Ask HN: best courses free or otherwise

5 points by mcormier 12 years ago | 11 comments

I recently finished a great course on iTunes university on the history of architecture. Bricks and mortar architecture not software. Now I'm searching for another good course.

I also have a yearly training budget at work that I've never gotten around to using. If you had a yearly training budget what would you use it for?

VLM 12 years ago |

I love audio courses and lecture series and since the 90s I've listened to them during my commute and pretty much any time I didn't have to listen to anything else (exercise, yard work, whatever). I was classically educated so if I think Plutarch in audiobook form or a philosophy course is entertaining, thats because I'm unusual, not because thats all that is out there.

"The Teaching Company" has rebranded to "The Great Courses" and they produce uniformly great product. Your local public library probably has shelves of their physical products under both names, probably. Mine has more than one bookcase of audiobooks and also the dvd form of some lectures. How you interpret "fair use" once you get your mitts on physical media is your own dilemma. Somehow I got on their mailing list and all I can say is never pay retail, because just like a department store, in a rotation pattern, 25% of the store is on sale for 90% off at any given time. I'm told their products are available to Audible subscribers, but not being an audible subscriber I don't know. I have probably listened to dozens of their courses over the last few decades and never been disappointed.

There are a surprising number of courses only available officially on itunes. Bulliet's "History of Iran" from Columbia U is beyond excellent, I listened to it a couple years ago and I don't remember how I "cracked it" such that my android podcast player had access, I remember it was a huge PITA but worth the effort.

Must be nice to have a training budget. Those disappeared from all my F500 sized megacorp employers in the 90s. Back when we had them, they were awesome. Right around the time those budgets disappeared, we mostly bought subscriptions to the new "Safari" service which was very interesting reading.

brudgers 12 years ago |

Peter Singer - arguably (not that I want an argument) the most important philosopher of the past forty years - will be teaching Practical Ethics on Coursera.

https://www.coursera.org/course/practicalethics

frigg 12 years ago | |

I subscribed to this course. I also recommend Moralities of everyday life by Paul Bloom which I'm currently taking and it's great. A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior[1] starts soon and from reviews it looks like a great course.

[1] https://www.coursera.org/course/behavioralecon

eswat 12 years ago |

Although I think I get enough knowledge about food from reading PubMed and other links from the paleo community, I’m finding the Food for Thought course from McGill on edX [1] to be an interesting perspective on diet + chemistry.

I may not agree with everything but it’s a nice refresher and it’s certainly the kind of course that more people should take; not enough people know enough about the food they put in their mouths.

[1] https://www.edx.org/course/mcgillx/mcgillx-chem181x-food-tho...

MaggiD 12 years ago |

This is considered to be one of the best courses on Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/course/behavioralecon

achlamabach 12 years ago |

Coursera

VLM 12 years ago | |

I've completed one course (why I bothered I don't know) and I've subscribed to and watched all the videos of a couple courses, and they have an absolute fixation on video even when its completely unnecessary, the videos tend to be very short, and have constant quiz interruptions. So its not going to fly as something you consume while doing something else, like driving or riding a bike or yardwork or shoveling snow or hiking or whatever. Have to stop what you're doing and fumble with the phone for half a minute, every five minutes.

If someone would rip the videos off Coursera, strip out the unneeded video, concatenate, and upload to archive.org it could work out pretty well.

mcormier 12 years ago | | |

Thanks, that is very helpful. I like to listen to courses while I'm making breakfast in the morning. A bunch of quizzes would be quite annoying.

mcormier 12 years ago | |

Could you be more specific? Is there anything you've watched that is worth viewing? Not all free courses are out there are equal. Sometimes the audio is distorted, and the presenter isn't so good at relaying material or enthusiasm for the material.

brudgers 12 years ago | | |

My experience with Coursera is that the technical quality is consistent and of suitable quality. In addition faculty is often fully engaged in the discussion forums. In some cases the lead instructor "wrote the book" on the subject and is actively answering questions, e.g. Ullman in Automata.

However, the presentations vary in terms of pure entertainment. This hasn't mattered to me because I select courses by content. Cat videos I can get anywhere.