The Problems With Online Math Classes

I took Prof. Thrun's & Prof. Norvig's course, "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" when it was first offered. I'm pretty big on self-study, and I rely on instructors to provide efficient direction (a syllabus, specific reading material), a mechanism for self-evaluation (exercises, means to validate results, etc), and finally, a source of answers when I have questions. In a perfect world, online courses seem to be a good fit for my personal needs, so I dove in with relish.

However, I found some of the same general problems the blog post referenced;
? ? ? - the content (speech, writing) was often sloppy and confusing, it did feel unplanned.
? ? ? - concepts that were introduced were not explained in their entirety.
? ? ? - the vocabulary used to describe a new idea was fairly mutable, or inconsistent.
? ? ? - there were often instances requiring sizable leaps of intuition combined with formal mathematical knowledge to complete exercises which had previously only been provided in a "fill in the numbers" format in previous examples.

In addition, I found no clear mechanisms for self-evaluation. We had to wait a week just to see the results of previous tests, etc. I also thought the quiz interface was childish and poorly done, but that's mostly just a look and feel issue.

I also took Prof. Ng's "Machine Learning," class at the same time. In contrast, I found that Prof. Ng provided:
? ? ? - Writing was clear, dialog was polished, vocabulary was explicit.
? ? ? - Concepts were introduced, explained (in both a practical and intuition-focused form), demonstrated and expanded upon.
? ? ? - Exercises were given to students in the form of example data, algorithms to implement, and with additional suggestions on how to 'play' with them to produce different results and gain an intuitive grasp of the information. Unlimited resubmission of exercises with an automated grading system made evaluation of different mechanisms simple.
? ? ? - Quizes were more polished.

I felt like I got a lot out of his class, well more than the AI class.

I feel that the difference between the two was pretty obvious. Prof. Thrun was teaching as if he had a live audience in front of him, and did not modify his instruction style for the lack of interactivity. On the other hand, Prof. Ng taught in a way that minimized the deficiencies of video learning, while leveraging the benefits of online, automated instruction.

In conclusion, I don't think the AngryMath blogger is correct in the assumption that live, in-person instruction is needed. In fact, I'd say the opposite was shown: the closer you get to the style of live instruction, the worse it seems to be to me, and more so when it's online. Of course, I have specific needs from education, and others may prefer different styles.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/AajJvvz4VDs/the-problems-with-online-math-classes

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