

Udacity offers new classes from this summer  - fnaticshank
http://udacity.blogspot.in/2012/05/udacity-expands-course-offerings-five.html
see all the courses here --  http://www.udacity.com/courses
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jaysonelliot
I've been having a lot of discussions with friends about open courseware
lately. I love what Udacity, MIT, Stanford, Khan Academy and others are doing,
but I can't wait until students can earn degree credit from OCW.

For millions of people, a four year degree isn't an option because they can't
go to the school's physical location, pay the tuition, and either work part-
time or not at all while studying full-time. People in that situation aren't
going to put in the time and effort for OCW classes that don't count towards a
degree, and they end up missing out on a ticket to a better life. Some people
will, of course, and obviously already do, but for the vast majority, it's not
the same incentive as the opportunity to actually get a degree.

Of course there's a lot of value in the education itself, but once open
courseware becomes accepted as a legitimate way to earn a degree, we're going
to see a radical change in humanity's future. As soon as people around the US
and the world can afford the time and money to earn Ivy League-quality degrees
from wherever they live, they'll flock to them, and we'll see the benefits of
an educated society around the globe.

~~~
moistgorilla
It would be awesome if some sort of body was able to release a syllabus with
the information you are required to learn and some course materials. Then,
after a certain time period, they would give a standardized test that
determined if you passed the course or not. It would motivate people to go out
on their own and learn things their way. The only disadvantage is that they
wont have the social interaction component associated with college.

~~~
jaysonelliot
That's very true. You can get some level of social interaction online, but
it's not a substitute for the college experience.

It would still be amazing for people who otherwise had no chance at a degree
to be able to do so through OCW.

Even the ability to earn some degree credits online, and then apply them to a
shortened on-campus degree program would be a huge leap forward.

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ivan_ah
The physics syllabus looks quite good. Let's hope they go into the details.
Physics is quite simple once you know what derivatives and integrals are. Then
you get to understand where the equations come from. F=ma, so given F_net, you
can find a of an object. And a is def as dv/dt. So if you integrate a, you get
v(t) = at + v_o, where v_o = v(t=0). And v is def as dx/dt, so we integrate
v(t) to get:

    
    
        x(t) = 0.5*a*t*t + v_o*t + x_o.
    

They should use Feynman's lectures on physics as the course textbook. That
stuff is gold.

@moistgorilla yeah some code along with each lecture would be really cool. You
explain theory in four pages, then you say "check out these functions" and you
show for each equation in the theory sections is implemented in code. For
example. x(t) = int( int('a',t,initval=v_o),t,initval=x_0). can simpy do the
int part?

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ph0rque
Anyone know if premiere means non-free? If they are free, what's the
difference between premiere and non-premiere?

~~~
xi
I'd guess premiere just means offered for the first time.

~~~
ph0rque
Thanks, my sleepless brain interpreted premiere as premium.

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damian2000
Get into them now before these companies start charging for these, which they
probably will at some point in the future. Personally I'd be more than happy
to pay something, but I know that there are a lot of people around the world
who would be excluded if any fee was charged, even a small nominal fee.

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moistgorilla
Wow, these classes actually look interesting. I'm glad they aren't just
sticking to computers. It would be neat if they could somehow tie up all of
the subjects together. Such as a course on computing applied to physics.

~~~
paradoja
Certainly not what you asked for, but maybe you'll be interested in this:
<http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicm/> .

