[ermintrude]

I've become good at understanding lecture videos played back at faster than real-time. Sometimes I can get up to 2x playback speed with VLC and still understand what's being said. It'd be so boring watching things in real-time. I'm so glad Coursera let you download videos so you can do that.

[craigching]

Yes, absolutely have to agree with this! The lectures can be time consuming in some of the classes and this really makes it bearable. You really just need to get the gist of what the professor is presenting and then use the lecture notes/presentations as-needed. I would probably skip the video lectures altogether, but occasionally there is something in the lectures themselves that you need to pick up on. At least this has been my experience with the "Data Analysis" classes, my first foray into MOOCs.

[RBerenguel]

The online viewer at Coursera (including the iOS app) has also speed setting: I watch them at between 1.5 and 1.75. Occasionally 2x, and more often than not I skip 30 sec chunks when nothing interesting is going on.

[marincounty]

Yes X 1000! Once I started doing this I started to finish courses, and lectures. Before, I was nodding out within a half hour. I'm not a smart guy either. Just an average, or low average IQ(too lazy to take the test actually). I watch the videos at 1.4x or higher, and slow down the speed when something complex is introduced. (Teacher must have good diction, and an accent I'm familiar with--no mumblers)