Crazy for MOOC!

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Biz-ay.

I’m so busy with my courses that I don’t have enough time to post here.  

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VIGENERE COMPLETE

I must have been working on Vigenere for a week and a half, off and on.  I finally got it this evening.  I was so close for so long, and I had this idea in my mind about what the code should be like.  But, that’s the funny thing about this course... pretty much every time, the solution I come up with is on a whim and is nothing like what I originally envision.  Plus, it’s a more elegant solution (I think, at least!).  

Well, on to pset3!

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Oh, um, yeah, you know that MOOC means 'Massive Open Online Course', right?

Me

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“Initials.c” done.  It’s a simple program, yes, but when I compare how fast I was able to write it to how slowly I wrote Mario.c, I consider it a big breakthrough!  Actually, it would have taken me even less time had I used “i+1″ in part of the code as opposed to “i++”...  Now I know.

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(Screenshot taken from http://billofrightsinstitute.org/) My reading material for this evening, for American Government.  Lately, my left lower eyelid has been twitching with great frequency.  Googling the issue (yeah, I know) tells me it’s because I’m getting too little sleep, view computer screens too often, and have too much stress.  I tried to use a screen reader to give my eyes a break, but that doesn’t work well for reading comprehension.  Oh well.  Sorry, eyes!  

On another note regarding this course, it’s very interesting but I’m not doing as well on the quizzes as I had hoped.  It doesn’t help that they’re only 4 questions each (so far).  My aforementioned reading comprehension is already not great in the first place, it appears.  I’ve missed too many answers because I didn’t read between the lines during the lectures.  I really need to pick up the pace.  The discussion questions are, by comparison, a lot easier for me.  However, I don’t actually know if those get graded.  

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Mario.c, I spent way too long getting this one working to spec.

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This is the end...

...of all my free time.

About a month ago, I took a basic SQL course on Khan Academy.  It was just difficult enough to hold my attention, and I found it made me think out problems more methodically than I had before.  After completing the course, I immediately wanted more.  

A search returned edX, which I think I had heard of before but thought, for some reason, it was just a dumping grounds for lectures, with no care or attention towards a syllabus, or making sure those taking the course actually learned something.  I thought I’d give it a chance, and promptly signed up for CS50, the entry-level Computer Science course from Harvard.  

A week after starting, I decided I wanted more.  These courses actually require effort, they’re not the “dumping grounds” I had envisioned before.  You get graded!  You have assignments with deadlines!  So, I also signed up for Creativity & Entrepreneurship and American Government.  Then, Justice starts next month.  I think I may be overestimating my abilities here, a bit...

And that’s what this blog is for.  I’ll be posting updates whenever I can.