

Free Online Courses from Top Universities  - jnand
http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

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TeMPOraL
I see less and less reasons to return to my university to finish masters right
now. I realized this yesterday, after spotting like... 9 awesome-looking
courses from Stanford planned for January, which is quite enough for full-time
studying...

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khookie
Networking with your peers & professors is quite beneficial, unless you plan
on being a lone genius.

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barik
It turns out, at least for me, that the courses themselves have been widely
available in various formats (such as through MIT OpenCourseWare), so that by
itself isn't new. The main difference that I've seen is that I think Stanford
not only has the content, but is also chose to the right approach to providing
an online experience that is amendable to actually learning the material.

As I said, having the videos themselves is not a sufficient motivator. Either
I start out with full enthusiasm and quickly burn out, or I procrastinate and
never start the video series in the first place. Or I see a question, answer
it, and have no idea if it's even in the right ballpark. By adding some form
of scheduled assessment, even if it isn't "real" (let's face it, the actual
grade in these courses is meaningless), I think they've hit a sweet spot --
and these are the types of courses that I'd like to see more of, particularly
in CS, where automated assessment (submission of programming assignments for
evaluation) is more easily feasible.

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itmag
Everyone should check out the The Teaching Company, they have LOTS of good
stuff in audio format. Not free though.

Anyone else here a passionate autodidact (that's "self-learner" for you less
pretentious folk)? Interested in starting a startup in e-learning? Contact me.

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Dejital
It's difficult to get a sense of quality with lists like this. Nonetheless, I
think it's great resource. Heading over to check out the Heideggerian
Philosophy "courses" right now!

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jnand
The small taste of free courses from Stanford was exactly what I needed to
remind me what I enjoyed most about college. I especially like how they allow
you to take and retake quizzes until you achieve 100%; a great way to
reinforce concepts. A community curated list of free university courses would
be fantastic, an aggregator of sorts.

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hv23
That's just what we're working on at Polymath! <http://www.whatispolymath.com>

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soonisnow
If anyone is interested in learning a bit more deeply some of the
underpinnings of OWS and the fallout of the financial crisis (most/all of
which has not been appreciably cleaned up yet), check out Yale Professor
Robert Shiller's course on Financial Markets, particularly session 2 on Risk
Management and session 7 on Behavioral Finance. (Yes, he wrote _Irrational
Exuberance)

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SanjayUttam
I've been a developer for a bit and decided to brush up on some of the basics.
Started watching the CS50 class (yes - I'm starting at the beginning!) with
David Malan. And wow, it's really fantastic to see such a knowledgeable
individual with so much passion on the subject speak. Made that hour and 13
minutes fly right by. Highly recommended.

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therandomguy
Do we have anyone interested in teaching their skill online? I'm building
classfrog.com and would love to let few of you in early. Email me
rian@classfrog.com.

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tutysara
getting spoiled with the choices...what to say

