Coursera / Udacity / edX Thread

[zoogs]

Do you guys like MOOCs? There's no time like the summer!

I'll start off with a very relaxed, no-schedule offering from the Indian School of Business: A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment:

What are the determinants of a happy and fulfilling life?

This is surely one of lifes biggest questions, and a question that has interested many of our ancestors. Buddha famously gave up his kingdom in search of happiness. Several Greek philosophers (from Aristotle to Epicurus and Plato to Socrates) had their own views on what it takes to be happy. And of course, we all have our own theories about happiness too.

How valid are our theories?

Till recently, if you wished for an answer to this question, you would've been forced to base it on discussions with spiritual leaders. Or, if you were lucky, you could've based it on late-night (and perhaps intoxicant-fueled) conversations with friends and family. Happily, all that has changed now. Over the past decade-and-a-half, scientists have gotten into the act big time. We now have a pretty good idea of what it takes to lead a happy and fulfilling life.

This course, based on the award-winning class offered both at the Indian School of Business and at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin, developed by Prof. Raj Raghunathan (aka "Dr. Happy-smarts") draws content from a variety of fields, including psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral decision theory to offer a tested and practical recipe for leading a life of happiness and fulfillment.

 

[VA Husker Fan]

Do you guys like MOOCs? There's no time like the summer!

I'll start off with a very relaxed, no-schedule offering from the Indian School of Business: A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment:

I tried that class. Had enough of that dweeb prof by the start of the 3rd clip. Maybe didn't give it enough time but I figured the odds of learning how to be happier from someone who annoyed me weren't very good.

I've taken a few others. My first class was a good one on Thomas Jefferson. I'd recommend it if anyone has an interest.

Took another one called "Sports and Society". I had hopes of learning things like why people are fanatical about college football or other sports I enjoy, but it started off with capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, with emphasis on the "art", and went pretty much sidewise from there. It's like the prof explicitly tried to make an interesting topic dull with the most obscure "sport" he could find. Parts of the course were interesting, and I got into some debates on the class forums. Once I got on the instructor for when I thought he was pretty far off-base about something, and had some support for me, some for him. A bit to my surprise, the instructor jumped in and said he loved the interactions and seemed to take no offense.

I tried another class on writing Android apps but I guess I'm too much of a dinosaur and too used to my past in corporate software development where someone else set up the development environment for us. Struggled with trying to get everything going, couldn't get over the hump, and it seemed too much like work without getting paid, so I dropped out. So many people seem to be writing apps that I figure there's either got to be a better way, or I'm incapable of learning. If I had an app in mind I really wanted to write I might be more driven but my idea was to learn it and see what I could do and then see if I could come up with anything interesting.

Also tried something on the Beatles music, but it got heavy into analysis of the music rather than the lyrics or the Beatles impact. Not in an interesting way for me as a non-musician. Then an exercise physiology class, trying to see if I could get any tips for endurance running. To be fair, the pre-req made it pretty clear that I didn't have the background to understand it, and I really didn't. I hopped around the Beatles lectures to see if I could find anything interesting, and played all the exercise lectures but didn't really listen closely.

 

[zoogs]

Haha, yeah, that guy is pretty high energy.

That Beatles course sounds interesting to me -- at least, until I read the description. But maybe it'd still be cool.

Currently, I'm digging through some of the Johns Hopkins offerings in data science. Very cool stuff in a nascent field.

The Android apps course is interesting, too, but I'm afraid without any real java background I'd find it overwhelming. Like you, I don't have an idea for an app in mind, either.

 

[VA Husker Fan]

The nice thing is, you can try them out, and just bail if it's not for you. No lost tuition and as far as I can tell no other penalty for not finishing. I just signed up for the social psychology one.

 

[zoogs]

The nice thing is, you can try them out, and just bail if it's not for you. No lost tuition and as far as I can tell no other penalty for not finishing. I just signed up for the social psychology one.

Yeah, and I'm not gonna lie -- I've never finished one before. It can so easy to lose track and fall behind. That's about to change, though!

Let me know how that social psychology one is. It isn't close to my past fields of study, and in some ways I think that's one of the best uses of Coursera. But the biggest drawback is the variability in course quality; you just never know sometimes, without trying it out.

 

[NUance]

Zoogs, have you ever watched/listened to Great Courses? I used to get Great Course CDs when I had a commute to work. Or you can get the audio downloads even cheaper. (The CDs and DVDs usually come with a short book or set of notes to accompany the course.)

 

[zoogs]

Zoogs, have you ever watched/listened to Great Courses? I used to get Great Course CDs when I had a commute to work. Or you can get the audio downloads even cheaper. (The CDs and DVDs usually come with a short book or set of notes to accompany the course.)

No, but I've heard great things! Do you have any recommendations?

 

[NUance]

Zoogs, have you ever watched/listened to Great Courses? I used to get Great Course CDs when I had a commute to work. Or you can get the audio downloads even cheaper. (The CDs and DVDs usually come with a short book or set of notes to accompany the course.)

No, but I've heard great things! Do you have any recommendations?

I listened to a course on the Civil War that was great! But the course I listened to on Christianity was just so-so.

You might check to see if your library has any Great Course CDs or DVDs. And I've seen them go for fairly low prices on eBay.