Topic: MIT Open Courseware

[mmret]

Curious if anyone here uses the MIT Open Courseware (or any school's) in their spare time. There's quite a decent selection of subjects, actually. Tonight I decided to brush up on my rusty first year linear algebra.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra-spring-2010/video-lectures/

Odd mannerisms aside (he is a mathematician, after all), this guy is actually quite a good prof. I wonder if the average prof at Ivy Leagues are actually better than those at 2nd tier schools, even at the undergraduate level. There are times I regret going to the school I did when I had the chance to go better...I feel like I'd have learned more and would be smarter today because of it.

[vdk]

Funny stuff - I used their lectures for 2nd year linear algebra. Still trying to wrap my head around some notions presented in that course.

[vdk]

As for schools I don't know where you went but my experience with undergrad at UofT St. George is mixed. Some profs are REALLY good, and get you involved in class, others are terribly boring.

Personally, my marks in classes with a 'cool' exciting prof were much better than those where the prof put me to sleep.

[dr_spock]

As for schools I don't know where you went but my experience with undergrad at UofT St. George is mixed. Some profs are REALLY good, and get you involved in class, others are terribly boring.

Personally, my marks in classes with a 'cool' exciting prof were much better than those where the prof put me to sleep.

Funny, my grades are a reflection of the profs too.  Don't know how I survived boundary value problems. 

[Angry Chicken]

As for schools I don't know where you went but my experience with undergrad at UofT St. George is mixed. Some profs are REALLY good, and get you involved in class, others are terribly boring.

Personally, my marks in classes with a 'cool' exciting prof were much better than those where the prof put me to sleep.

Funny, my grades are a reflection of the profs too.  Don't know how I survived boundary value problems. 

Frankly I believe that this whole discussion is asymptotic to the main issue and is a bunch of hyperbole and in danger of going off on a tangent.  It's a sine of the times.

[mmret]

Funny stuff - I used their lectures for 2nd year linear algebra. Still trying to wrap my head around some notions presented in that course.

2nd year? Did you take pure math or comp sci?

[initial_D]

My marks sucked at all classes, regardless of the prof. Did better at Open Text Book exams tho.

Don't think I can take any math courses ever again, 3 years of Calculus in University was more than enough. 

[vdk]

The course was pure math. Requisite for my program. Can't say I loved it very much.

[mmret]

The course was pure math. Requisite for my program. Can't say I loved it very much.

Curious what program this was? I took EE and even we did not have to take algebra beyond the first year.

Calculus, now that was another matter....

[vdk]

Economics. It was the only course in linear atgebra, but for whatever reason it was a 2nd year course. I think 1st year calculus was a pre-requisite, maybe that's why.

Intermediate level Calculus was 1st and 2nd year. After that it's all economics in one form or another.   

[mmret]

Strange. I fail to see how a course on Gauss Jordan elimination and the definition of n dimensional spaces is relevant for an economics major.

[safristi]

  well all our monies are going into a Black_Hole......reminds me of when Einstein's wife caught him in bed with another woman.....

  he said............."I can explainEverything dear"...... ...

[vdk]

Strange. I fail to see how a course on Gauss Jordan elimination and the definition of n dimensional spaces is relevant for an economics major.

Never used anything learned in that course, except for matrices.