Open Courseware, Youtube, and other resources

[Illuminerdi]

Hey, it seems there's an abundance of valuable learning resources online, especially on youtube, but, it's not always organized as well as it could be. I think we should compile lists of youtube lecture series that span entire undergraduate curricula for all sorts of engineering, science, and math majors.

I know there's MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, Nptelhrd, KhanAcademy/PatrickJMT, UNSW, and a few obscure video series if you dig hard enough (especially on Youtube.com/edu). Some videos are a bit better than others—Khan Academy is probably the most effective at teaching, MIT videos are better in quality than Nptelhrd videos, even though the selection is fewer.

So, let's start by getting lists of the core curricula for given disciplines. Who's with me?

 

[genericusrnme]

I'd say that arranging a list of textbooks would be better, textbooks are, for me at least, a better tool for learning..

 

[Illuminerdi]

I'd say that arranging a list of textbooks would be better, textbooks are, for me at least, a better tool for learning..

I think you might be unique. I've found that people tend to learn best from demonstration and I think this is how most people innately are, or at least how it has seemed from my experiences in electrical engineering. Nonetheless, if you learn from books, presumably there are others who learn from books, and we should try to have the best resources accessible to every type of learner.

 

[Hobin]

I think you might be unique. I've found that people tend to learn best from demonstration and I think this is how most people innately are, or at least how it has seemed from my experiences in electrical engineering.

I don't think he is. Personally, the reason I think most people learn better from videos is because they might not be as motivated to learn the stuff, whereas those who're truly motivated to learn will find that they learn much quicker by using a 'denser' source (aka a book). While I like watching videos to get a gentle introduction into a subject, I find that I'm more efficient when reading a book. (So which source I use depends on where I am on the relaxing-while-doing-something-useful/hardcore-learning continuum.) Also, it's quite possible to demonstrate something in a book, it just requires you to use more mental resources. Then again, for others, which source makes you learn 'best' may not have much to do with motivation after all.

 

[bwood01]

http://www.infoocean.info/avatar1.jpg I'd say that arranging a list of textbooks would be better.

 

[twofish-quant]

Hey, it seems there's an abundance of valuable learning resources online, especially on youtube, but, it's not always organized as well as it could be. I think we should compile lists of youtube lecture series that span entire undergraduate curricula for all sorts of engineering, science, and math majors.

Yup. That the next step. The other things that would be useful are:

1) some sort of online study group that you can use to discuss the videos
2) some sort of method of self-testing and then the ability to provide that you have skill X so that you can convert skills into cash
3) some sort of mechanism by which you can get advice on general undergraduate things
4) some way of doing lab work

So, let's start by getting lists of the core curricula for given disciplines. Who's with me?

http://mitx.mit.edu/

This sort of things makes sense to do on a wiki. wikiversity has some space that isn't being used.

The other thing is that I'm convinced that some time in the next decade someone somewhere, will get the equvalent of an undergraduate physics degree though self-study.

 

[twofish-quant]

It's not either/or. I think the goal is to combine all forms of communication into an *experience* that teachs physics. How do you combine books with videos with facebook with youtube with google with things that haven't been invented yet.

 

[Broccoli21]

As much as I think textbooks are a MUCH better source of information, check out this thread for some other lectures:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=554150
If we want to start some sort of compilation project, we should do both lectures and books. There is really no harm in including books, especially there are not too many lectures on upper level science in general.