Always wanted to go to Stanford? Did not, perhaps, have the grades or copious amounts of cash to actually get in and take a class? No worries – you can do it for free now, this fall.
Stanford is offering a series of computer science courses online this fall that absolutely anyone can take (as long as you meet the prereqs) and learn from. You won’t get credit for the classes or a shiny Stanford certificate or anything, but what you WILL get is the benefit of being privy to the exact same classes Stanford students can take, with the same professors and same information. If you do well, you may even end up with some “statements of accomplishment” from the professor to show you’ve got the stuff, even if you didn’t actually get to earn a grade for your work. And that’s pretty awesome.
The four courses they are offering are as follows:
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Stanford Engineering Everywhere
You can learn more about each of the individual courses at those links and see if anything strikes your fancy. If you decide you want to audit a class, you’ll get to watch the same lectures, view and use the same materials, submit assignments and get feedback, just like the paying customers at the school. Study groups are already popping up on Reddit – like this one for the Artificial Intelligence class – and tons of people are taking advantage of this opportunity, so you’ll be in good company if you decide you want in, too.
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