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EDX - Free online education at MIT, Harvard & Berkeley
  • dumiledumile

    Hey all. If you haven't already heard of edx, it's a pretty amazing concept. Completely free, online education from some of the top American universities. They currently offer 7 classes.

    • 3.0091x Introduction to Solid State Chemistry (MIT)
    • C550x Introduction to Computer Science I (Harvard)
    • CS191.1x Artificial Intelligence (Berkeley)
    • 6.002x Circuits and Electronics
    • PH207x Health in Numbers: Quantitative Methods in Clinical & Public Health Research (Harvard)
    • 6.00x Introduction to Computer Science & Programming (MIT)
    • CS 169.1x Software as a Service (Berkeley)

    They aren't some rag-tag group of online classes offered by the schools' affiliates for publicity. They are some of the most popular classes offered at the physical campuses, taught by the actual professors. There is a wiki for each class, a discussion board that the professors participate in and problem sets corrected by an online grading program. If you earn a passing grade, you earn a certificate (small fee for a physical copy).

    I'm currently enrolled in 6.00x, an introduction to computational thinking taught in Python. The class opened yesterday. I'll post my thoughts in here in case anyone is interested in joining a class now (you can still enroll!) or in the future (the classes offered will increase each semester). Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

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  • dumiledumile

    Almost finished with the first week's lectures. Here are some early thoughts...

    • You don't need to purchase a book (they offer online alternatives) but they suggest that you do. I bought it about a week ago. It was $36 from a print-on-demand publisher - not bad.
    • I was initially disappointed after the first sequence. The speaker was Eric Grimson, not Jon Guttag (the course professor). I thought they just gave an unemployed computer scientist the gig with Guttag as a guest lecturer.
    • Eric Grimson is the chancellor of MIT. Guttag will probably appear later. -The discussion board is very active. The course is free for anyone with an internet connection. There are people from all over (Iraq, India, Sweden) participating in the discussion. All the lectures I've watched so far have had more than one page of discussion.
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