Plans and Scheduling

[elz]

Okay, so, picking a schedule!

There are 24 lecture videos for the class, so what I'd like to aim to do is start with lecture #1 next week (11/2), do two a week on Mondays and Wednesdays, take a break around Christmas and New Year's and finish up the first week in February.

I'm thinking that if there are enough people who have different scheduling needs, we could try to split it up something like this:

a) Twice a week, start in November - finish early February
b) Once a week, start in November - finish end of April
c) Twice a week, start in January - finish March/April

Then also if you had to jump in and out at any point, you could pick back up with whichever pace fit best.

The tricky part about learning on your own, at least for me, is the lack of dates to have to stick to and the lack of anything prodding me to put down the novel, turn off the CSI rerun, etc. and do some serious reading or lecture-watching. So you want enough flexibility that you don't get overwhelmed, but not so much that you get... underwhelmed.

Thoughts?

Comments

[shinetheway]

"Can you ever just be whelmed?"

"I think you can in Europe."

The schedule sounds great, although just on a personal note, I'm in the middle of a move so pushing the start date back a couple days or a week would be awesome beyond the telling. I doubt I'd be able to give full attention to the class with my world being turned upside down and vigorously shaken.

Does it say what books/references we should get on the side?

[elz]

The primary textbook looks to be How to Think Like a Computer Scientist (PDF), with some others linked from the site. They're all online, which is awesome.

I was thinking next week = Lecture #1, which is 90% "hi, welcome to the class, blah blah, bad jokes about Harvard students, etc." and then the week after that, start in on #2 and #3. Would that work for you?

[tassosss]

I think I could do twice a week lectures but I'm with shinetheway on moving our start to the second week of November.

Next week will be my last before I take the grad records exam so I doubt I'll be in much shape to really pay attention till the week after.

[elz]

That should definitely be doable. (Good luck with the exam!)

[afuna]

Very cool idea. I've been meaning to pick up Python, and I've been feeling rusty in the basics... count me in, whichever the schedule :)

[elz]

Woot, awesome!

[wyntarvox]

What an awesome idea, I'm totally in.

[elz]

Yay, welcome!

[bingeling]

I don't really know if I will be able to keep up with the course once the semester progresses. But I would certainly love to try. And all three options make sense to me. :)

[elz]

\o/

[zooey_glass]

I'll have to start i January, but if anyone else will keep me company then, count me in!

[zvi]

I think it would be cool to do with you in January, but I am afraid I will forget. I could subscribe to the community now, but I don't really want a bunch of posts for a course I'm not currently taking on my reading page

Er, elz, do you think you could come up with a tag to announce the start of a new session, and I can just subscribe to that until such time as I am ready to jump in?

[draigwen]

I've done a bit of python (I'm actually using it right now), but haven't done any form learning - just flicking through books and the web - so I think I'll try to follow along too.

[elz]

Excellent!

[ex_rustler489]

I am in for twice/week. May have to miss a little time around Christmas/New Year's beyond the break you're taking, but I'll try to catch up after. This sounds cool!

[ephemera]

this idea? Pure genius, and currently feeling like a giant nudge from the world at large, so - November start, count me in! Twice a week might turn out to be more than I can manage (once a week feels 'safer') but if there's not a reasonable cohort who want to start out with one a week, I'll try for the two :D

[ex_wicker969]

Oh yes! I'm in! I'm starting some classes in winter term and I realized they actually expect me to know stuff, so I started working through this course a few weeks ago and then ... you know. Got distracted by whatever. This would be great to start asap but I'm good to start the second week of November, if that works for everybody else.

[damned_colonial]

I'm in, and have also just signal boosted over on GF.

[ghoti]

I think I'm going to hop on the bandwagon too. I could be convinced to do the once-a-week schedule that ephemera is suggesting.

[queen_ypolita]

I think this is a great idea; in terms of scheduling I like twice-a-week November-to-February best but I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to stick with it, but I'll certainly give it a try!

[phoenix]

I'm going to try the twice-a-week November to February schedule, but may drop to a less frequent one due to existing college commitments. Whee. This sounds like it could be fun :)

[quartzpebble]

Here from geekfeminism. This is a great idea, and I've been wanting to learn Python for awhile now. I could try for the twice-a-week schedule starting the second week of November (though the third week would be even better for me--NSF fellowship due the 14th--I can play catch-up). Looking forward to this!

[quivo]

I'm on board with the twice-a-week for now, may scale back if it turns out to be too much :)

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[(Anonymous)]

It's really great that people are sharing this inofrmiaton.

[rodo]

I'd like to try twice a week, starting November. No idea if I'll manage to keep to the schedule, but I really think it's worth a try.

Are there any posts planned for the dates where the participants can ask questions/bitch/post their results, etc.? Because it would probably help me a lot if I could interact with others during the time. I have no problem doing things on schedule, as long as it involves others.

[elz]

Oh, absolutely! I was thinking one post per lecture + reading assignment + problem set (we could separate those out, but I'd worry about spamming people). Hopefully that way we can collectively bust through any thorny problems we might run into, too.

[gwaihiril]

So, I'm currently a student at MIT planning to take 6.00 next term; when my cousin linked to this community, I became very curious. This looks like an awesome idea, and if it weren't for the fact that it's required that I take 6.00 or a similar course as a graduation requirement at MIT, I would totally do this with you. That said, I guess I'll be taking it starting in February and finishing mid-May. I probably won't check the comm too much during this term, but as long as I remember, I'll probably come back at least a few times later, since this is a really great idea, even if I can't take advantage of it fully.

[zing_och]

I'm in and ready to start! *g* I'm not sure if I can keep up with twice a week, but I'd like to give it a try.

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[(Anonymous)]

Well done article that. I'll make sure to use it wsiley.

[person]

This community is such a pleasing discovery. (Thanks, Geek Feminism!) I'm ready to attempt the twice a week program.

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[(Anonymous)]

Haha, shouldn't you be chraging for that kind of knowledge?!

[katieastrophe]

I will be joining you this month.

[geeh]

Are we starting this week?

Python installed. I haven't used it before but I love indenting so it should all be good.

I will try to keep up with schedule a) and will catch up over the holidays if I fall behind.

G

[labellementeuse]

That's my summer holiday... so it sounds perfect! (Clearly I'm a glutton for punishment.) Count me in!

[gnomad]

This looks like an awesome amount of fun. I'm voting for twice a week and I will try to keep up. \o/

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[(Anonymous)]

I had to install Apple QuickTime to make the audio CAPTCHA work smeetimos. If it works, I can discern the numbers pretty well on the Blogger site, but there are other sites (mostly forums) which use a different kind of audio challenge, which is really hard to discern. Besides, audio CAPTCHAs don't always work on my mobile connection. With more and more people accessing the Interent on smartphones, this ought to be a point of attention.

[dragonfly]

I'm in for once a week!

God, I'm such a programming noob. But I adore this idea.

Here from otw_news, btw.