
Stanford to host more online classes - ivoflipse
http://www.cs101-class.org/#
======
karpathy
I get easily excited about education-related topics so I may be over-reacting,
but I think these classes will jump-start an educational revolution, and that
people will start to fully appreciate just how inefficient traditional
teaching methods are.

Some people like to say that this is nothing new because video lectures were
posted on the internet for several years now (for example MIT Open Courseware
etc.), but I think this misses the point entirely. There is a huge difference
between low-quality video/audio recording of a prof mumbling for an hour and
post-processed, perfected snippets of videos presented in a coherent fashion,
and most importantly with supplementary materials that encourage people to
actually apply their knowledge and get feedback. In addition, the fact that
many people take the class at the same time also enhances the experience for
everyone, and we've seen study groups form everywhere around internet.

Full disclosure, by the way, I'm a CS PhD student at Stanford and I am a
(voluntary) co-creator of the programming assignments for the current ML
class. It is a lot of work, but the way I see it, we only have to put great
assignments together a single time, and thousands of people can enjoy them and
benefit from them for years and years to come. That is what I call time well
spent.

I hope all these classes go well, and I'm looking forward to telling my kids
about what education used to be like in the old days. I have a feeling that
they'll find it hard to believe me.

~~~
amirmc
The homework and in-video questions are what keep me involved. I have such a
busy schedule that its difficult to maintain the discipline to simply keep up
if there were only videos. However, having external deadlines and practical
things have encouraged me to _make_ the time (and I'm very happy about it).

I agree that this is potentially revolutionary. Before these courses, I
couldn't have imagined doing a 'distance-learning' course. I suspect there are
many other folks that feel the same.

Also, thank you for your work on the ML programming exercises! I've found them
fantastic in getting my head around how to practically 'encode' the things
from the videos. Much appreciated.

~~~
marquis
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..)

~~~
viscanti
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.

~~~
tryitnow
"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.

~~~
viscanti
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.

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ya3r
Direct URL of classes:

New classes: (start in Jan/Feb 2012)

Computer Science 101: <http://www.cs101-class.org/>

Software Engineering for Software as a Service: <http://www.saas-class.org/>

Human-Computer Interfaces: <http://www.hci-class.org/>

Natural Language Processing: <http://www.nlp-class.org/>

Game Theory: <http://www.game-theory-class.org/>

Probabilistic Graphical Models: <http://www.pgm-class.org/>

\---------------------------

Old Classes: (already started)

Machine Learning: <http://www.ml-class.org/>

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence: <https://www.ai-class.com/>

Introduction to Databases: <http://www.db-class.org/>

~~~
ddlatham
Interesting that the SaaS class is being done by two Berkeley profs (and is
the only one missing the Stanford logo).

~~~
hornd
I think it's great. Hopefully this idea will catch on with other universities;
one day we might see an entire Khan Academy type site for computer science
classes taught by the worlds leading experts.

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pitt1980
Since there seems to be someone involved in running these classes in this
thread, I just want to throw this out there. The higher ratio of quizes per
minutes of lecture the better.

I think its ideal to never go more than 2-3 minutes without asking us
something, even if its trivial.

Right now I'm taking the AI classes, some of the units follow this rule and
keep us paying attention through what I imagine would otherwise be some pretty
dense stuff.

A few of the units (looking at you Professor Norvig) have had stretches 15+
minutes of lecture without asking us anything, just going to say, retention
from those stretches was low.

Personally I really like it when they quiz our intuition of a subject before
they lecture it, though it seems like other people complain about that on the
reddit forum

~~~
alok-g
I would say that forcing longer time spans before quizzes forces you to
maintain your attention and thus would help you retain your learning for
longer.

~~~
danielharan
I'd guess otherwise, but that would be easy to test for the course organizers.

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ghurlman
I, for one, am really hoping this is a start of a trend - where coursework,
even if just in a prerecorded format, is available to all, with the tuition
going towards the rich in-person experience and grading/certification for the
student, much like the way the primary tech conferences have been trending for
free content for al.

------
ramkalari
MIT OCW requires a far higher level of intrinsic motivation. Stanford has
almost nailed it. While online learning has taken Space out of the equation,
Time, it seems, is still a big variable. Having people do the course at the
same time with deadlines is working. They just need to work through the
technical glitches, which shouldn't be that hard.

------
rmnoon
FYI: the "CS-101" course is a really really basic introduction to
computational thinking. If you want intro programming you probably want
CS106A, which hasn't been put into this format yet.

101 is taught by Nick Parlante, though, who was one of my favorite profs at
Stanford.

------
tutysara
This is fantastic. I would also like to do some course in mathematics (under
graduate level calculus, discrete mathematics ) to improve my skills. Are
there any good places/resources where I can learn these things (video lectures
with quizzes in between will be a nice choice). I am also ready to take a paid
certified course if some reputed college is offering them online.

~~~
thmcmahon
Maths is certainly not my strong point, but you should check out
khanacademy.org. There might be some videos there.

------
huherto
This is fantastic. A few weeks ago Sebastian tweeted about the possibility of
having an online Master's when they met with the president of Stanford. Has
anyone heard anything new about it?

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lambada
Although I had to drop the previous classes due to time, this looks promising.
Particularly with the unified style; that is the one thing that seemed to hurt
this years effort - The most widely advertised course (AI) had the worst
layout and 'features'.

~~~
frobozz
What kind of time commitment does it require?

~~~
lambada
For me it took 3 or 4 hours a week per course. It doesn't sound like much, but
pre-arranged plans made it hard to find a decent sized piece of time (>1 hr)
in which to do the work.

~~~
frobozz
Thanks. This is the critical nugget of information missing from the course
information pages (unless I'm just lacking in observation skills).

------
eliben
Will the materials for these courses (videos + ref material + assignments +
solutions) be available for browsing after the course has ended?

~~~
henrikgs
For the ongoing courses it will be available, so I guess it will be the same
for these also.The thing you miss out on taking them later is the structure of
the class with deadlines (very good incentive to really sit down and learn!)
and personal letter from the teachers

~~~
spacemanaki
Do you have a reference for that about the ongoing courses? I tried to find
something about it a while ago and couldn't. It would be awesome if they plan
to just leave the whole web app with quizzes etc up and open for people to use
at their own pace.

~~~
henrikgs
From The DB class FAQ:

Q: Will the materials still be available after the course is over?

At the very least, all of the materials in the OpenClassroom repository will
be available, including videos with embedded quizzes, lecture notes, course
materials, software guides, and extensive do-it-yourself exercises with
solutions.

[http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/CoursePage.php?...](http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/CoursePage.php?course=IntroToDatabases)

~~~
spacemanaki
I was actually wondering about the AI class... it's not listed on the Open
Classroom site. It's really weird that they are not under the same umbrella
but I guess the AI class is managed by that start up or something? Thanks
anyway.

~~~
henrikgs
Copy pasting like a madman here, sorry about that.

From AI class FAQ;

Will the videos be available without enrolling? Yes, however you will not have
access to any other features of the course including homeworks, exams,
discussion groups, and posts from the professors.

So I guess you're out of luck as far as the web app, quizzez etc. All the
videos are on Youtube so they will be available after the class has finished

~~~
spacemanaki
That question doesn't specifically address what happens after the course is
over. I'd read all of this before, and that's why I was asking for a
reference. Oh well, thanks again.

------
roxtar
The SaaS class (<http://www.saas-class.org/>) is missing in the title. Looks
exciting!

------
dudurocha
For me, as a brazilian computer engineering student, I think these classes are
amazing. Although I study in one of the best computer schools in brazil (
www.cin.ufpe.br), my classes tend to be bad and boring. My teachers have Phd's
and all those letters, but cant teach in a good and engaging way. And my
classes have old subjects, because they made the curriculum 10 years ago.

Thank you so much, Stanford, the teachers for the modern and brave choice to
teach people all around the world, thanks for all the students engaged in
making the classes available for everybody. and thanks hn buddies for always
giving the good news.

Will enroll to SaaS and hci or nlp.

------
rubergly
Arghhhh. I find these incredibly frustrating. I am writing a senior honors
thesis for my university, and wanted to take as few classes as possible this
year to focus on my thesis work. The ML class has distracted me this semester,
and it looks like things are going to get worse next semester.

On a serious note, does anyone know if there are plans to continue these
courses next year? I suppose it will really depend on how well each class
goes, but I mostly feel pressured to take these because I'm afraid I'll miss
them.

------
NnamdiJr
This is very exciting news, very much an autodidact's dream.

I've been enjoying crawling my way through the great ML classes by Prof Andrew
Ng, and had been wondering if by any luck other classes would be provided for
future semesters. Seeing this just makes me really happy, and thankful to
Stanford. Not only is it the future of education but also gives countless
people around the globe a chance to learn topics they may otherwise have never
had access to (I am one in this category).

Signing up for NLP!

------
lambada
Anyone know if AI-Class will be running again in 2012? The links between the
2012 courses suggest not, but that could just be down to Ai-Class being
different.

~~~
giulivo
+1

also, what about the DB class ? will it be running again in 2012 ?

I couldn't "attend" more than one at the same time (especially the advanced
tracks) and I already joined the ML class.

~~~
thmcmahon
Prof. Widom said that if she were to run the class again, it would be at the
same time next year, because thats when she runs it at Stanford.

------
itmag
Does anyone else think a startup could be built around a software platform
that universities could use for releasing their content to the world?

See here: [http://ideashower.posterous.com/idea-platform-that-
universit...](http://ideashower.posterous.com/idea-platform-that-universities-
can-use-to-re)

If anyone wants to work on this, contact me :)

~~~
law
Unfortunately, Blackboards' patents preclude this from becoming a reality. For
the next 15 years, Blackboard has an exclusive right to practice this "virtual
classroom" business method.[1]

Their patent pledge[2] promises that they will _not_ assert their rights
against any open-source or home-grown initiative, which is why Stanford et al.
are able to get away with hosting their own content in this format.

It's a harsh reality that by itself makes the case for patent reform.

[1]: [http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sec...](http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,493,396.PN.&OS=PN/7,493,396&RS=PN/7,493,396)

[2]: [http://www.blackboard.com/about-bb/patents/patent-
pledge.asp...](http://www.blackboard.com/about-bb/patents/patent-pledge.aspx)

~~~
itmag
You mean they can just sit on the general idea of virtual classrooms? What a
bunch of dicks!

~~~
saraid216
Welcome to why patents suck.

------
beagledude
Does anyone know when Tim Roughgarden's class will be available? Data
structures and algorithms?

~~~
peaigr
If you're talking about his undergrad class (CS 161), there are at least
videos of his lectures on OpenClassroom:
[http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/CoursePage.php?...](http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/CoursePage.php?course=IntroToAlgorithms)

The lectures are broken up into segments (which you might find convenient or
annoying). There's not much more than that, unfortunately. If you want
exercises, his problem sets are mostly from Kleinberg & Tardos, sometimes with
problems from CLRS.

------
gabaix
One of the great hidden benefits of those classes is to taste the flavor of
the classes, should they want to apply to the university. I would particularly
interested in the difference between Berkeley classes (SaaS) and Stanford
classes (CS101 or ML)

------
imrehg
Now I know what am I doing next spring. :D Sweet!

Thanks for everyone at Stanford working on this and making it possible. What
an amazing collaboration between teachers and students (as the current ML, DB
and AI classes show as well).

------
brown9-2
I'm taking the ML class right now and it is truly excellent - all aspects of
it, the videos, material and assignments. Can't recommend these enough.

The only problem with the winter classes is I can't decide which to take!

~~~
michaelbarton
Join all the ones you're interested in then drop the least interesting
classes. I joined the ML and AI class this year then focused on the ML class
because the octave exercises are a great way to learn.

The probabilistic graphical models looks like it may have a similar format as
the introductory video mentions automatically graded programming exercises.

~~~
brown9-2
I have a feeling they'll all be copying the format/software of the ML class,
at least based on the introductory videos.

~~~
michaelbarton
That would be great. I was disappointed when the AI class didn't have
programming exercises. I feel like these were the part that really enforced
the learning for me.

I think another part that worked well was that getting 100% for each exercise
is readily achievable. I want to finish each exercise perfectly so I don't
break my 100% record for the course. I think this works well for motivation.

------
Vivtek
_Yesssss!_ I was really hoping for NLP!

------
rohitarondekar
Do you get an email confirmation on signing up? Also how does this course
work? The site didn't provide any information about that ― although I haven't
seen the 'about course' video.

Has anybody here tried this before? Are the videos webcasts or pre-recorded
video that I can download/view at anytime?

Also is it open for everybody or will the sign ups be restricted?

All in all this looks awesome and I'm very much interested in the Game Theory
and SaaS classes! :)

~~~
thmcmahon
Having done the db-class here's my experience of how things worked. Although I
understand it's different from class to class.

Course is like a typical Uni course. Lectures, readings, tests and exams.

I received an email a week before the class started.

Videos came out and could be watched in the browser or downloaded.

Open to anyone.

------
HickyAU
All of these courses look so appealing, I want to do ALL OF THEM (except maybe
CS101).

------
gbcodr
I wish they would add a course on Probability or Probability and Statistics.

~~~
amjith
I highly recommend <http://khanacademy.org> for Probability.

<http://www.khanacademy.org/#probability>

I went through all the videos on that subject in preparation for AI Class and
it helped me tremendously.

------
alanav
I was wondering if taking these courses improve your resume in a general way
and/or help your chances to get into a good graduate school program.

------
ireadzalot
Can someone please explain a little about HCI? For example, how it applies to
real world, types of things you learn in class etc.

~~~
olozano
As it names suggests, HCI is a field that attempts to understand the way we
interact with machines. The idea is that by understanding this relationship we
should be able to build better designed software/hardware (or more usable, as
it's known in the field). It's a merging field involving mainly psychology,
design and computer science. As for how it applies to the real world, either
UX design or usability engineering are probably the most commonly found
examples out there.

------
kaybe
So, you people have a lot of friends right now (including me). Care to make a
wish from the internet to give something back? :)

------
eddyweb
Did anyone check this link too on that page www.entrepreneur-class.org. I
think it's going to be useful for startup guys

------
romansanchez
This is awesome! I'm scheduling my spring classes around these classes.

------
burrokeet
Nick Parlante is a GREAT instructor!

