Comments on: Free Coursera Calculus course with hand-drawn animated materials

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:53:00 +0000

I did a computer science course on Coursera in the spring that I thought was very good. I then tried another and didn’t like the way it was done and gave up on it. I definitely need a calculus refresher and this looks good so I’m sold on this one, I hope it turns out well.

By: Alissa Mower Clough

Alissa Mower Clough — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:45:00 +0000

I’m getting somewhat aroused. In which sense, I really don’t know.

By: SamSam

SamSam — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 23:36:00 +0000

There’s also a more basic Calculus One course: https://www.coursera.org/course/calc1

The only prereqs are highschool algebra and trig.

By: sburns54

sburns54 — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:55:00 +0000

Holy moley! It’s still as densely unapproachable to me as I remember it being when I flunked it in high school! Even with cartoons, which always grab my attention! I was lost by 1:03 seconds in! Thank goodness there are other people that can do this stuff and put it to practical use. I’ll just stay in the kitchen, if anyone needs a sandwich.

By: lafave

lafave — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:25:00 +0000

I have all the prereqs; I just wish I remembered half of them. This class looks fun. Oh well.

By: Jeff Erickson

Jeff Erickson — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:28:00 +0000

Needs more Dante.

By: SamSam

SamSam — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:37:00 +0000

Yay, I already signed up for this course a few months ago!

Even as a programmer I’ve always felt my basic calc was a bit rusty, and while I could probably just take a two-session refresher course and jump straight to Calc 2, this course looked fun. Now… hopefully I can stick with the schedule better than I could with “The History of the World Since 1300.” Who would have guessed that 700 years of history would require lots of reading and lectures? (The course was very good, and I made it through four weeks on-schedule, but in the end I didn’t have nearly enough time.)

By: s2redux

s2redux — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:20:00 +0000

Trying to figure out why George Takei agreed to read this script while wearing pants that are 2 sizes too small.

By: DevinC

DevinC — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 17:50:00 +0000

I signed up for this course, rather than another introductory calculus course offered through Coursera, because Ghrist's approach seems radically different than the industry standard. His Funny Little Calculus Textbook starts off with functions, but immediately jumps to Taylor series, assuming the reader knows how to take the derivatives of simple polynomials. In other words, it seems more like a course about understanding calculus than doing calculus.

By: Phssthpok

Phssthpok — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 17:25:00 +0000

Great post, and I am likely being pedantic, but I think it’s important to distinguish between *describing* and *explaining*.