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student
10/10 starsCompleted
4 years, 6 months ago
To former and future students looking to LAFF: Over at ulaff.net, Robert and
Maggie just released all of the notes in a downloadable PDF with embedded
hyperlinks to the videos. It's a whopping 900 pages of s...
To former and future students looking to LAFF: Over at ulaff.net, Robert and
Maggie just released all of the notes in a downloadable PDF with embedded
hyperlinks to the videos. It's a whopping 900 pages of some of the best linear
algebra instruction you will ever find, with accompanying videos, homeworks,
exams, and notebooks. Best of all, it is available on a generous "pick your
price" model ensuring everyone can have access to this great material
regardless of income. It looks like the instructors have plans to update and
refine the material as time progresses, and supporting them in that effort is
a worthy cause. This material is so fundamental to many different areas that
everyone should be able to LAFF with Robert and Maggie! To the course staff:
Thanks so much for one of the most well done MOOCs I've ever taken!
Pablo Barría Urenda
8/10 starsCompleted
2 days, 16 hours ago
This course intentionally strays from the path of traditional Linear Algebra courses by focusing on the matrix/vector operations more than on their geometric interpretations. It also has a strong interest on...
This course intentionally strays from the path of traditional Linear Algebra courses by focusing on the matrix/vector operations more than on their geometric interpretations. It also has a strong interest on the computational aspects of LA, how expensive each algorithm is, etc. My only complaint about the material is that when the geometric aspects do come on, they feel a little bit rushed. Rushed, I must say, when compared to some of the other material taught on this same course, not necessarily more rushed than other courses out there.
The course stays true to its promise of teaching the foundations while showing you the frontier, by which they mean the research the FLAME group is doing in developing algorithms for LA computation. I also believe some of the notation taught in the course is particular to these research group, but it is a notation that makes the underlying topics clearer, so it's helpful for beginners.
The instructors are VERY committed to the course, and usually reply to questions right away. They are also committed to keeping this material available and making it reach as many people as possible, which is great. They are also very aware of how this course differs from others, so they will tell you when the nomenclature or they way some topics are covered may be different, so you will not be confused by other material.
I think I am something of an edge case as I took this course on a slow connection over a VPN, but I must say that on those conditions the edX platform can be distractingly painful at times, unnecessarily adding up to an hour to the time I spent studying, at its worst. This applies even more to the MatLab platform on which the programming exercises for the course are offered. Again, I was on a particularly slow connection, so take these comments with a grain of salt.
Overall a great course.