My MOOCs Spring 2013

Great to see that the news program on SVT (Swedish Television) described MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) in a new story the other day.

SVT Nyheter, 27 Dec. 2012:Toppuniversitet ger gratiskurser på nätet.  

During 2012 I have followed a few courses via one of the organisations mentioned in the news program: Coursera.Two of the courses were excellent: Model Thinking and  Fundamentals of Pharmacology, and they are on Coursera's list of 211 (!) courses. While the course in "Software Engineering for Software as a Service (SAAS") was not of the same high quality, and it's not on the list anymore.

For the Spring 2013 I have enrollod three MOOCs. So, now I know what to do while commuting 2 hours per day also the coming months :-)

• Semantic Web Technologies, organised by openHPI, the educational Internet platform of the German Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam
• Data Management for Clinical Research, Vanderbilt University, organised by
  Coursera 
• Introduction to Data Science, University of Washington, organised by Coursera 

It's great to see how all of this have taken off during 2012 offering courses not only for data nerds as myself but also for many others.

So, I was thinking of my sister when I read these teasers from Coursera:

• "Ever wonder why people do what they do? This course offers some answers based on the latest research from Social Psychology."
• "In the course Introductory Human Physiology students learn to recognize and to apply the basic concepts that govern integrated body function (as an intact organism) in the body's nine organ systems."