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Take the Fall 2013 Free Courses through Stanford University Online
This is for you irrespective of your field of endeavour! Stanford University is offering the following free courses online in the 2013 summer. The title of each course, its facilitator(s), date of commencement and description are herewith given. To participate in these free public courses developed by Stanford faculty, please visit the course web page that follows the description of each.
Sustainable Product Development
Dariush Rafinejad
Starting August 26th
This course focuses on strategies for the development of sustainable products and manufacturing processes from the perspective of senior executives. Course participants will form teams and develop a new sustainable product, or undertake field study projects to gain firsthand experience with sustainability practices in a company. The course will run for six weeks.
Algorithms: Design and Analysis Part 2
Tim Roughgarden
Starting September 2
This course focuses on fundamental principles of advanced algorithm design, including the greedy algorithm design paradigm, with applications to computing good network backbones and good codes for data compression. The course assumes familiarity with the topics from Part I—especially asymptotic analysis, basic data structures, and basic graph algorithms. The course will consist of lecture videos, integrated quizzes, standalone homework assignments and a final exam. A version of this course is taught to Stanford sophomore, junior, and senior-level computer science majors. The course will run for six weeks.
Mathematical Thinking
Keith Devlin
Starting September 2
Mathematical thinking is not the same as doing math. The goal of this course is to help course participants think the way that professional mathematicians think to solve real problems—problems that can arise from the everyday world, or from science, or from within mathematics itself. Anyone over the age of 17 can benefit from participating in this course, but it is primarily intended for high school seniors or first-year college students who are considering majoring in mathematics (or a mathematically-dependent subject). The course will run for seven weeks and includes monitored discussion, group work, and an open-book final exam.
Technology Entrepreneurship
Chuck Eesley
Starting September 16th
This course introduces the fundamentals of technology entrepreneurship, pioneered in Silicon Valley. Course participants will learn the process that technology entrepreneurs use to start companies, which includes: finding a commercial opportunity for a technology idea, gathering talent and capital, selling and marketing the idea, and managing rapid growth. To gain practical experience alongside theory, course participants will form teams and work on startup projects. The course will run for nine weeks.
Organizational Analysis
Daniel McFarland
Starting September 17th
This course focuses on organizational challenges. Each week course participants will learn a different organizational theory and consider cases posing various organizational struggles: school systems and politicians attempting to implement education reforms; government administrators dealing with an international crisis; technology firms trying to create a company ethos that sustains worker commitment; and two universities trying to gain international standing by performing a merger. This course includes assigned reading, interactive assessments, a forum, and a final exam. The course will run for ten weeks.
Quantum Mechanics for Scientists and Engineers
David Miller
Starting September 24th
This course offers a substantial introduction to quantum mechanics and is designed for anyone with a reasonable college-level understanding of physical science or engineering. It is specifically designed to be accessible not only to physicists but also to college students and technical professionals from a wide range of science and engineering backgrounds. The course will include “refresher” resources for the required mathematics and physics background. The course will run for nine weeks.
Solar Cells, Fuel Cells, and Batteries
Bruce M. Clemens
Starting September 24th
This course focuses on technological solutions to the world’s energy demands. It will examine the scale of global energy use and consider next generation solutions. It will cover the basic physics and chemistry of solar cells, fuel cells, and batteries. The course is structured in weekly units organized around a specific topic, and each unit will be followed by a graded problem set due that week. There will be reading, formative exercises, and a final exam. The course will run for twelve weeks.
Writing in the Sciences
Kristin Sainani
Starting September 24th
This course teaches scientists to become more effective writers, using practical examples and exercises. Topics include: principles of good writing, tricks for writing faster and with less anxiety, the format of a scientific manuscript, and issues in publication and peer review. Students from non-science disciplines can benefit from the training provided in the first four weeks (on general principles of effective writing). The course will run for eight weeks.
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Introduction to Logic
Michael Genesereth
Starting September 30
This course is a basic introduction to logic. It demonstrates how to reason systematically and produce logical conclusions, and it examines logic technology and its applications—in mathematics, science, engineering, business, law, etc. This course differs from other introductory logic courses in two ways: course participants will be taught a novel theory of logic that improves accessibility while preserving rigor, and will be able to see practical applications through interactive demonstrations and exercises. The course will run for 8 weeks and includes background reading and standalone quizzes.
General Game Playing
Michael Genesereth
Starting September 30
This course is an introduction to General Game Playing (GGP). General game players are computer systems able to play strategy games based solely on formal game descriptions supplied at “runtime.” (They don’t know the rules until the game starts.) Course participants will learn GGP theory and develop GGP programs capable of competing against humans and against other programs. GGP provides a theoretical framework that has practical applications in areas like business and law. The course will run for 8 weeks.
Practice Based Research in the Arts
Leslie Hill, Helen Paris
Starting October 9th
This unique online course in practice-based research is designed to facilitate and advance the work of students pursuing an arts practice within an academic framework. Using the online space as an open forum to make their work accessible to peers, the course will help equip artist-scholars with tools, frameworks and peer networks that will help them articulate their practice within the academy and beyond. The course will run for ten weeks.
The Finance of Retirement & Pensions
Joshua Rauh
Starting October 14th
This course focuses on the financial concepts behind sound retirement plan investment and pension fund management. Course participants will become more informed decision makers about their own portfolios, and be equipped to evaluate economic policy discussions that surround public pensions. Participants will do calculations in Microsoft Excel as part of the coursework. The course will run for eight weeks.
Cryptography II
Dan Boneh
Starting October 15th
This course focuses on cryptography, an indispensable tool for protecting information in computer systems. Course participants will learn about the inner workings of cryptographic primitives and protocols and how to apply this knowledge in real-world applications. This course is a continuation of Crypto I. The course will consist of lecture videos with integrated quizzes, standalone homework, optional programming assignments, and a (not optional) final exam. The course will run for 6 weeks.
Automata
Jeff Ullman
Starting November 4th
This course focuses on Automata Theory, and is based on material taught at Stanford in the Computer Science course CS154. The course will run for 6 weeks and includes assignments, quizzes and exams.
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You can find out more about Stanford programs and the courses they offer on their website
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Use Open Courseware and Take Classes at MIT, Stanford, or Harvard for Free
By Jennifer Williamson
The year was 1999. The online education industry was still in its infancy, but MIT was ahead of the times. The school’s provost, Robert Brown, had just given the school an assignment: figure out how to position itself for the coming trend in online learning.
Many colleges at the time wanted to figure out how to make money with online education—and MIT was no different. But then a group of professors suggested a revolutionary idea: why not just post all class materials online, available to everyone? And why not make it free?
MIT attracted funding and publicity, and the rest was history. Their success sparked an OpenCourseWare movement among top universities all over the world. Today, you can pull up a virtual chair and sit in on classes at Carnegie Mellon, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Utah State, the University of Notre Dame, and other top-tier universities—all without paying a dime.
The Limits of OpenCourseWare: What You Can’t Get From It
OpenCourseWare is a phenomenal information-sharing trend, but it’s not a magic bullet. There are a few things it can’t give you, and these include:
A degree. You can download the OpenCourseWare materials for all the required classes for a four-year degree at Harvard Medical School. You can read the books and articles, watch all the lectures, and take all the quizzes and tests. You can even grade yourself. But you can’t get a degree from Harvard—not unless you’re paying tuition.
Money. One of the problems with OpenCourseWare that schools are trying to address is the possibility of exploitation. Some entrepreneurs have seen an opportunity to offer “MIT degrees” and other fraudulent college degrees based on free OpenCourseWare materials, for a fee. But OpenCourseWare wasn’t created with individual profit in mind, and anyone who does this is likely to face legal challenges.
Attention from professors. You can download lectures, read lecture notes, and do all the assignments with OpenCourseWare that paying students do. But the professor won’t grade your test, answer your questions, or give you feedback. It’s a major reason universities justify the fact that OpenCourseWare won’t give you a degree. Teacher attention does make a difference.
The Benefits of Open Courseware: What’s In It For You
However, OpenCourseWare does bring you valuable knowledge. If you’re not looking for a degree and have strong independent learning skills, you can get a great deal out of a good OpenCourseWare program.
A supplement to your other classes. OpenCourseWare comes into its own when you want to go more in-depth in a subject than your current classes allow. You can browse OpenCourseWare offerings to get a different perspective on the same topic, peek in at more advanced classes, and increase the depth of your learning.
Practical knowledge. You may not get a degree studying engineering at MIT through OpenCourseWare. But you’ll learn a lot more about it—probably enough to apply it to your own projects. If you’re in it more for the knowledge than the credential, OpenCourseWare is an excellent way to get the know-how you need. You get access to the knowledge base of an expensive college, all for free.
More than reading lists. It’s a common misconception that OpenCourseWare simply provides a list of reading materials, and leaves it at that. But it’s much more in-depth. Many programs provide video lectures, tests and quizzes, multimedia presentations, audio recordings, and more—in addition to reading lists and lecture notes. With OpenCourseWare, you get everything but the student-teacher interaction.
OpenCourseWare is becoming more and more common at the nation’s top schools: even Stanford and Yale are planning to make their course materials available online in the near future.
OpenCourseWare can bring you much of the knowledge enrolled students pay thousands of dollars for. True, it’s no replacement for an actual degree; but it’s a valuable free resource every online student should know about.
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