Learning new things online with universities

[melodie]

I have been aware only recently that online courses of high value are offered since several years already.

I was seeking for some courses for myself to improve my computing, and I asked the question first to the women of the Linuxchix community who told me about coursera.org, then when I asked on the #crimson chan at freenode, (or was it at #linuxvillage ?) pdurbin told me about edx.org, which he said just started with free online courses recently.

From there, reading at the blogs linked from edx.org, I stumbled upon the word "OpenCourseWare", which I put into Wikipedia, and this looked like a mountain of snowballs falling! There are more that two or three places online where free courses are offered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCourseWare#History

The OpenCourseWare movement started in 1999 when the University of Tübingen in Germany published videos of lectures online for its timms initiative.[1] The OCW movement only took off, however, with the launch of MIT OpenCourseWare at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in October 2002.

Some of them can allow getting certifications and diplomas, the cost might not be very expensive, (some of the platforms ask a small fee to sign for a certification to be earned at the end of the course) and well...
I let you discover the range of topics.

https://www.edx.org/

https://www.coursera.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCourseWare

Enjoy ! \o/

[pdurbin]

Here are few along these lines:

* http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-033-computer-system-engineering-spring-2009/

* Programming Paradigms | 2008 Stanford - iTunes


[Stanford Engineering Everywhere: Programming Paradigms](http://see.stanford.edu/see/lecturelist.aspx?coll=2d712634-2bf1-4b55-9a3a-ca9d470755ee)

Lecture 1 | Programming Paradigms (Stanford) survey of many languages

* Computer Science 162, 001|Spring 2012|UC Berkeley - iTunes

http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs162/sp12/ Computer Science 162 - Lecture 1

* Computer Science 61A, 001|Spring 2012|UC Berkeley - iTunes

http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61a/sp12/ Computer Science 61A - Lecture 1

taught in Python
* Computer Science 61C, 001|Spring 2010|UC Berkeley - iTunes

 http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61c/sp10/ taught in C

* Computer Science 164, 001|Spring 2011|UC Berkeley - iTunes

 http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs164

https://sites.google.com/a/bodik.org/cs164/ Computer Science 164 - Lecture 1

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3A16CFC42CA6EF4F taught in Python

* http://surendar.chandrabrown.org


/Edit by mélodie : urls almost ok...

[melodie]

Hi pdurbin, thanks for this share. Just one little detail, on this type of forums we use bbcode and not html tags.

For my own comfort I use the Firefox plugin having for name "Colt". If you use Firefox you might want to give it a try:
CoLT :: Add-ons for Firefox - Mozilla Add-ons.

The buttons of the editor also ease the process of writing tags such as this one

Code: [Sélectionner]

[url=http://something.stuff]some hyperlink text[/url]
manually

and when you want to know what one of the buttons of the editor do, hovering the button with the mouse will display a tooltip.

[djohnston]

Open Source Scholarship offered by WVU computer science department

Thanks to alumni and faculty of West Virginia University's Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, students with an interest in software development will now be able to fund their education through an Open Source Scholarship.

Alumni Andrew Butcher and Tim Bielawa, gained experience in open source software as students and wanted to provide opportunities for current and future students via this scholarship. Assisting them on the scholarship board are David Krovich, professional technologist in the Lane Department; Professor Roy Nutter; and Lane Department Chair Brian Woerner.

Students interested in the scholarship are required to create a portfolio that demonstrates their contributions to open source software. As part of the application process, when an individual makes modifications to the software they post their contribution to the scholarship website. The more impactful their contributions, the more likely they are to get a recommendation from the board of the scholarship fund. The deadline for applications will be in late November with the first awards made in the spring 2014 semester. For more information, visit http://opensourcescholars.org.

Involvement in open source communities will be an important part of the education of any student who is interested in a career in software and technology. And, WVU hopes this scholarship helps grow and foster students' interest in open source and free software.

[melodie]

This is of great interest. I'm going to go sit at their IRC channel to see what's going on there.

[pdurbin]

This is of great interest. I'm going to go sit at their IRC channel to see what's going on there.

Now there's another IRC channel to sit in...

#wonderstudy on Freenode!

It's new! I'm not so sure melodie likes the name though: http://irclog.greptilian.com/wonderstudy/2013-05-11

[melodie]

#wonderstudy on Freenode!

It's new! I'm not so sure melodie likes the name though: http://irclog.greptilian.com/wonderstudy/2013-05-11

I don't mind names, as I sayd on the chan for me it's all a matter of making it successful.

So long life to #wonderstudy !!!

[djohnston]

pdurbin,

You took time out from your busy IRC schedule to vist an "antiquated" forum? Cool. 

[melodie]

Here is an interesting conversion which took place on the new #wonderstudy IRC channel since yesterday:
https://github.com/wonderstudy/irclog/blob/gh-pages/2013-05-12.html

[mimas]

Wonderstudy is a nice name. As a non native english speaker, the reference of understudy had passed far far away from me.

[melodie]

pdurbin has done a great job and a while ago he also setup a github repos to gather all interesting related links. Here is the page: http://wonderstudy.github.io

Among several, we can notice a few courses but not that many, which can be started at any time during the year, without even suscribing, although suscribing is also possible.

Some of them are:
cs50

Introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming. This course teaches students how to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently. (...)

cs164

Introduction to principles of software engineering for mobile devices and best practices, including code reviews, source control, and unit tests. Topics include Ajax, encapsulation, event handling (...)

E1 Understanding computers and the internet

This course is all about understanding: understanding what's going on inside your computer when you flip on the switch, why tech support has you constantly rebooting your computer, how everything you do on the Internet can be watched by others, and how your computer can become infected with a worm just by turning it on. In this course we demystify computers and the Internet, along with their jargon, so that students understand not only what they can do with each but also how it all works and why.(...)

E7 Exposing digital photo

Photography has exploded in recent years as digital cameras have become affordable and easier to use. There are many courses that teach students the artistic aspect of "how to become a better photographer" or "how to improve your eye," but this is not one of them. Instead, students—from one-time users to professionals—become better photographers through an understanding of the technical aspects and terms of a digital camera. (...)

and also E-75, E-76, E-259.

Up to you to continue the list…