4 ms·

I was excited to check out lecture videos thinking they were public, but quickly saw that they were closed. One of the things I miss most about the pandemic wa

I was excited to check out lecture videos thinking they were public, but quickly saw that they were closed. One of the things I miss most about the pandemic was how all of these institutions opened up for the world. Lately they have been closing down not only newer course offerings but also putting old videos private. Even MIT OCW falls apart once you get into some advanced graduate courses. I understand that universities should prioritize their alumni, but there’s literally no cost in making the underlying material (especially lectures!) available on the internet. It delivers immense value to the world.

moosedev 10mo ago
2024 lecture videos are on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoROMvodv4rN4wG6Nk6sNpTEbuOSosZdX https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoROMvodv4rN4wG6Nk6sNpTEb...
- storus 10mo ago
  Those don't have DPO/GRPO which arguably made some parts of RL obsolete.
  - nafizh 10mo ago
    check out cs 336 stanford, they cover DPO/GRPO and relevant parts needed to train LLMs.
    - storus 10mo ago
      It's also covered by CS329H.
  - upbeat_general 10mo ago
    I can assure you that lacking knowledge in DPO (and especially GRPO it’s just stripped down PPO) is not a dealbreaker.
- rllearner 10mo ago
  One of my favorite parts of the 2024 series on Youtube was when Prof B explained her excitement just before introducing UCB algorithms (Lecture 11): "So now we're going to see one of my favorite ideas in the course, which is optimism under uncertainty... I think it's a lovely principle because it shows why it's provably optimal to be optimistic about things. Which is kind of beautiful." Those moments are the best part of classroom education. When a super knowledgeable person spends a few weeks helping you get to the point where you can finally understand something cool. And you can sense their excitement to tell you about it. I still remember learning Gauss-Bonnet, Stokes Theorem, and the Central Limit Theorem. I think optimism under uncertainty falls in that group.
TomasBM 10mo ago
I've seen arguments that opening up fresh material makes it easy for less honest institutions to plagiarize your work. I've even heard professors say they don't want to share their slides or record their lectures, because it's their copyright. I personally don't like this, because it makes a place more exclusive with legal moats, not genuine prestige. If you're a professor, this also makes your work less known, not more. IMO the only beneficiaries are either those who paid a lot to be there, lecturers who don't want to adapt, and university admins.
- outside1234 10mo ago
  I wish we would speed run this to where these super star profs open their classes to 20,000 people at a lower price point (but where this yields them more profit)
  - ibrahima 10mo ago
    That's basically MOOCs, but those kinda fizzled out. It's tough to actually stay focused for a full-length university-level course outside of a university environment IMO, especially if you're working and have a family, etc. (I mean, I have no idea how Coursera/edX/etc are doing behind the scenes, but it doesn't seem like people talk about them the way they used to ~10 years ago.)
    - TomasBM 10mo ago
      They're still around and offering new online courses. I hope they don't have any problems to keep afloat, because they do offer useful material at the very least. I agree it's hard, but I think it's because initially the lecturers were involved in the online community, which can be tiring and unrewarding even if you don't have other obligations. I think the courses should have purely standalone material that lecturers can publish, earn extra money, and refresh the content when it makes sense. Maybe platform moderators could help with some questions or grading, but it's even easier to have chatbot support for that nowadays. Also, platforms really need to improve. So, I think the problem with MOOCs has been the execution, not the concept itself.

moosedev 10mo ago

2024 lecture videos are on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoROMvodv4rN4wG6Nk6sNpTEbuOSosZdX https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoROMvodv4rN4wG6Nk6sNpTEb...

storus 10mo ago
Those don't have DPO/GRPO which arguably made some parts of RL obsolete.
- nafizh 10mo ago
  check out cs 336 stanford, they cover DPO/GRPO and relevant parts needed to train LLMs.
  - storus 10mo ago
    It's also covered by CS329H.
- upbeat_general 10mo ago
  I can assure you that lacking knowledge in DPO (and especially GRPO it’s just stripped down PPO) is not a dealbreaker.
rllearner 10mo ago
One of my favorite parts of the 2024 series on Youtube was when Prof B explained her excitement just before introducing UCB algorithms (Lecture 11): "So now we're going to see one of my favorite ideas in the course, which is optimism under uncertainty... I think it's a lovely principle because it shows why it's provably optimal to be optimistic about things. Which is kind of beautiful." Those moments are the best part of classroom education. When a super knowledgeable person spends a few weeks helping you get to the point where you can finally understand something cool. And you can sense their excitement to tell you about it. I still remember learning Gauss-Bonnet, Stokes Theorem, and the Central Limit Theorem. I think optimism under uncertainty falls in that group.

TomasBM 10mo ago

I've seen arguments that opening up fresh material makes it easy for less honest institutions to plagiarize your work. I've even heard professors say they don't want to share their slides or record their lectures, because it's their copyright. I personally don't like this, because it makes a place more exclusive with legal moats, not genuine prestige. If you're a professor, this also makes your work less known, not more. IMO the only beneficiaries are either those who paid a lot to be there, lecturers who don't want to adapt, and university admins.

outside1234 10mo ago
I wish we would speed run this to where these super star profs open their classes to 20,000 people at a lower price point (but where this yields them more profit)
- ibrahima 10mo ago
  That's basically MOOCs, but those kinda fizzled out. It's tough to actually stay focused for a full-length university-level course outside of a university environment IMO, especially if you're working and have a family, etc. (I mean, I have no idea how Coursera/edX/etc are doing behind the scenes, but it doesn't seem like people talk about them the way they used to ~10 years ago.)
  - TomasBM 10mo ago
    They're still around and offering new online courses. I hope they don't have any problems to keep afloat, because they do offer useful material at the very least. I agree it's hard, but I think it's because initially the lecturers were involved in the online community, which can be tiring and unrewarding even if you don't have other obligations. I think the courses should have purely standalone material that lecturers can publish, earn extra money, and refresh the content when it makes sense. Maybe platform moderators could help with some questions or grading, but it's even easier to have chatbot support for that nowadays. Also, platforms really need to improve. So, I think the problem with MOOCs has been the execution, not the concept itself.