Education For all aspiring programmers - A great free course

So not sure who has seen this yet, but basically a Stanford & Virgina Comp Sci Professors who quit their jobs and formed an online University offering free courses for the masses.

I have seen a few posts on here asking how best to get into programming, and this seems a great way to me.

It teaches you stuff around Comp Science in a structured way, with a syllabus, tests etc.

It isn't too time demanding, and it is done in weekly lessons/tasks.

The first course is how to make a Search Engine, and requires no previous experience.

Linkeh: http://www.udacity.com/

Enjoy!

 

I did enjoy that link, but can't see how it's relevant to what you were saying just before it?

 

Haha apologies was showing a co-worker that excellent pic!

Let me fix!

Edit: DONE!

 

Two awesome things in one thread. Thanks!

 

Gunsmith gets the credit for the awesome pic!

 

Is anyone interested in starting a sort of collabrative Bit-Tech homework club for it?

I can start a thread in the appropriate forum (although would love a mod to tell me which!) once the course starts, and we can all help each other out if we get stuck, or just show off that we've completed a task.

 

@Tibby - not sure how large demand is... I enrolled for the fun of it, figuring "what have I got to lose". 7 weeks is not that bad, and web indexing (searhc engines, etc) are always an interesting subject. Worst case: I learn nothing.

 

I have enrolled. Worth a go. No experience whatsoever so it will be interesting to see how accessible the course is for a noob.

 

Is this like a live course where you have to start at a certain time and attend real-time lectures, or do you choose when you want to do the stuff?

 

I think it is loosely live, but I believe you'll be able to look back on each weeks content, so essentially you can do it at your own pace.

 

Thanks, I'll probably sign up this evening. If I do I'll post feedback here.

 

Just bear this in mind:



That said, programming at any sort of level is still brilliant. I'm a million miles from being a good C++ programmer but still prefectly capable of putting together some neat stuff.

 

Thanks for sharing this link. I am also a complete noob when it comes to programming. Should help me appreciate the work that goes into software if I understand how they are put together a bit more, I hope.

 

I have enrolled, classes start February 20th.

 

Classes have started. I'm really liking it so far . It's so handy that you can just seek the videos back a bit if you miss something or if you lose focus.

 

I would like to have the videos watchable in offline mode... Haven't looked through the forums yet, but as far as I can tell, that's not possible (legally).
But yeah... So far so good... typical "This is a programming language" stuff, but we'll see where it goes.

 

Been mega busy at work so haven't had time to do the first week yet! But will make sure to do it before Friday.

Is there any programming environment requirements? Like download Eclipse etc?

 

I only got access to the lessons sometime last night, so I've only started week 1. I think they're operating in Pacific Standard Time, so they're a few hours behind us. No mention of any software requirements so far, they have a web based python compiler for basic code, but I have Eclipse ready.

 

circuits and electronics at MIT is also available MITx