I came across a link on digg some time ago for Stanford University’s “Stanford Engineering Everywhere” program. It’s more or less an open-source education. Stanford puts their more popular engineering classes entirely online. We’re talkin’ handouts, tests, homeworks, solutions, and videos of each lecture. I think this is the coolest idea ever because it allows anyone to essentially take a class at one of the best universities in the nation (for free!).

Now, since I’ve finished my finals for this semester (at the University of Minnesota), I’ve decided to go ahead and attempt to “take” one of these classes and see how it goes. No, I won’t actually receive any kind of credit for this. This is all just for the sake of knowledge here. The class I’ve decided to take is CS106A – Programming Methodologies. It’s more or less an intro Java course, but it’s focused on promoting “good practices” in coding. The course is going great so far. I’ve watched the first 11 lectures out of 28 or so. The professor is engaging, funny, and explains complex things in a down-to-earth manner than anyone can grasp. I highly recommend this if anyone is interested in programming at all. The course is taught with the assumption that you don’t have any previous programming experience.

I may end up posting a project or two that get inspired from this class. Some of the homework assignments actually seem fun. One of them is an arcade-style breakout game, albiet a simple one.