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Most of my free time these days is spent watching Coursera videos. It is an absolute revolution for those of us who love to learn. There is so much material t

Most of my free time these days is spent watching Coursera videos. It is an absolute revolution for those of us who love to learn. There is so much material though and I don't have enough time!

psbp 13y ago
The quality and volume is truly incredible. There are at least 4 classes that I'm interested in at any given time, and that's on coursera alone (not including udacity, edx, etc.). I wonder how much longer these services are going to stay free. I like to download all the content just to be sure that it's not taken away when they eventually go to paid models.
- B-Con 13y ago
  > I wonder how much longer these services are going to stay free. I like to download all the content just to be sure that it's not taken away when they eventually go to paid models. I also download everything. I'd hate to want to reference a lecture later only to find it missing. Last I heard, Coursera was still searching to find a revenue model. I've noticed their "resume" section expand, and you can now opt in (or is it out, by default?) to job hunter searches. Which makes me curious as to what Coursera's revenue-generating product is going to be. Is it the database of people with certified(-ish) skills, or will it be the content they provide?
  - psbp 13y ago
    They're probably trying to find as many ways as possible to embed themselves into relevant industries before they aggressively monetize. I bet the end goal (for all these MOOCS) is to become the de facto source for web based courses offered, for pay, through the current university system. You're right, they're also trying to become a recruitment tool for various industries, but they'll make the most money by switching on the revenue steam once universities become dependent on them and there's no turning back.
  - mkartic 13y ago
    why can't they charge the universities instead to put up their own courses? It'd be a good advertisement. Like how everyone knows about Strang's linal courses. The complexity of the courses are limited by the number of people attending it, so anyway, things can get only so much advanced. And use it as a platform for getting into more advanced courses in physical classrooms.
  - aethertap 13y ago
    I share your concerns about long term viability as well (and I download everything). I really want to see them succeed though... I've been thinking that a viable model that would keep courses free might be to use a kickstarter crowdfunding model to launch a course offering. If I did it, I'd set it up so that the threshold was high enough to make sure that the course was profitable, then make the course available to contributors first (and they'd get certificates), after which it would be freely available to anybody who wants to take it. You'd have to work out how to do the advertising efficiently so that it didn't eat your time and profits, which is probably a huge problem with the idea. Personally, I'd happily contribute to something like that on a regular basis though. Periodic relaunches could also be set up for certificate track stuff. You'd get the professor back in to answer questions and all that, but the video content could be left the same so it should be much less expensive to operate existing courses.
- agilo 13y ago
  My retired father had been following the archives for "Learn to program: The fundamentals", and after completing 3 weeks of work, the coursepage was suddenly taken down (https://class.coursera.org/programming1-001/class https://class.coursera.org/programming1-001/class). It looks like they just started a new iteration of the course and decided to remove the old one without notice. Needless to say, this experience took away from his belief and excitement in online learning (something which he had recently discovered).
alatkins 13y ago
This is interesting because I find watching recorded lectures one of the most tedious and inefficient ways to learn about a given subject. I far prefer a good textbook for self-directed learning. Is this just me or do others really find video superior?
- wavesounds 13y ago
  I can only watch videos on 1.5 to 2x speed now. Thanks god youtube added this feature as well or I'd go crazy.
  - jerf 13y ago
    Wuzza-fuzza what now? Where? How? What keys?
    - mixu 13y ago
      Here's one way: 1) Join the HTML5 trial http://www.youtube.com/html5 http://www.youtube.com/html5 2) Open Chrome inspector, select the <video> element 3) In the Chrome console, type $0.playbackRate = 2.0 ($0 refers to the element you've selected in the inspector) This also works for other sites that use the HTML5 video element, and allows you to go faster than 2x if you prefer. YouTube's HTML5 interface also has a menu option (gear icon) which has a speed control, but the Chrome inspector trick works with any HTML5 site.
      - aram 13y ago
        Quite handy - thanks for the tip!
    - mixmastamyk 13y ago
      Another way... download with youtube-dl and play back with VLC. I believe the square bracket keys change the speed.
- JabavuAdams 13y ago
  It depends on the instructor. I'm working through a Quantum Course by Prof. Binney at Oxford. His moment to moment teaching is not great, but he'll intermittently and regularly just drop gold nuggets. It's those "aha" moments where someone with a deep knowledge of the material clears up some misconception I've had for decades with a few sentences, or an off the cuff remark.
jwr 13y ago
Same here. I think this is a great opportunity and many of us waste it — it's so much easier to post snarky comments on Facebook, after all. On the practical side, once you download the videos, I can heartily recommend the SwiftPlayer iOS app — it lets you vary the speed at which the videos play, which is very practical for lectures. I watch easier sections (or ones that I just want to repeat) at 1.5-2.0x, going down to 1.25x or 1.0x when things get tougher. Easy FF/RW in 10 or 30-second increments and bookmarking are very useful as well. I got so used to SwiftPlayer that I can't bear to watch lecture videos in the web browser anymore.
- wcbeard10 13y ago
  I've found Coursepad [1] is a really nice app for Coursera courses. It can automatically download the videos, keeps track of which ones you've watched, and even allows you to take notes while watching the video. Playback up to 1.8x as well. [1] http://www.coursepad.org/ http://www.coursepad.org/

Most of my free time these days is spent watching Coursera videos. It is an absolute revolution for those of us who love to learn. There is so much material though and I don't have enough time!

psbp 13y ago

The quality and volume is truly incredible. There are at least 4 classes that I'm interested in at any given time, and that's on coursera alone (not including udacity, edx, etc.). I wonder how much longer these services are going to stay free. I like to download all the content just to be sure that it's not taken away when they eventually go to paid models.

B-Con 13y ago
> I wonder how much longer these services are going to stay free. I like to download all the content just to be sure that it's not taken away when they eventually go to paid models. I also download everything. I'd hate to want to reference a lecture later only to find it missing. Last I heard, Coursera was still searching to find a revenue model. I've noticed their "resume" section expand, and you can now opt in (or is it out, by default?) to job hunter searches. Which makes me curious as to what Coursera's revenue-generating product is going to be. Is it the database of people with certified(-ish) skills, or will it be the content they provide?
- psbp 13y ago
  They're probably trying to find as many ways as possible to embed themselves into relevant industries before they aggressively monetize. I bet the end goal (for all these MOOCS) is to become the de facto source for web based courses offered, for pay, through the current university system. You're right, they're also trying to become a recruitment tool for various industries, but they'll make the most money by switching on the revenue steam once universities become dependent on them and there's no turning back.
- mkartic 13y ago
  why can't they charge the universities instead to put up their own courses? It'd be a good advertisement. Like how everyone knows about Strang's linal courses. The complexity of the courses are limited by the number of people attending it, so anyway, things can get only so much advanced. And use it as a platform for getting into more advanced courses in physical classrooms.
- aethertap 13y ago
  I share your concerns about long term viability as well (and I download everything). I really want to see them succeed though... I've been thinking that a viable model that would keep courses free might be to use a kickstarter crowdfunding model to launch a course offering. If I did it, I'd set it up so that the threshold was high enough to make sure that the course was profitable, then make the course available to contributors first (and they'd get certificates), after which it would be freely available to anybody who wants to take it. You'd have to work out how to do the advertising efficiently so that it didn't eat your time and profits, which is probably a huge problem with the idea. Personally, I'd happily contribute to something like that on a regular basis though. Periodic relaunches could also be set up for certificate track stuff. You'd get the professor back in to answer questions and all that, but the video content could be left the same so it should be much less expensive to operate existing courses.
agilo 13y ago
My retired father had been following the archives for "Learn to program: The fundamentals", and after completing 3 weeks of work, the coursepage was suddenly taken down (https://class.coursera.org/programming1-001/class https://class.coursera.org/programming1-001/class). It looks like they just started a new iteration of the course and decided to remove the old one without notice. Needless to say, this experience took away from his belief and excitement in online learning (something which he had recently discovered).

alatkins 13y ago

This is interesting because I find watching recorded lectures one of the most tedious and inefficient ways to learn about a given subject. I far prefer a good textbook for self-directed learning. Is this just me or do others really find video superior?

wavesounds 13y ago
I can only watch videos on 1.5 to 2x speed now. Thanks god youtube added this feature as well or I'd go crazy.
- jerf 13y ago
  Wuzza-fuzza what now? Where? How? What keys?
  - mixu 13y ago
    Here's one way: 1) Join the HTML5 trial http://www.youtube.com/html5 http://www.youtube.com/html5 2) Open Chrome inspector, select the <video> element 3) In the Chrome console, type $0.playbackRate = 2.0 ($0 refers to the element you've selected in the inspector) This also works for other sites that use the HTML5 video element, and allows you to go faster than 2x if you prefer. YouTube's HTML5 interface also has a menu option (gear icon) which has a speed control, but the Chrome inspector trick works with any HTML5 site.
    - aram 13y ago
      Quite handy - thanks for the tip!
  - mixmastamyk 13y ago
    Another way... download with youtube-dl and play back with VLC. I believe the square bracket keys change the speed.
JabavuAdams 13y ago
It depends on the instructor. I'm working through a Quantum Course by Prof. Binney at Oxford. His moment to moment teaching is not great, but he'll intermittently and regularly just drop gold nuggets. It's those "aha" moments where someone with a deep knowledge of the material clears up some misconception I've had for decades with a few sentences, or an off the cuff remark.

jwr 13y ago

Same here. I think this is a great opportunity and many of us waste it — it's so much easier to post snarky comments on Facebook, after all. On the practical side, once you download the videos, I can heartily recommend the SwiftPlayer iOS app — it lets you vary the speed at which the videos play, which is very practical for lectures. I watch easier sections (or ones that I just want to repeat) at 1.5-2.0x, going down to 1.25x or 1.0x when things get tougher. Easy FF/RW in 10 or 30-second increments and bookmarking are very useful as well. I got so used to SwiftPlayer that I can't bear to watch lecture videos in the web browser anymore.

wcbeard10 13y ago
I've found Coursepad [1] is a really nice app for Coursera courses. It can automatically download the videos, keeps track of which ones you've watched, and even allows you to take notes while watching the video. Playback up to 1.8x as well. [1] http://www.coursepad.org/ http://www.coursepad.org/