Harvard Statistics 110: Introduction to Probability, on iTunes

[sidupadhyay]

This is a really great addition to iTunes U. Skipping through the videos, the course appears to give a thorough treatment to the theoretical background of probability. I haven't seen too many intro probability courses explore topics such as Beta Distributions and Markov Chains with this much rigor. I hope Harvard does the same for Stat 111 and Stat 171.

Edit: I just skimmed through some of the assignments and tests, and thought they are really good! If its been a few years since you took probability/statistics and feel you may be rusty when it comes to the integration and manipulations, give them a try! Homework 9 and 10, especially.

[kpi]

Harvard, don't lock in your content! Other courses in many formats are available on http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative Why should this one be iTunes only?

[idspispopd]

This storm in a teacup fear mongering stuff has to stop. It's silly to suggest this is locking in content, or even bad for anyone, and it's obvious why they use this distribution method over hosting the content themselves.

1. It's not in a proprietary format, the documents are PDF, the videos are AAC/H264. (I give up the h264 debate for today). Having to run iTunes to access the store is hardly "lock in". You might as well suggest turning on your computer is lock in.

2. This is on a CDN managed externally, Harvard don't need to invest in data centers.

3. Harvard don't have to pay for hosting/transmission/upkeep costs.

4. It enables harvard to provide something for free when normally they'd need to allocate budget. (And with that possibly charge for it.)

5. It's part of iTunes U, which is praised by universities across the globe for being an excellent enabler of education.

[nhebb]

If you step back and think about this for a minute, you're getting free access to educational material from a world class university, and the the only prerequisite is that you install iTunes. That's a pretty good trade off.

[MisterMerkin]

Is there any way to watch this without iTunes? I don't use it and have no desire to join Apple's 'ecosystem'.

[sidupadhyay]

It is unfortunate that the content isn't available outside of iTunes.

Thought, if you're interested there are some other pretty good intro probability courses online:

Math and Probability for Life Sciences (UCLA): http://www.academicearth.org/courses/math-and-proability-for... The course doesn't cover as much material, but is still fairly detailed.

CS 798 Mathematical Foundations of Computer Networking, Fall 2008, University of Waterloo: http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/keshav/mediawiki-1.4.7/index... This is a really great course that covers a broad set of topics, and is some what similar in structure to the Stat 110 course. Beyond the basics of probability, you also can learn a good deal about statistical inference and stochastic processes.

[iamabhi9]

If you are using GNU/Linux then there is an alternative http://tunesviewer.sourceforge.net/

[aiscott]

I don't believe there is, but you are missing out on some good content in iTunes U.

[agumonkey]

  * in progresss *

itunes fetch the whole playlist as m4v so it must be possible to send audio when fetching's over.

edit :

  Format                           : MPEG-4
  Format profile                   : Base Media / Version 2
  File size                        : 402 MiB
  Duration                         : 46mn 28s
  Overall bit rate                 : 1 209 Kbps

  Format                           : AAC
  Format profile                   : LC
  Stream size                      : 62.6 MiB (16%)
  Duration                         : 46mn 28s
  Bit rate                         : 192 Kbps

full codec info >>> http://pastebin.com/dCHEmtVg

[sayemm]

A great college textbook I had for intermediate probability theory is "A First Course in Probability" by Sheldon Ross, highly recommend it: http://www.amazon.com/First-Course-Probability-Sheldon-Ross/...

[sidupadhyay]

Another good book is "Mathematical statistics with applications" by Wackerly et al. It's focus is more on the application of the toolkit from probability, but about half the book focuses on the background of probability theory. What's great is that by the end of the book you will have a great introductory perspective of both frequentist and bayesian statistics. There are some gaps in the book, but it's a great reference nevertheless.

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Statistics-Applications-D...

[jczhang]

reviews look pretty bad. any defense/pro arguments for this?

[ramblerman]

I don't suppose someone could be so awesome as to host the first lecture(s) as an mp3 somewhere?

I'm at the airport and would love to hear this, but only have my android tablet with me :(

[afsina]

I really wished to have this class. But iTunes only? seriously? Get some inspiration from Stanford or MIT.

[gerggerg]

First of, no one here is bashing anyone. We're talking about how to get people access to the content. Second, you're attempting to take this even more off topic with your meta rant.

[kahawe]

I think it is great that Harvard and Stanford open their course material on the internet but can someone explain to me why they would do it? I mean, what is in it for them - a bit of PR and friendly headlines aside? Their name and status alone is enough to stay "in business".

[draz]

Harvard and Stanford (and other big name universities) are in the business of "selling" diplomas, not content. You cannot put on your resume that you "aced" a Harvard iTunes course, but only that you graduated from Harvard. I applaud these institutions for realizing it and allowing others to benefit from the content. Think of it as the public library model -- you can certainly pick up Tocqueville or Newton writing and read it, but it offers no guarantee of your mastery of the material. The diploma (supposedly) gives you that badge.

[Homunculiheaded]

I used to work in academia, including a pretty well known university. As much as I like to be cynical at times, I sincerely believe there are lot of good professors at these institutions who sincerely believe that education should be free. Take for example MIT's push to have all their publications made open access, this was driven (in it's early stages) largely by Hal Abelson and a few other dedicated faculty/staff.

Top professors at top universities have a lot of clout, and despite the many issues there are with the current system of higher ed, I do believe that a lot of this work is sincerely driven by the ideals of good professors. Look at the interviews with Sebastian Thrun regarding the AI course, he clearly believes in finding a models of maximizing the quality to cost ratio for education.

Culturally I think places like Stanford, Harvard and MIT know well that many times you don't find your business model until you experiment, and if you want to be in charge of the future you have to be the one doing the experimenting. I think the angle that sells this to admins is that if you're a leading university you want to be pushing these boundaries, and if you want to be a head of the curve you need to be.

[dlokshin]

In a way, I think that Harvard (and probably Standford, MIT, etc.) have done this all along. It's just getting publicity now.

I am class of '08 at Harvard and actually took this course (taught be a different professor--excellent when I took it). There were a handful of Boston and Cambridge locals who sat in and took the course with me. No one ever said a word to them. When I took a course on the history of Hollywood Cinema--where we watched 2 movies a week on the big screen--there were probably 30 or so locals who sat in on the lectures. No one ever said anything to them.

So Harvard has been a part of the community for some time now .. it's just more public now that you can disseminate lectures on iTunes and the internet instead of actually sitting in the lecture hall.

[gcb]

This being on itunes, i bet it's a pilot to a paid version later, differently from mit, Stanford, et al.

[godDLL]

Showing off.

[benpbenp]

Here is a crazy theory that I don't necessarily subscribe to, but perhaps it is what you are looking for: They are doing this to crush the smallest players in the education business.