Hello and Welcome. This...is My MOOC Journal

I have created this blog to keep, or rather Journal, my experience with the new online-education phenomenon that is Massive Open Online Courses, aka MOOCs.

credit: http://karlyku.deviantart.com/

I won't be explaining what an MOOC is. You can find an explanation  here.

Now, lets get down to it; The three major players which I recommend everyone check-out are;

(Before you ask; yes, the courses are absolutely free!)

Coursera: 

As of this writing they offer more than 213 courses on different subjects from 33 Top-notch universities from the US and abroad. What I like about this platform is the ease with which you can download the material (I recommend using Firefox browser with the DownThemAll extension for batch downloading, if you want to navigate and stream the video lectures, I recommend Google chrome).

The classes that are offered are very well structured, with in video lectures (for most courses not all), Home-works, Midterms (in some cases), finals and projects (in some cases). Once you complete a course you get a certificate of completion (the majority offer it, some don't depending on the instructor and/or policy of the University). The courses offered are courses that the instructors have already taught in their respective universities but have been changed (or rather MOOCified) for the platform.

Courses I have completed (and got a Certificate for) from Coursera:

1. Introduction to Mathematical Thinking (Stanford University, September 17th 2012)

2. Learn to Program: The Fundamentals (Stanford University, September 24th 2012)

3. Introduction to Genetics and Evolution (Duke University, October 10th 2012)

Currently registered  (i.e ongoing, I might not complete all ):

1. Think Again: How to Reason and Argue (If you  want to register you can still do so since the deadline for the assignments is Mid-March.. so hurry up!)

2. Computing for Data Analysis (started January 2nd, first quiz already due, programming assignment due on  the 17th) (completed quiz 1 and 2, Assignment 1 and 2, this course is really fast paced)

3. Game Theory (started January 7th, first second HW due on 27th January)

4.  Calculus: Single Variable (started January 7th, no Quiz due as of yet, first quiz is due on the 21st, honor code requires that the quiz be taken without any notes present... Great Lecture slides with great animation)

5.  Calculus One (started January 7th, second quiz due 21sh January.instructor has great energy and makes concepts so simple)

6.  Principles of Economics for Scientists (started 7th January, learned a lot about optimization thus far, First Quiz due 14th January) dropped out even though I did the quizzes. They had a failure in the lab component which was a live market (the market "crashed"). So the lab component has been taken out (I was looking forward to using it). Will take the second offering once they get that fixed 

I am not going to mention the courses that I have tried and "dropped-out" off (if there is such a thing as dropping out). I sampled so many :)

Nor will I mention the courses that are upcoming and I have registered for.. 

I highly recommend you check the site out!!

Udacity:

 Steered towards IT courses and offers self-paced learning . The good thing about this platform are the very short video segments (not more than 5 minutes ). Rather than a course being taught in a university and later on MOOCified, the courses were designed (or rather constructed)  from scratch for the platform. The technology they use is unified for all their courses and very well used for the platform.

Courses (or rather course) I have completed:
1. Introduction to Computer Science: Building a search Engine (CS101)
 Anyone wanting to learn programming in Python and programming in general should take this course

Currently registered  (i.e ongoing)
2. Algorithms: Crunching Social Networks (CS215)
Seems that this course teaches more of graph theory, I have just now rached Unit 4

I would suggest another course for Algorithms which is offered by Princeton, I have already taken the first offering of the course but did not do all the assignments and did not do the final (there is a second offereng in february so my suggestion is if you are interested in Algos, then this is the class to take) WARNING: no cert for the Princeton Algos class.

Another would be this course that is offered by Stanford. I have no experience with the course. Will see what happens in February.

edX:

Most intense of the three, not for the faint of hearts (in most cases... not all). I would suggest you check them out ASAP since most of their classes have not yet started for this semester. Courses are offered from MIT, Harvard and UC Berkeley (  or rather MITx, HarvardX and BerkeleyX, the X makes it more "hip" and "eXtreme" ;)  )

I have not completed any courses as of yet...

Currently registered  (i.e ongoing):

1. CS50x: Introduction to Computer Science

This is CS50. Wow; the instructors energy is just amazing. There is only one deadline and that is April 15th. The content is just great so even if you don't complete the coursework I'd suggest you watch the video lectures; The instructor covers a wide range of topics, from programming in Scratch, C, and web to concepts in CS and algorithms. So if you are up for it, register.

I have completed only 1 problem set (ps0), check out the game I made :)

Honorable Mentions:

Class2go by Stanford

10gen (developers of MongoDB) powered by edX

OpenHPI by Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany

So there you have it. I'm going to make this year the year of the MOOC; will challenge myself - see how many courses I can complete this year (i.e do the HWs, quizzes and exams). I will post whenever I have time and Journal my adventures.. 

(Taking a deep breath)

Now back to my MOOCs!