By Afref Fetter 5 months ago Completed

Prior experience in the field: None

Like:
Gave a good overview about networks, covering many topics in the field.

Was a very easy course to complete/get a certificate.

Dislike:
No programming assignments to let you implement what you'd read about.

A lot of time in the lectures were spent just reading the slides/providing trivial explanations.

The quizzes tested stuff that was explicitly mentioned in the lectures - your hearing skills were tested, rather than your thinking skills.

The quizzes had the same questions on the second attempt - making it very easy to ace every quiz.

Suggested improvements:
Add some programming assignments.

Make the quizzes worthwhile (or discard them).

Overall:
A nice course if all you want is an introduction to networks (and a certificate), but you wouldn't want to tell others that you know anything in the field, since you yourself won't be sure!

By Krista Garver from Montreal, Quebec 5 months ago Completed

I was not sure what to expect from this course, but I ended up really enjoying it. The course takes a mathematical approach to describing and analyzing networks, particularly social networks. Michael Kearns does a good job of distilling a lot of information into a short course.

I recommend this course, but there were a few rough spots:
-- The first half of the course, where he lays the foundation, is very theoretical and a bit difficult to follow for non-math people. Professor Kearns presents the information quickly and at a high level, and I found some of it quite intimidating. There was one slide where he put up a very complex equation, using symbols I had no idea existed, and I thought "Oh no!" However, the second half of the course is absolutely worth wading through the first half! When he got into sociological phenomena and real-world applications, I was very glad I had stuck it out.
-- The lecture slides, especially during the first half of the course, are quite dull -- lines and lines of dense text.
-- The quizzes (again during the first half of the course) are tough without the math background to understand all of the equations.

However, despite all of this, the concepts are fascinating, and the course is well worth the time. For people who do not have time or energy to brush up on the math, the course is still worth auditing.

By Lloyd Melnick from Chapel Hill, North Carolina 5 months ago Completed

This was a fantastic experience. My first online course and I was impressed at how structured and valuable it was. I learned more from this course that I could apply in business than probably anything else in my education (and I have completed three traditional masters programs). If you are in the social media space, in particular, it will give you a great understanding of the underlying dynamics driving the industry.

By Vadim Solomonik from New York, New York 5 months ago Completed

well done introduction into network concepts.
the lectures by prof. Michael Kearns are very digestible.

By Robert Komartin from Bucharest, Bucuresti 6 months ago Completed

Well done, Dr. Kearns! Outstanding intro "broadcasting live from beautiful downtown Philadelphia" into the matters of graphs and social networks. Really loved it!

By Milene Pereira from Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 6 months ago Completed

I enjoyed this experience.Dr. Michael Kearns fulfill my ambition to understand how the social network works.