Online Materials for CSCI 4446/5446:
We will be using some online materials from a MOOC offered through the
Santa Fe Insitute's
Complexity Explorer
platform to supplement the lectures, readings, and assignments in
this course. If you have not done so already, you will need to go to
that webpage and register for the MOOC. It doesn't cost anything or
engender any formal responsibilities to do to, BTW.
The main mechanism for this will be a couple of short videos to set
you up for each of the 30 lectures this semester, together with an
online quiz about each one. These quizzes will not be graded-there
are solution videos online as well-but they will prepare you to absorb
the in-class material more easily and to pass the ten online ``unit
tests'' that are part of your grade.
The timing here is up to you; one good strategy is to watch the videos
before the corresponding lecture and to use the online quizzes
afterwards, to check your understanding. (If you score 100% on the
quiz, there's no need to watch the quiz solution videos, but they're
there for you if you need or want them.)
There are a couple of problems here and there on the unit tests that
aren't applicable because our homework is different than the MOOC
assignments: e.g., the question about the trapezoidal solver on unit
test 6. Just skip those; I'll normalize that out of the grades.
The lecture-video mapping is listed below, as well as on the
problem-set handouts. The timing for the unit tests is completely up
to you. You may take them whenever you wish (any time before the
final exam). Some students like to do this along the way; others have
found that they're useful in studying for the final.
- Lecture 1: unit 1.1, 1.5, 3.1 and 3.4 videos
- Lecture 2: unit 1.2-1.4 videos
- Quizzes covering lectures 1 and 2: 1.2-1.4 (we'll revisit
the quizzes from unit 3 later)
- Lecture 3: unit 2.1 and 2.2 videos
- Lecture 4: unit 2.3, 2.4, 4.2 videos
- Quizzes covering lectures 3 and 4: 2.1, 2.3, and 4.2
- Lecture 5: unit 7.1 and 7.5 videos
- Lecture 6: unit 3.1 and 5.1 videos
- Quizzes covering lectures 5 and 6: 3.1, 5.1, 7.1, and 7.5
- Lecture 7: unit 3.2-3.4, 4.1 and 4.3-4.4 videos
- Lecture 8: unit 5.2-5.4 and 7.4 videos
- Quizzes covering lectures 7 and 8: 3.2-3.4, 4.1, 4.3, and 5.2-5.3
- Note: this was a video-heavy week. It'll back off after this.
- Lecture 9: unit 6.1-6.3 videos
- Lecture 10: unit 7.3-7.4 videos
- Quizzes covering lectures 9 and 10:: 6.1-6.3 and 7.3-7.4
- Lecture 11: unit 4.4 and 5.5 videos
- Lecture 12: unit 10.4 video
- Quizzes covering lectures 11 and 12: 4.4
- Lecture 13: unit 3.5 and 6.4 videos
- Lecture 14: unit 6.5 video
- Quizzes covering lectures 13 and 14: 6.4
- Lecture 15: unit 8.1-8.3 videos
- Lecture 16: unit 8.4-8.5 videos
- Quizzes covering lectures 15 and 16: 8.1-8.5
- Lecture 17: unit 7.2 videos
- Lecture 18: unit 9.2 videos
- Quizzes covering lectures 17 and 18: 7.2 and 9.2
- Lecture 19: unit 9.1 video #1
- Lecture 20: unit 9.1 video #2
- Quizzes covering lectures 19 and 20:: 9.1
- Lecture 21: unit 8.6 video
- Lecture 22: unit 9.4 video
- Quizzes covering lectures 21 and 22: none
- Lecture 23: no video
- Lecture 24: unit 7.6 video
- Quizzes covering lectures 23 and 24: none
- Lecture 25: no video
- Lecture 26: unit 10.1 and 10.3 videos
- Quizzes covering lectures 25 and 26: 10.1 and 10.3
- Lecture 27: no videos (presentations)
- Lecture 28: no videos (presentations)
- Lecture 29: unit 9.3 video
- Lecture 30: unit 4.5 and 10.2 videos
- Quizzes covering lectures 29 and 30: 9.3 and 10.2
You do not need to do the homework assignments that are on that
MOOC webpage.