Free Online Stanford Courses: AI and Machine Learning

5 Post author: Alex_Altair 10 September 2011 08:58PM

Stanford has decided to offer a few classes online, for free. These include Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The classes include videos of the same lectures that the Stanford students received, quizzes, homework, and exams that are graded automatically. They start on October 10.

I'm guessing that more than a few LWers will sign up for these. How many people would like to form a study group? Should we just have a discussion thread for it, or is there a better option?

Comments (15)

Comment author: Oscar_Cunningham 10 September 2011 09:24:00PM *  6 points [-]

*cough* textbook *cough*

Comment author: AlexMennen 12 September 2011 04:51:16PM 1 point [-]

How different is this from the 3rd edition?

Comment author: Oscar_Cunningham 12 September 2011 06:31:55PM *  1 point [-]

Sadly it looks like there have been many additions since the 1st edition. The chapters that were new in the second edition are here. EDIT: Or at least, that page has some chapters suggestively titled newchap0x.pdf, I'm not sure if they have all the new material or only new material, since it looks like the chapters have been rearranged as well.

Comment author: [deleted] 13 September 2011 09:56:17PM *  1 point [-]

I've heard that Stanford students use either the 2nd or 3rd edition. 1st one is quite a bit dated.

Comment author: Alex_Altair 11 September 2011 02:11:06AM 5 points [-]

I've made a google group for the Machine Learning class. Only a gmail account is required to sign up.

https://groups.google.com/group/stanford-machine-learning/about

Comment author: Bugmaster 11 September 2011 04:03:31AM 1 point [-]

+1 for the google group; I joined it. I don't have a g+ account and probably never will; I'm neither a fan of stalking nor of social networking, and it seems like g+ is both.

Comment author: Alex_Altair 13 September 2011 09:29:31PM 4 points [-]

AAAI offers free membership to top 10%.

http://www.aaai.org/Membership/ai-course-offer.php

Awesome!

Comment author: AlexMennen 14 September 2011 02:40:23AM 2 points [-]

Cool. Also, probably a smart move for AAAI if they're trying to get better known.

includes access to AAAI's digital library, receipt of AAAI announcements and newsletters, and discounts at AAAI's conferences and symposia

Access to the digital library sounds like the most likely thing in that list to be useful. Anyone know how extensive their library is?

Comment author: Matvey_Ezhov 11 September 2011 07:41:19AM *  2 points [-]

Signed. There are plenty of options for collaborative learning today, I had a good expirience with OpenStudy.com (by MIT students) and collaborative learning wikis on PBworks.com.

Comment author: [deleted] 10 September 2011 09:08:54PM *  2 points [-]

I'm interested.

Also anyone interested might like a link to the previous thread about the classes. A few of us have been adding each other on google+ which might be a good venue (hangout feature ect.) for the study groups. Perhaps some other online thingy might be even more appropriate?

Really looking forward to the classes, the AI: A Modern Approach textbook is a really interesting read so far (also If I recall it correctly EY praised the textbook in a different context at one point, though I don't know how well it did in the various threads where people tried to come up with the best textbook for X).

Comment author: Alex_Altair 10 September 2011 09:52:00PM 1 point [-]

Sorry for the repetition. Did anything come of that discussion in the way of study groups, or is it just the google+ group?

Comment author: [deleted] 10 September 2011 09:57:31PM 1 point [-]

Repetition is not that bad.

First thread was about the AI class. This one is about the study group. ;)

To answer your question lost of people asked around if anyone is interested in the study group. But besides a few adds on google+ not much else came out of it, so I at least welcome this new thread since it might get some fresh activity.

Comment author: Alex_Altair 10 September 2011 10:06:18PM 0 points [-]

It seems that Google+ doesn't have any kind of group feature. Is there a reason we're not using Facebook, instead? They have the largest user base, and a group feature where we could have discussions.

Comment author: [deleted] 10 September 2011 10:25:09PM *  1 point [-]

Basically someone asked if anyone has a google+ account and a few people responded and I linked to the google+ thread, which was basically a "oh look at this shiny new thing" discussion. Perhaps just make an old fashion google group (lots and lots of people have gmail, dosen't need to be your real name like g+ or fb)?

I'm sure there is plenty of specialized stuff for this as well though, I'm afriad I'm not familiar with it though. I think there was some discussion on "what to use for a study group" here.

Comment author: Emily 10 September 2011 10:00:31PM 1 point [-]

I've signed up. May or may not drop out depending on how hard I find it and how much of a time-suck it is from my actual university work.