Udemy

MOOCs: The journey continues

I’ve signed up for a number of MOOCs over the last 2 years, some for interest sake and some with the intent of completing for a certificate. So far I have successfully completed five:

  1. MIT: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming (edX)
  2. MIT: Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science (edX verified)
  3. MIT: The Analytics Edge (edX)
  4. ESRI: Going Places with Spatial Analysis (Udemy)
  5. University of Minnesota: From GPS and Google Maps to Spatial Computing (Coursera)

I also signed up for (but did not complete):

  1. Stanford: Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Part 1 (Coursera)
  2. Stanford: Introduction to Logic (Coursera)
  3. University of Maryland: Software Security (Coursera)
  4. Stanford: GPS: An Introduction to Satellite Navigation, with an interactive Worldwide Laboratory using Smartphones (Coursera)
  5. Delft University of Technology: Responsible Innovation (edX)
  6. Delft University of Technology: Solving Complex Problems (edX)

The only one I am bothered about not completing is Stanford’s GPS lab. I just forgot to go write the exam. I’ve been using MyStudyLife to keep track of all the due dates for the various courses (because I didn’t want a dozen different course calendars), but I stopped updating that and everything just snowballed and then it was time for Vacay 2014.

I’ll probably retake the GPS course, and will be looking for MOOCs focussing on web programming and networks this year. I may have some other news on the education front as well (hopefully), so this is all I want to take on for now.

Using MOOCS for lifelong learning

I started my journey with MOOCs through the edX platform last year. It was nice getting back into a structured way of studying again, so I completed (with distinction) 6.00.1x and 6.00.2x (with a verified certificate!) from MIT’s Computer Science track. I then completed an R course before realising that edX makes you a do a lot of work. Just, a large amount of work, especially if you are working full time and learning extra for your job in your own time. I checked out Udemy as well, but haven’t looked at it again now after completing the first ESRI MOOC last week. I wasn’t too enthusiastic about the interface Udemy uses.

Coursera, on the other hand, is great. When it works. A nice selection of courses (I’m doing 5 at the moment!), with reasonable workloads. I’ve taken courses which will hopefully support my Honours studies for next year, such as Stanford’s Introduction to Logic. The course has been quite intense so far, but the notes are very good.