Anyone interested in taking online courses together? Also, more on lecture calendars.

[usernamenumber]

Part 1: Class Club
So, I've got this idea. Both MIT and (to a lesser extent) Harvard Extension have courses available for free online. This is a wonderful resource that should be taken advantage of more. Unfortunately, I have the attention span of a squirrel with a really short attention span. For all my best intentions toward self-improvement, I doubt I'd realistically get through a whole course just on my own, so what if I formed a "class club"? It's like a book club, but everyone commits to working through a class at some reasonable non-student pace, like a lecture a week (or, more realistically for me, every two weeks). We could discuss online, maybe even meet in person to watch like a TV group.

I am conflicted between thinking this is a very good idea and every fiber of my being not wanting to add another thing to my calendar. Just to see if this would be do-able, though, here are some of the classes that have caught my eye. Would anyone be interested and able to commit to a bi-weekly (or weekly) schedule?

COMPUTER SCIENCE / MATH
Introduction to Algorithms (fun fact: taught by a former housemate's dad)

Designing Mobile Technologies for the Next Billion Users (this is video from a hands-on course, so I'm not sure how useful it would actually be)

Bits (seems like an "advanced basics of CS" kind of thing)

Sets, Counting and Probability (not the most interesting to me, TBH, but the kind of thing I always wish I was better at)


LAW / PHILOSOPHY / SOCIAL SCIENCE
Justice (at least according to the website, this lecture series is kind of a big deal)

Introduction to Copyright Law (I keep complaining about it, so maybe I should learn something about it)

Poverty Action Lab: Evaluating Social Programs (this is maybe too practical to be of use to someone not directly involved, but then again the techniques they talk about might be more broadly usable?)

China: Traditions and Transformations (There are these billions of people with gobs of history and an ever-increasing role on the world stage, and I know practically bugger all about where they're coming from.)


...my dilettante-ness, let me show it to you. :) Edit Ack! And I didn't even get into the History section. There's a ton I want to know about there. Will resist adding more courses for now, but here's a ton of cool looking one-shot lectures. Alan Turing, anyone?

So, with the caveat that I might have to conclude that I just don't have the time/brain to spare, is anyone interested?


Part 2: Lecture Calendars
To follow up on my earlier post about finding live, one-shot lectures in the Cambridge/Somerville area, the most useful tool I've found so far is this, which lets you create a custom rss feed (why it's not ical or something like that I've no idea) of events.

http://events.mit.edu/rsssearch.html

I've created an LJ syndication of all of the science and humanities events at mitscihum if anyone's interested. It's currently empty, but iirc they usually take a while to populate.

Harvard also has something like this at...

http://events.college.harvard.edu/

I haven't dug into it as far, but it's a bit of a slog and there's no way I see to get a feed out of it, so it's less useful to me.

Comments

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

I think this is an awesome idea, and though I regret my schedule is too packed to join you, I hope it serves you well!

And while we're comparing dilettante-ness, I just made a project to do list for today and it included posting my photography, writing a connecting scene for a full-length play, meeting with a choreographer friend for a dance piece, shopping for a cooking experiment, and organizing pieces for various costumes. ;-) So don't feel so bad!

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

I might be up for a class club, depending on whether I am paying to take an in-person class in the time-frame. If I am doing an in-person, I probably won't have time/brain.

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

What's your current/near-future status in that regard?

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

I am definitely not doing any classes through work this summer, so I'm good till Sept.

[marphod.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested. On the other hand, my current health makes me less than the most reliable person.

I'm in

[endlessgame.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun.

[teenyweenyowen.livejournal.com]

I love the idea. I've listened to the recorded justice lectures and found them great, though I feel that they would be even better with people to discuss them with. Pretty much all of the ones you've listed would be interesting to me. The sets and counting one not so much and I'd want to look into the Bits course a bit before committing time to it. Any of the others I'd love to get a group around. I've been thinking seriously about getting my masters lately and this might be a good starting step.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

I would join you in an online class-club, provided the discussions were also online, since i don't live near you.

[elenuial.livejournal.com]

I would love to, but I really shouldn't. On the other hand, social commitment may get me to actually take advantage of these kinds of things. On the original hand, I really shouldn't do anything like this until I finish my thesis.

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

For future reference, when will that be?

[elenuial.livejournal.com]

When it's done. I kind of have an August deadline, though, if that helps...

[mirrored-echo.livejournal.com]

I'm actually interested -- I've looked at OpenCourseware stuff, but it keeps sinking to the bottom of my priorities list when I'm doing it by myself.

I'm not sure if I'm that interested in any of the courses you've listed, though (except the mobile technologies one; that sounds kind of neat, if it's feasible. or maybe a humanities course?)

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

I would love to do a good survey course on philosophy, just to get my head back into it, but nothing in the OCW humanities list (at least when filtering for courses with video/audio content) grabbed me. If you see anything like that, though, I'd probably be interested!

[ultimatepsi.livejournal.com]

I need to improve my computer science knowledge now that I'm teaching it, and while I am kind of super busy (isn't everyone?), this may be a good method for doing that.

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

Did any specific courses stand out to you?

[ultimatepsi.livejournal.com]

Bits. I had already flagged the book as one to read, and context is important for my students. I suspects part of that course will be things I learned in Communication Theory, a senior level electrical engineering course, but that there will be a lot of new stuff as well. Also, I suspect that having people I trust to argue the policy side of things will would be a good thing.

[real-green-tea.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun. I'm always up for gettin' the learning on. Unfortunately I doubt I'd have time this summer. Super sad that things are so busy. I have this one internship I'm getting paid for, and then this other job from last semester that I need to continue and work as much as possible to finish, and then of course, thesis stuff which I guess is supposed to fit into ye olde evening/weekend slot. And a bunch of other stuff to get ready for next semester. TL;DR: I work too hard.

I previewed algorithms which would be the one I'd do, 'cuz I already have the book 'n' stuff. You'd need discrete maths. I've covered some but not all parts of it thru other classes (some formal logic in lin algebra; karnaugh maps in ee; random tidbits from other courses/projects) but tbqh I'd want to work thru that curriculum in full (or at least the psets) before attempting. (Because of the weak notation and pseudocode it's super easy to fool oneself into thinking one knows what's going on in that course when one in fact does not.)


This is a great resource to know about.


My $0.002 (for whatever that's worth) is that if you are interested in socially conscious donation to the developing world, you take that Poverty Action Lab class.

[laurion]

I am interested. I have been trying to do the Code Academy lessons on javascript and CSS, and aim to return to that now that work is no longer eating my soul, but I think doing these things -with- people will help me both dedicate the needed time and give some peer accountability.

I have several of The Teaching Company courses as well, and there is an incredible wealth of material now on iTunes U. I have just picked up a Stanford course on iOS app development.

[moria923.livejournal.com]

I love this idea! Of the ones you listed, "Justice" would be the most interesting to me. There's also a new Web site, coursera.org, which does online courses in real time, complete with online discussions and homework if you want to do it. I'm taking a course in SF and fantasy with them; it starts July 23 and goes for 10 weeks. So I'll be reading all the classics, Frankenstein and Dracula and a bunch of other stuff I've never gotten around to before.