[wayne-li2]

Hi, I used to TA for 61B. This isn’t an online course though. You’ll notice a small detail at the top “245 Li Ka Shing” which is the lecture hall used.

Granted most students don’t attend because the lectures are diligently posted online on the website.

What’s not captured on the website are twice a week discussion small groups where one TA to 20-30 students work through problems in a group setting. There’s a lot of collaboration and interactivity here. Then there’s the once a week lab, where about 20-30 students go to a computer room and go through an interactive lab exercise.

Then, there are the projects. Every CS 61ABC course is defined by their projects. These projects are the opposite of traditional learning. And 61B has done some of the most innovative projects I’ve seen in an educational context. For example, we had one semester where students grouped up and designed a rogue-like from scratch. There was a minimum rubric, but students were given the time to be extra creative, and we definitely saw that shine. It was a nightmare to grade though, but it was experimental and cool.

So this website is just a small fraction of what the students experience. It’s really just a schedule + lecture directory.

[cobaltoxide]

One of the lectures is actually "The Design of CS61B" which explains a lot about how the course is structured and how it has evolved!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dWqymxQxZrMWYl76GfJo...

In my mind this is the most interesting aspect of this course website - the meta reflection aspect.

[blagie]

I got that, and it's great that it's public. That has a lot of impact, a lot of it auxiliary.

The key question is suitability-to-purpose. Without the small group work and the collaboration, a web site like this isn't what I'd like to point strangers on the internet wanting to learn algorithms. Without that, something more is needed. Two decades ago, we were figuring out what that "something more" ought to be so learners can be successful independently online. Today, we know.

I'm not asking Berkeley to do that additional work. It's a ton of work (probably a half-million dollars in human time). I'm just surprised no one has done it.

To make an analogy, if someone needs a car, giving them plans to build one is less than constructive. But that doesn't take away the merits of having an open-source car. It's just a different purpose.

[wayne-li2]

That’s fair. I don’t think our 61B is optimized for public consumption nor is it designed to do so. I would not recommend learning DS by just watching the lectures posted on this website. But making this website public gives people at least the option, even if it is subpar. So I think we’re in agreement here!