I am enrolled in 2 MOOCs at the moment. I have completed several MOOCs in the past year and have found that the MOOC format with deadlines and tests works very well for me. It forces me to actually do the work at a certain time, since I have to meet deadlines or I won't pass. I have also enrolled in the "Signature Track" for these courses where I paid upfront for an "ID Verified" certificate if I pass. I believe this will help me complete it, as I have money on the table. I would love to have study partners for both courses. Below, I give some general information and a pitch for each.
Single Variable Calculus (Coursera) - Course Page
Requirements: Pre-calc, basic familiarity with Calculus (ability to differentiate and integrate a simple polynomial)
My Reasons: I never deeply understood Calculus in college, even though I could solve the problems in context. I feel that deep understanding of calculus will be useful for Probability Theory and more advanced programming.
My pitch for this course: The course materials are extremely high quality. (Tied with MIT's 6.00x for the best I've ever seen) It emphasizes deep understanding of relationships between different mathematical structures. It starts with the Taylor Series and uses it to develop the rest of calculus. It covers all of single variable calculus rigorously and concludes with building discrete calculus from the ground up.
Start Date: It has already started, but we're only in week 2. It would not be too hard to catch up and even if you don't catch up in time for the first quiz, it's only worth 4% of the total for the class.
Linear Algebra (edX) - Course Page - Outline
Requirements: Geometry, pre-calc, high school algebra. (I suspect that basic programming knowledge will be helpful)
My Reasons: Again, I never deeply understood Linear Algebra in college, even though I could solve the problems in context. Linear Algebra is important in many aspects of computing and programming. Linear algebra is on the MIRI course list (though I suspect that this course will turn out to be better than the Coursera course that is listed there. (Also, the Coursera course is not currently offered and does not have any upcoming sessions.) Additionally, the book on the MIRI course list says in the preface that it is intended as a second-pass at Linear Algebra and focuses more on abstract vector spaces and maps. I plan to work through the book after this course.
My pitch for this course: It appears to be a very complete course. It emphasizes computation throughout the course which appeals to me more than trying to memorize steps to solve problems by hand. There are programming assignments throughout the course to teach linear algebra in the context of computation instead of in a vacuum. I imagine it would be much harder to start applying LA to programming if you learned them completely separately.
Start Date: January 29th
I thought I had a pretty good understanding of Linear Algebra until I worked through the 1st chapter of "Structure and Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics". When I took Linear Algebra before, all of the material was very practical and so I missed the bigger theory behind the class. I'd like to really get that understanding.
I've actually become a lot more interested in the subject now that I see how much more there is to learn and all the connections with physics.
It would be mostly a second pass for the basic material, but I've never done the leas...
For reasons mentioned in So8res article as well as for other reasons: studying with a partner can be very good. In November, Adele_L had posted an article for people wanting to find a study partner. It got 17 comments, but only 1 since November 16th. So I thought we (I) should make a monthly thread on this instead of constantly going back to an old article which people might (seem to) forget about. If people seem to agree with that, I will make a post about it every month.
So if you're looking for a study partner for an online course or reading a manual (whether it's in the MIRI course list or not) tell others in the comment section.