Free courses.

[wookie1965]

Heres a site which has free courses in different subjects for anyone interested. https://www.coursera.org/courses

[sallystar]

That seems really good. Have you tried any of the courses before?

[wookie1965]

No i was going to try the astronomy course until it showed me the algebra i needed and i knew i wasnt up to speed with it so im looking for a maths one now to gain confidence in my algebra and calculus.

[sallystar]

I have just put my name down for the astronomy course!

My son is studying engineering at Brunel so I'm hoping he can help out with the Maths side of things!

[wookie1965]

Scan through and click on the astronomy course it gives you a brief of what you need to know i panicked when i saw it.

[breezy]

re the maths....eeeeeeekkkkk

[dtr42]

if that was the introduction to astronomy then i don't think i could handle the maths/ algebra , and i can't imagine what the advanced astronomy course would be like

[wookie1965]

I know i looked at the maths and went what the hell i will have to go back to school perhaps do Micheal Goves O level which i did 30 yrs ago ive forgotten it all i need a refresher course.

[sallystar]

I'm going to give it a go as its free. If it gets too much I won't of lost anything. The link on the course website to the wikibook is good as the book looks reasonably easy to understand so it's worth a look.

[wookie1965]

Im going to look for a refresher course in maths first then do the astronomy one just need to brush the cobwebs off the part of my brain where i did this 30 yrs ago.

[chesty]

i am tempted

[chesty]

the maths does look hard i must admit

[Breakintheclouds]

Same here - I'm kicking myself (as I regularly do) that I didn't get a better grounding in maths. Then again, I'm putting some of the blame on the terrible terrible A-level maths lessons I had, which were so indecipherable and badly taught that I changed subject after a year. I tried to go back and do A-level maths at night school recently, to redress this, but my local college didn't offer it. Humph. Might need to do it by correspondence or something.

[paler31]

This looks to good to be true. I think i will sign up for the computer architectural course

[LukeSuppalot]

I'm going to give it a go as its free. If it gets too much I won't of lost anything.

I'm with you on that. Got to be worth a go. The maths does look a little bit daunting but nothing ventured nothing gained. Signed up today.

[Mike73]

I'm with you on that. Got to be worth a go. The maths does look a little bit daunting but nothing ventured nothing gained. Signed up today.

I'd have to do a major maths refreshing course before I signed up to anything like that. Until then Luke you'll have to tell me all about it next time we meet up.

[Mansnake]

I'd have to do a major maths refreshing course before I signed up to anything like that. Until then Luke you'll have to tell me all about it next time we meet up.

Same here !. I'm currently doing a course in Electronic Engineering and the forumla/Equations in that are bad enough.

I'd like to here some peoples reviews of the Astronomy courses though.

[Stargazer33]

The OU has a great maths refresher/study aid here: http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/doc/maths-skills.pdf I used it on my last OU course - S177 - Galaxies, Stars and Planets.

It was really helpful and takes you from really simple basic maths up to more advanced stuff. It is surprising what you can remember, with a little hint!

HTH

Bryan

[Breakintheclouds]

Bryan,

That looks like a really useful resource - thanks!

Ian

[gooseholla]

By the way, that OU pdf isn't so long as you think - half of it are the answers! One per page.

[LukeSuppalot]

I'd have to do a major maths refreshing course before I signed up to anything like that.

So do I.Lol. Living next door to a maths Professor with a desire to see a few DSO's does help tho.

[Joseki]

Brilliant, thx for the link. I've signed up too. I nearly signed up for the January one, Galaxies & Cosmology but maybe I should see how this goes. btw maths like that is an occupational hazard for me so I'm not worried.

[sallystar]

That's three of us brave souls all signed up. Who else is brave enough to join us?

[Joseki]

I just checked out Galaxies and Cosmology in more detail by the way - far too hard for me. The chap in the video said the course assumed basic quantum mechanics. So I thought, ok maybe I could do the quantum mechanics course (how hard could that be, right? ). But the QM course said it assumed knowledge of eigenvectors - which I never really got at Uni .. and basic computer science stuff like big-Oh notation. The only big Oh I understand is Oh, maybe it's not for me...

[Scosmico]

Come on guys! Cosmology, here I go.