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Ask Slashdot: Best Setups For Navigating a Programming-Focused MOOC?
theodp writes: As one works his or her way through EdX's free The Analytics Edge, one finds oneself going back-and-forth between videos and R to complete the programming exercises associated with the lectures. While this can certainly be done on a cheap-o 13" laptop with a 6mbps connection by jumping around from the web-based videos to the client-based programming environment and to the web for help (god bless Stack Overflow), have you found (or do you dream of) a better setup for the MOOC programming courses offered by the likes of EdX, Udacity, and Coursera? Are you using multiple screens, split screens, touch screens, laptops/desktops/tablets, speakers, headphones, higher-speed connections? Anything else? Do you rely solely on the class materials and web-based resources, or do you purchase complementary books? Any thoughts on how to make the experience work best for those learning at home, in a classroom setting, on the road for business/travel, or during lengthy train commutes? Do you playback videos at faster speeds (e.g., 1.5x)? Any other tips?
I bring up the transcript because I can read faster than the lecturer speaks. And most of the lecturers are god awful on MOOCs.
I use a dual monitor workstation + a laptop to play the course content. This allows me my regular programming workspace on my computer with any reference material I need on the second monitor. Using the laptop allows me to go fullscreen without worrying about window focus and makes the material easy to pause by mashing the spacebar. My laptop also is setup to provide no notifications or interruptions so it is a distraction free workspace. I also download course material that I can listen to on drives.
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The courses shouldn't be designed for idealized setups like multiple monitors. Most people who are going to be taking an online course are those who can't afford to go to a college or university, so they're far from likely to be in possession of multiple-monitor or other fancy-schmancy setups.
I'd lay odds that a 1080p laptop is even pushing it; many of them probably have 720p laptops.
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Oops, sorry, I read TFS and thought this was a dude looking to exchange gym workout tips.
When someone makes a written mistake in a slidecast/pencast-type video, there's no going back to correct it. To me that renders a lot of MOOCs frustratingly confusing. It also means that all their talk about gathering data "to improve the courses" is nonsense, because it means they've got no way to A/B test individual small changes to the course, so they have no proper comparisons whatsoever.
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If you're simply looking for an excuse to spend money, MOOC class requirements aren't it. These MOOC courses are designed to reach the largest possible audience and that, in turns, means pretty minimal system requirements. Any consumer computer made within the last five years or so is more than capable enough for these courses.
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Get a few programming books, which you can keep in any convenient position near your 13" laptop.
Use the laptop screen for doing the exercises in the books.
Get a notebook for handwritten notes and tries.
Here, your screen real estate problem is solved.
Also, if you need videos to learn programming, which is an essentially text based activity, I'm going to doubt your competence when considering hiring you.
I could get into the minutiae of setups but on that front by far the most important physical thing is having either a dual (or more) screen setup or having two physical systems. The rest of it really isn't that important (unless you specifically need some HID to do your job).
To that, the I would say the most beneficial trait I've seen in any successful worker or learner is the drive to actually go out, start a project, and finish it. The finishing an external project is key.
That being said, you have to understand that you only get out what you put in. If your "project" is some podunk little piece of crap that calculates some window filter on R, obviously you're shorting yourself. If you take that extra day or two to figure out how to setup a SQL or w/e server at home and pull / push data to it using something else (LUA / python w/e), then grab that data and modify it with R the understanding you get for the whole system increases dramatically. In addition, you now have a whole stack you can show to people, which massively increases hiring value (if that's your goal) or ability for other people to help you because you can more accurately show where the problem is.
To that end, buying extra books really isn't going to help you. The boxed problems are really not indicative of the functional problems you will encounter in reality, since the people writing them are usually pretty well versed in said activity; so they're going to avoid base level mistakes (i.e. type conversions / memory usually) or structural / approach problems just from experience.
The other aspect is, you have to set yourself up for success. Doing anything on a commute is a pretty terrible way of learning, you'll never remember it or if you do it will be on a train, not where it matters. Set up some triggers: specific music (genre / artist etc), visual (background / things on desk etc), place ( this one is a bit more tricky, but somewhere you don't associate with "relax"), or smell while you're doing it. Then later on, when you're actually working on that project, put that music on / change the visual / place and you'll have a much easier time remembering what you did previously. This is readily apparent with people who drink coffee, after a few days / weeks the caffeine in your coffee doesn't work as a stimulant, it's the smell / taste / sight that triggers your brain to enter "awake" mode. (not exactly true, but true enough)
> one finds oneself going back-and-forth between videos and R to complete the programming exercises associated with the lectures.
TAKE NOTES.
I use my iPad to run content, my loaner MacPro to do the coursework, and my mobile to procrastinate with.
1 - 28"-30" 4k monitor.
When did Master of Orion for the Cloud (MOOC) get announced?
I had a roommate who would play MOO2 by keeping everyone at bay long enough to build out 36 Death Stars and then systematically wipe out every enemy planet one by one. Now that's shock and awe.
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So when you go there beware. Read ALL of the answers and the comments.
https://github.com/coursera-dl...
Its a lot easier when you have whole course material on the hdd and play video clips in mplayer window.
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For me, the real breakthrough was getting a cloud server to host my development workbench (R Studio). My corporate is loaded with resource hogging applications. Offloading the resources for the development workbench was a godsend. Also, even though I'm typically reviewing some course material in a primary browser window, I'm usually surfing many supplemental websites such as discussion forums, help documentation, and related how to sites. Two monitors (PC & extra monitor) is extremely helpful. I'm strongly considering a third monitor to support my MOOC lifestyle. I would argue that while these MOOCs offer a promise of affordable education for the poor, the bigger audience is already educated career dedicated engineers and professionals, who already know how to learn and study, and are simply buffing their skills. We'll always trounce kids who are still learning how to study, because we've mostly already mastered study and research.
That's basically all MOOCs are: a way for third-worlders to try to acquire meaningless certificates without actually doing anything to earn them
Ouch as a third worlder(argentinian) this hits very near home, but I guess it's true for many people but not for me (and I bet for many others). For me personally it's about learning, I started one on cryptography and couldn't actually finish , but I downloaded every class video and I'm going to complete it on the next term ( I was doing quite good on the homeworks but the pace was too fast for someone who also works full time).
When I started I assumed the certificate is not the most important thing to get out of it but the actual knowledge, which IMHO is pretty good and almost impossible to access for most people outside from a college campus (which is also a way for senior professionals or dropouts who can't go back to college to update their knowledge) . Right now I started one on Machine Learning ( while I study the notes I took for crypto for the next term) which I always wanted to learn because of the sheer coolness of it.
Conclusion: if you only care about the certificate (whether you're a first world or a third world citizen), it sucks, if you care about the knowledge, MOOCs are a pretty good way to update your knowledge.
Dual monitors are pretty essential. You don't want to be studying on the bus anyway. A consistent, quiet place where Learning takes place every day, that's the ticket. Also get a sturdy music stand, preferably with spring-loaded clips to hold the pages (or make your own, hacker), and put the inevitable, paper textbook on it. Maybe it's just a holdover from my years in public school but there's something about a book.