Does your time at home seem like it has stretched on forever? Mahatma Gandhi has a prescription for you—learn. “Learn as if you were to live forever,” Gandhi once said.
With over 400 free online courses offered by Ivy League schools, there are no shortage of learning opportunities, especially for people interesting in learning more about technology. Here are five courses that you might enjoy:
Harvard University’s CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science
This course provides the opportunity to get an introduction to computer science and the art of programming. It is a 12-week self-paced course with a suggested 10 to 20 hour a week commitment. Course topics include algorithms, data structures, security, software engineering, and web development.
Princeton University’s Courses on Algorithms
This a two-part course designed to teach about algorithms and data structures. Part one covers elementary data structures, sorting, and searching algorithms while Part two focuses on graph- and string-processing algorithms. Part one of the course has a May 11 start date and runs for six weeks. Part two has a May 4 start date and also runs for six weeks.
University of Pennsylvania’s Course on Robotics: Vision Intelligence and Machine Learning
This course teaches elements of machine learning’s acquisition of data patterns. The course then teaches computer vision and machine learning together to build recognition algorithms that can adapt to new environments using data. The self-paced course is 12 weeks long, with a recommended commitment of around 10 hours per week.
Cornell University’s Course The Computing Technology Inside Your Smartphone
Despite the prevalence of smartphones, not everyone understands how they work. This computer science course starts with the fundamental layers of the computing technology and then covers the details of actual smartphone processors. It is a self-paced 10-week course.
Dartmouth University’s Course on C Programming
There are many programming languages, but this course provides instruction and instant feedback on the C programming language. This is the first of seven courses in the Linux Professional Certificate program. The first course requires two-to-four hours of work a week over a seven-week period.
While Gandhi could not have imagined the plethora of options for online learning, he may have encouraged individuals to work on themselves during this period. “Change yourself,” said Gandhi, “you are in control.”
