now with universities. Interesting thought though.

[prodarwin]

Just started taking An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python.  Its my first experience in online classes, and I'm very much enjoying it.  Have those of you who have taken Coursera courses paid for the "signature track" option?

Also, can anyone recommend some good online classes related to web-development/design/whatever?  I want the skills to build basic web pages, calculators, and applications.

[MrsPotts]

"Justice" on Edx is AMAZING.   I also just finished a history of the Bible course on Coursera that was interesting.  I agree with a previous poster that the forums are annoying, so I ignore them. 

[forummm]

I've taken quite a few courses from Yale, and I love them.

http://oyc.yale.edu

I like that the lectures are available as podcasts. I listen to these and other podcasts while doing chores, driving, etc.