Apart from my obligations at the actual college I attend, I commit myself to the online courses in this approximate outline:
Machine Learning - 6 hours a week (2 hour lecture-watching while taking notes, and up to 4 hours trying to figure out the programming exercises)
Biostatistics Bootcamp - 4 hours a week (2 hour lecture-watching, 2 hours reading up on the subject and studying notes)
Mathematics - This is somewhat more confusing, as it wholly depends on the week's subject matter. I am planning to reduce the time I spend furrowing my brow at incomprehensible videos and use the profits to do some exercises by myself. For both mathematical courses I am taking online (multivariable calculus and linear algebra) I allot approximately 5 hours a week.
Now add to this the workload for my college, or the classes I am about to begin (namely, Biochemistry), and you can see why I unenrolled from the Stanford Automata class offered on Coursera. The format did not fit my expectations and this was only the second course I signed up for, after ML, so the basically opposite approaches to the workload - videos as long as 40 minutes, for example - disoriented me. I was falling behind and really was not looking forward to the next lesson, so I pledged to study the textbook after my winter study schedule clears up. I really feel that the video format is not well-suited to the subject matter, but this is not to say that I think regular expressions are not important to my studies - quite the opposite; I am simply not in the right mindset to make the best of this class.
Luckily, the new session of Introduction to Mathematical Thinking has been announced, starting on February 4th. You can bet I applied as soon as the notification graced my screen, and was then naturally left reeling as I read the description, wondering as always: 'Is this directly useful? Do I need this?'
Truth is, I may be aiming for quantity over quality here, but I feel that drenching myself in introductory scientific classes is the only way I can get into the right mindset. And if getting the mindset is my goal, then sure as hell IMT is the right class to take. I think it may have even been recommended by my professor at My Real College(tm) on our first class, which was the first time I'd heard a lecturer recommend a MOOC. I had just signed up for Coursera, so this made the lasting impression that I was on the right track.
Machine Learning - 6 hours a week (2 hour lecture-watching while taking notes, and up to 4 hours trying to figure out the programming exercises)
Biostatistics Bootcamp - 4 hours a week (2 hour lecture-watching, 2 hours reading up on the subject and studying notes)
Mathematics - This is somewhat more confusing, as it wholly depends on the week's subject matter. I am planning to reduce the time I spend furrowing my brow at incomprehensible videos and use the profits to do some exercises by myself. For both mathematical courses I am taking online (multivariable calculus and linear algebra) I allot approximately 5 hours a week.
Now add to this the workload for my college, or the classes I am about to begin (namely, Biochemistry), and you can see why I unenrolled from the Stanford Automata class offered on Coursera. The format did not fit my expectations and this was only the second course I signed up for, after ML, so the basically opposite approaches to the workload - videos as long as 40 minutes, for example - disoriented me. I was falling behind and really was not looking forward to the next lesson, so I pledged to study the textbook after my winter study schedule clears up. I really feel that the video format is not well-suited to the subject matter, but this is not to say that I think regular expressions are not important to my studies - quite the opposite; I am simply not in the right mindset to make the best of this class.
Luckily, the new session of Introduction to Mathematical Thinking has been announced, starting on February 4th. You can bet I applied as soon as the notification graced my screen, and was then naturally left reeling as I read the description, wondering as always: 'Is this directly useful? Do I need this?'
Truth is, I may be aiming for quantity over quality here, but I feel that drenching myself in introductory scientific classes is the only way I can get into the right mindset. And if getting the mindset is my goal, then sure as hell IMT is the right class to take. I think it may have even been recommended by my professor at My Real College(tm) on our first class, which was the first time I'd heard a lecturer recommend a MOOC. I had just signed up for Coursera, so this made the lasting impression that I was on the right track.
