Recently completed MITx 600.001 which had a fair share of lectures along with a textbook. The lectures were mostly just a rehashing of what was presented in the

Recently completed MITx 600.001 which had a fair share of lectures along with a textbook. The lectures were mostly just a rehashing of what was presented in the book but there was something about watching the code run that really made a difference. I also think that having "finger exercises" after a short video explaining a concept is quite helpful. Although it seems that could easily be achieved in book format as well. The live feedback after submitting code was what helped me the most. At the same time as this I took another course on a different website (coursera) Cloud Computing Concepts Part 1 which was entirely lecture based. The topic was extremely interesting to me and I have moved on to the next course in the series but I do find the all lecture format with quiz based homework to be less than ideal. I try to make up for the lack of a textbook by reading the documentation of concepts covered each week but often times it is hard to pick the most essential material. The edx platform is really stunning in terms of engagement and feedback from a student perspective. It is easy to imagine a course presented on it with little to no lecture if a strong companion text was provided.