In my experience, Udacity isn't concentrating on short, easy classes. They've simply chosen to start with courses that have larger appeal. Sebastian Thrun, the

In my experience, Udacity isn't concentrating on short, easy classes. They've simply chosen to start with courses that have larger appeal. Sebastian Thrun, the professor for CS373, has routinely stated that the caliber of the coursework and lecture material is equal to or beyond what he'd expect from his Stanford classes at the same level. The teaching model they use is phenomenal though. If you haven't tried it, you should. They do brief 2 to 5 minute videos, followed by questions and coding exercises testing what you just learned. You learn things in very gradual increments, and are immediately forced to apply that knowledge. By the end of the lecture you're left thinking "Of course it works that way."