
Lots of new Coursera classes throughout 2012 posted - jpdus
https://www.coursera.org/courses
======
clavalle
I love this. I really do but I do have a fear:

There is beginning to be too much fragmentation in subject matter.

There is no discernible ultimate goal (degree or overall subject matter
certificate) or any kind of solid path to coalesce all of the work a student
puts into the classes into a coherent structure -- a well defined learning
path.

I am hoping this is part of a strategy to gauge demand for different subject
areas and, from there, create a cohesive program because if it is going to be
more or less random offerings...I don't know how that is going to remain
relevant or viable.

It just seems confusing as to what their intentions are.

~~~
dlo
Conceivably, there could be a complementary movement focused on designing
curricula based on such freely available courses. These curricula could even
be based on offerings from several services.

Companies can set curricula based on what their requirements are. And I can
see possible demand for influential people to create and share curricula
related to their areas of expertise.

~~~
laglad
Yes, imagine a website where you post step-by-step instructions to a goal. The
work of discovery is done by the curator and the student can wander through
the paths just a link away from the necessary material. Match that with a
quora-like information architecture and you've got something going.

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cwhittle
The new courses are great, but there's something I don't understand about
these course websites. I'm doing probabilistic graphical models, but I just
want the content to learn, and I don't really care much about some
certificate. I also don't have a lot of time this particular month. I'm
guessing that this is true for the majority of people taking the course (I'd
be interested to see how many people who signed up actually kept up). What is
the point in making time limited offerings for an online, recorded course?

~~~
jberryman
I think they want the social aspects of a bunch of people doing the course and
having discussions/QA on the course forums. Personally I found visiting the
forums during the ML course last year to be pretty depressing. seemed to be a
mix of entitled whining and nauseatingly giddy excitement, both of which
killed my learning boner. Overall great experience though.

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jpdus
I really like the ongoing Crypto course - it will be interesting to see how
they implement classes in disciplines like healthcare or history. But
obviously they are making good use of their recently raised $16m [1]
[1]<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3857184>

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zafriedman
It's kind of funny. I along with many of you I'm sure read the article in The
Atlantic last night about Facebook and it being time to "move on". Coursera is
a great example of someone promisingly attacking a newish problem. Basically,
it is the type of startup I would assume the author of the article would
advocate for. But then there at least two courses I counted on modeling and
analyzing "the network". It's ironic, although it really just furthers the
Atlantic writer's point, in that these are mature things that we are beginning
to understand in an extremely detailed way.

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pchivers
Link to previous HN discussion from yesterday:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3857119>

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Mutinix
This is ridiculously good. I would sign up for all of these courses if I had
the time to. It's been a while since I've been this excited about learning.

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cbp
Great, I was wondering if they were going to repeat graphical probabilistic
models since I missed it.

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rhizome
Wanted to do the Algo class, turned out to be a pain in the butt. These people
need to work on their friction problems, and it felt like they're just flying
by the seat of their pants. I hope they're not just half-assed Khan
pretenders.

~~~
dhawalhs
I am not sure what exactly you mean by "friction problems", but one thing I am
sure about is that it wasn't half-assed. Tim Roughgarden did an excellent job
and went beyond the call of duty to provide advanced videos which covered
material that wasn't within the scope of the course. My only problem with the
class was that it was too short. I am eagerly awaiting for the second part of
the class.

~~~
rhizome
I never even got to the class. I received an email saying the class was going
to be late, and the next one I got was when the class was already a week
underway.

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KC8ZKF
I am happy to see courses in the humanities. The Greek and Roman Mythology
course looks like fun.

