HACKER Q&A
📣 Eugeleo

Recommend me a course on Coursera


My university just provided us with free Coursera accounts until the end of summer. However, there's so many courses to choose from that I don't know where to start! Please recommend me a course that you liked, preferably from the following areas:

- UX design

- bioinformatics

- statistics for data science

- mathematical analysis

- algebra or category theory

But of course, you don't need to stick to those categories, I'd love to learn about anything new!


  👤 betamaxthetape Accepted Answer ✓
Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: From Nand to Tetris (Project-Centered Course) https://www.coursera.org/learn/build-a-computer

and then part 2: https://www.coursera.org/learn/nand2tetris2

[Both courses are free]

These are fantastic courses, by far the best MOOCs I have ever taken. I went into them knowing nothing about computer architecture, and by the end of the first course I was able to design a fully-working digital computer in Logisim.

While other courses consist of lectures + text content, with Nand2Tetris the course is practical. The authors have developed a complete software system to allow you to complete the course:

* A simplified hardware programming language to design the ALU, CPU, clock, RAM, etc..

* A hardware simulator and debugger to allow you to test the hardware that you develop

* An assembler for the assembly programs you write for the computer

* A compiler for the higher-level programs you write for the computer

I'm probably banging-on about this course more than I reasonably should, but that's just because I enjoyed the course so much!


👤 dhawalhs
Here is a list of all Coursera courses sorted by ratings: https://www.classcentral.com/provider/coursera?sort=rating-u...

You can also filter by subjects i.e Computer Science, Data Science. Humanities, Mathematics, etc.

Disclaimer: I am the founder.


👤 elliekelly
The Science of Wellbeing[1] taught by Yale’s Dr. Laurie Santos lives up to the hype. It’s been discussed on HN a few times[2] which is how I stumbled upon it.

If you don’t mind my asking, did your school give you access to coursera to earn credit while the campus is shut down? Or is it just something interesting and fun for students who might be inclined to learn something new while they’re stuck at home? Either way, props to your school! And enjoy whatever classes you decide to take!

[1] https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being

[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...


👤 bhaprayan
I enjoyed taking Model Thinking: https://www.coursera.org/learn/model-thinking

It's designed to be a foundation course for subsequent social science classes, but I personally found the exposure to models from different fields of study to be quite insightful.

If you're interested, there's also a book by the professor on the same topic: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/39088592-the-model-th...


👤 randomstring
I recommend the meta-cognition course: Learning how to Learn.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

The primary instructor, Dr. Barbara Oakley, wrote the book, _A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)_ that isn't just about learning math.


👤 accidentalrebel
I recommend an audiobook course from Audible called

The Philosophers Toolkit: How to be the most rational person in any room by The Great Courses https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Philosophers-Toolkit-How-to-B...

It teaches you mental models on how to think and find a solution to a problem. It explains the concepts behind each model quite well.

Topics include how to determine a valid argument, an iron clad argument, using heuristics to solve problems, among other things.

My only gripe with the course I linked is that it is an audio version of what seems to be a video version on the Great Courses website. You might want to check that out too.


👤 djhaskin987
The cryptography course taught at Stanford I have found to be excellent. it really helped me gain an understanding of what I MAC's were, cbc encryption, common problems with encryption schemes, etc. after taking the course I was able to find a bug in our company's software that they didn't know about or that they didn't know was a bug.

👤 ajot
Experimentation for Improvement [0], taught by Kevin Dunn [1][2]. It's not very difficult to follow, and teaches some basics of experiment design. It's explained in a very well suited manner for non-academics, with examples about how you can implement this kind of experiments to improve things at home or at work.

[0] https://www.coursera.org/learn/experimentation [1] https://learnche.org/ [2] https://github.com/kgdunn


👤 airstrike

👤 xfer
I am taking the Modelling series(https://www.coursera.org/learn/basic-modeling) and Discrete optimization(https://www.coursera.org/learn/discrete-optimization). Great way to get your feet wet in the world of NP-hard problems.

👤 _jal
I personally found this to be a great one.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/psychological-first-aid

Having even passing familiarity with a way to think about helping people in crisis is extremely useful when you're in the moment.


👤 timlod
I'm currently taking the course "Audio Signal Processing for Music Applications", a joint course from the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and Stanford, taught mainly by one of the leading figures in music technology, Xavier Serra.

I think the pacing is great even for people who are not yet into DSP; every lecture teaches fundamental concepts that build on top of each other, and many insightful examples are given (listening to waveforms, looking at spectrograms). I'm now in week 5 (I just watch the lectures at my own pace, e.g. so far I don't need the programming part of the course), and I've already learned a lot.


👤 WillPostForFood
Loved Model Thinking, taught by Scott Page at UM. Good for the current model dependent times as well.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/model-thinking

We live in a complex world with diverse people, firms, and governments whose behaviors aggregate to produce novel, unexpected phenomena. We see political uprisings, market crashes, and a never ending array of social trends. How do we make sense of it? Models. Evidence shows that people who think with models consistently outperform those who don't. And, moreover people who think with lots of models outperform people who use only one. Why do models make us better thinkers? Models help us to better organize information - to make sense of that fire hose or hairball of data (choose your metaphor) available on the Internet. Models improve our abilities to make accurate forecasts. They help us make better decisions and adopt more effective strategies. They even can improve our ability to design institutions and procedures. In this class, I present a starter kit of models: I start with models of tipping points. I move on to cover models explain the wisdom of crowds, models that show why some countries are rich and some are poor, and models that help unpack the strategic decisions of firm and politicians.

The models covered in this class provide a foundation for future social science classes, whether they be in economics, political science, business, or sociology. Mastering this material will give you a huge leg up in advanced courses. They also help you in life. Here's how the course will work. For each model, I present a short, easily digestible overview lecture. Then, I'll dig deeper. I'll go into the technical details of the model. Those technical lectures won't require calculus but be prepared for some algebra. For all the lectures, I'll offer some questions and we'll have quizzes and even a final exam. If you decide to do the deep dive, and take all the quizzes and the exam, you'll receive a Course Certificate. If you just decide to follow along for the introductory lectures to gain some exposure that's fine too. It's all free. And it's all here to help make you a better thinker!


👤 carlosgg
Robert Sedgewick's courses, including Algorithms Part 1 and Part 2.

https://www.coursera.org/instructor/~250165


👤 the_snooze
Securing Digital Democracy https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-democracy

I went through this not long after it was first offered following the 2012 elections, and it introduced me to the amazing world of security and human factors. There's more to secure systems design than just smart engineering. You have to give a lot of attention to people and priorities, and elections are a great place to see that in action.


👤 _vbdg
Cryptography I by Dan Boneh: https://www.coursera.org/learn/crypto

It's a great introduction to fundamental concepts. After you finish, I'd recommend reading this book he co-authored, which goes into more detail and covers more advanced concepts: https://toc.cryptobook.us/book.pdf


👤 Dowwie
Coursera is great but you're going to miss a lot of opportunities by limiting yourself to just that platform.

For instance, it hasn't been widely advertised, but you can essentially take Steven Pinker's 2020 course at Harvard on Rationale: https://stevenpinker.com/classes/rationality-gened-1066

There's upwards of 20 hours of video on this course alone. You don't get that kind of depth from most Coursera MOOCs. Further, the syllabus helps narrow down a vast subject to a few months of effort and there is no better design for learning it.

Critical reasoning skills are essential! Why not learn from one of the great thinkers on the subject?

This course has the potential of ascending to the upper echelon of MOOCs. I really hope that the content doesn't get taken down. It doesn't seem downloadable..


👤 int32767
I really enjoyed the course on the Science of Exercise - https://www.coursera.org/learn/science-exercise.

I always wondered if there was a comprehensive way to understand how different fitness regimes and diets actually help or don't help. This course was amazing and helped my understand the fundamentals. A bit technical - goes into the basics of biology, but even without that information, this was a great course. The instructor is Dr. Robert S. Mazzeo, who has been studying, researching and teaching in the field of exercise science for over 40 years.

I have actually applied several of the principles in my workout regime and started to see the effects over the last few months. I highly recommend this one.


👤 mkolodny
Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society is my favorite course I've ever taken:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/design

It's taught by Karl Ulrich, a UPenn/Wharton professor/Vice Dean who helped design the Xootr scooter, Gushers, and many other awesome products. He teaches most of the course in his garage. Taking the course feels like you're his apprentice.


👤 goose847
University of Pennsylvania has an amazing course on single variable calculus.

Don't let the idea of doing 'basic' calculus turn you away as it is an incredibly tough course. The reason it can be so challenging and the reason I find it so incredible is that it teaches Calculus through the lenses of Taylor Series. Very different to other Calculus courses and as someone who hated my first year university maths course it's helped me really come to appreciate the beauty of it!

Here's the link to the first course of 5:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/single-variable-calculus


👤 smabie
Let me recommend you an udacity course instead. This is hands down the best course I've ever taken in my life:

AI for Trading https://www.udacity.com/course/ai-for-trading--nd880

Includes an introduction to finance/markets, and goes into strategies, multi-factor models, and deep learning. Great projects too!


👤 BakaKuna
I loved 'Classical Sociological Theory'. It introduces the ideas of 8 'sociological' thinkers from Bernard Mandeville to Norbert Elias. The course uses the medium of a MOOC by providing insightful pictures and the course references interesting source material.

The course that brings me the most in terms of concepts I keep coming back to in everyday live is 'Introduction to Psychology': https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-psychology

I must confess I always find it quite hard to take psychology very serious, but this course does a good job at cutting to the bone of what psychology is about and refrains from making unfalsifiable statements.

EDIT: Almost forgot Astronomy: Exploring time and space: https://www.coursera.org/learn/astro. It comes with a very awesome free online book/website.


👤 ForHackernews
It's not on Coursera, but Caltech's Yaser Abu-Mostafa offers "Learning from Data" on his own website https://work.caltech.edu/telecourse.html and it's intermittently on EdX https://www.edx.org/course/learning-from-data-introductory-m...

This is far and away the best MOOC I've ever taken. The class is genuinely challenging. It's a real Caltech undergraduate course, and you can't get away with copy-pasting code or just keep resubmitting until you pass the grader. The course is focused on real understanding of what's going on mathematically, not just learning to use some library API.


👤 seankross
I wrote this course, an introduction to using the command line: https://www.coursera.org/learn/unix

👤 noobrunner
https://www.coursera.org/learn/genetics-evolution Beginners level.Dr. Noor is an excellent instructor.

👤 edem
I know that you didn't ask for this but I think this is the best course on Coursera hands down:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/model-thinking

I've larned much more from this than from anything else on this site.


👤 bcrosby95
I took it a while ago, and it was a ton of work, but I really liked https://www.coursera.org/specializations/probabilistic-graph...

👤 hagope
Coursera has great content from Industry partners (Google Cloud, Amazon AWS, IBM etc) that teach everything you need to know for hacking in cloud. These skills are not widely taught in University, but skills are highly valued in the Tech industry. Three specializations (a collection of courses) that are hands-on and I would highly recommend 1.) https://www.coursera.org/specializations/aws-fundamentals 2.) https://www.coursera.org/specializations/gcp-data-machine-le... 3.) Anything from deeplearning.ai [disclosure: I work at Coursera]

👤 matt_morgan
Unstuck to your categories, Jonathan Biss's course on Beethoven's sonatas is fantastic.

https://www.coursera.org/instructor/jonathanbiss


👤 sonabinu
I would start with 'Learning how to Learn' - https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

👤 mekane8
I would absolutely love to hear someone's experience taking this course: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/coding-for-managers...

I probably won't have time to sit through it, but I've taken a course from this instructor in the past and he is pretty good. I'm really curious to know how he explains coding and engineering principles to "managers, designers and entrepreneurs".


👤 nikofeyn
programming languages (parts a, b, and c) by dan grossman

https://www.coursera.org/learn/programming-languages

introduces the underpinnings of programming languages via standard ml, racket, and ruby.


👤 huntermeyer

👤 digiaditya

👤 credit_guy
Two courses taught by faculty at the Russian institute HSE (Higher School of Economics).

1. How to Win a Data Science Competition https://www.coursera.org/learn/competitive-data-science

2. Bayesian Methods for Machine Learning https://www.coursera.org/learn/bayesian-methods-in-machine-l...


👤 udayj
Had been working on https://www.tutorack.com/ for a while - aggregates online resources (not just MOOCs). Haven't updated it in sometime but you should find something useful

👤 carlosgg
The first 3 courses of the Statistics with R specialization, taught by Dr. Mine.

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/statistics


👤 wheeliegeek

👤 fbru02
I really liked the approximation algorithms from a french university

👤 DrNuke
Ok but do you need a course meant as a vocational, subject-specific training or something more liberal that helps you think better for the long run? I would go for the latter.

👤 master_yoda_1
most of the courses on coursera are for uninitiated and have very shallow content (there are some rare exception). So if you like you can search for a good book or some video lecture from good university. like this is for statistical learning "https://online.stanford.edu/courses/sohs-ystatslearning-stat...

👤 exdsq
I’ve started working through the Verification series by EIT which have been challenging and interesting. If you’re interested in formal verification, check them out.

👤 Tomte
Dan Boneh's Crypto II. ;-)

👤 edimaudo
epidemics, learning how to learn, algorithms 1 & 2

👤 evancox100
Princeton’s Computer Architecture course is great.

👤 droithomme
> bioinformatics

The Honors Track of the UCSD series is really great.

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/bioinformatics

It's super hard and as a side effect you learn a ton about very interesting, amazing, and useful algorithms that you'd never even hear about in a top notch CS program.


👤 jhymn
I recently took a Coursera course on Schizophrenia and found it fascinating. YMMV of course.