By Henry 5 months ago Completed

I graduated from 2 of the most prestigious universities in the US and over the years I've watched a few dozens online classes and I have to say Intro to Math Thinking is one of the best classes anywhere, online or off.
Devlin is imaginative as a teacher. The way he approaches math is so creative that it's a joy to watch his lectures.
This class is more than about math, it's about proper thinking and reasoning. In addition, Devlin cares about teaching (and your learning) and it shows throughout his lectures, and especially when he explains the solutions to the exercises.

By Ahmad Albaqsami from Kuwait City, Al 'Asimah 5 months ago Completed

Overall a very good course.

The pros: Learned a lot about the construction of proofs (especially while taking the final). There were a lot of ungraded sample problems to work from.

the cons: Some video clips were particularly long (40 minutes if not more). In addition, it seemed fast paced at times (good thing they are considering making a 10 weeks version a second time round). it would have been helpful if the Notes that the Instructor had written were provided in pdf form (The Cons are mostly concerned with logistics)

The Instructor: Simply great; Has high charisma and knows how to make the course very engaging.(still would have preferred if the vids were shorter though)

By deicidereigns from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 22 days ago Completed

As much as the professor tried to emphasise being clear about thoughts and ideas, I found many of his ideas unclear. In other words, he wasn't consistent with his usage. He tries to gives examples, be clear, and break things down, but then at other times he doesn't (or if he is, he isn't doing it very well). This inconsistency lost me more than a few times. I had to rewind several videos to try and untangle what he was trying to say, what assumptions he was making, etc.

The most difficult sections I found to be the middle lectures about proofs. For example, at one time he said that there aren't exact 'proof' formulas you can use, but then later will say "and since I am using so-and-so type of proof, I need to do this." Things like this just compound. He could do a much better job at first outlining the various proof types, moving more in depth into the structure(s) of each, then finally broadening each type of proof.

Another annoying part is that the week's lectures are only released half-way through the week with the assignment due less than a week later. It gives a shortened time to study and can be a problem for the many different schedules that people have. He should release all the material at the beginning of the week or extend the assignment due dates. Also, people can make their own decisions about how to study once the material is out, the professor shouldn't be making these decisions for them.

The course is admirable in scope, but there are still a lot of problems. It's like a snake eating its own tail with all the pedagogy ideas their trying to implement.

Because of this, the course could have been a medium difficulty, but turns unnecessarily into a hard one.

However, the course did have one of the best Certificate of Completions, describing in great detail what we studied in the course. I'd like to contrast this to other courses, which often give a vague description on the Certificate of Completion and usually not useful if you want to present it to other people so they can see what you did in the course.

By Timon 2 months ago Completed

The first and still best course I have taken online. Keith Devlin inspires beyond belief. His little companion book was amazingly helpful as well. If you are willing to work and think hard, then this course has a ton to offer. Thank you, Prof. Devlin!

By Franz Huber from Vienna 2 months ago Completed

This was one of my first MOOCs and therefore not only a great introduction to Mathematical Thinking but also to this new way of online education.
Watching Keith Devlin's lectures felt like private tutoring.

By Bani from Toronto, Ontario 7 months ago Completed

Very good lectures.

By Xiaoxi Wang from Southampton, England 7 months ago Completed (Partially)

A wonderful course! It change the the way I have about thinking questions, not only math problems, but also many related fields in engineering. I used to think that mathematic is only a tool for solving engineering problems, but now I would like to think more about where the "tools" e.g. equations, formulas comes. And I try to understand what they actually means.

By L (Luis) Figueroa 3 days ago Completed

This was a challenging course mostly focused on clear mathematical thinking and notation with a fair emphasis on proofs. Overall, Professor Devlin is highly creative in his approach to this conceptually challenging course. Even though I have taken many more practical mathematically oriented courses such as calculus, differential equations, linear systems, etc, they did not help much in this course, because the emphasis is more on methodology than actually getting a correct answer. While I generally struggled for much of the course, I was elated when I was actually able to put many of the concepts together to achieve a reasonably high score on the final exam.

Overall, this is a valuable course, especially for those who are beginning their careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

By Colin Jack 18 days ago Completed

Great course which provides either a good introduction or refresher, I really don't have anything negative to say about it.

By daisykho from Bintulu, Sarawak 54 days ago Taking Course Now

Extremely interesting course presenting a completely new subject to me. Each lecture so far opens up a whole new abstract area of concern to think about. Very challenging and engaging at the same time, forcing me to think, think, think!

By Jess 2 months ago Completed

Unlike many courses which focus on learning about or thinking about a subject, this course focussed on changing the way you think - literally 'changing your mind'. This is a very difficult task! This new set of reasoning tools is an important skill set in the modern world.
Professor Devlin himself did a lot of thinking about how this could work in an online program (see http://mooctalk.org/) for his first iteration of the course. I enjoyed the lectures, the quizes, the exercises and the requirement to create and peer-review proofs. Not easy, but very worthwhile.
Professor Devlin has thoroughly thought through the minor problems encountered in the first iteration and the changes he is implementing for the 2nd round address those issues.