Review — Machine Learning (Coursera)
Prologue
I started Professor Andrew Ng’s “Machine Learning Course” on 3 May 2017. 2 months on, I’ve finally completed the course.
General Thoughts
Professor Ng does an excellent job explaining difficult concepts in a simple, easy-to-understand manner. Most machine learning courses demand their students to have some level of familiarity with linear algebra and statistics.
Prior to starting this course, I was slightly worried. I had never studied linear algebra before and whatever I knew about statistics, came from what I learnt in H2 Mathematics for my A Levels.
I was surprised to find out that Professor Ng managed to teach these concepts in quick videos. The supplementary notes provided at the end of each video also helped to strengthen my understanding.
Minor Gripes
I noticed that there weren’t any supplementary notes provided for the later weeks of the course. As such, it was hard to consolidate what I had learnt. Though there were slides and brief concept graphs, they lacked the insights found in the notes. Hopefully, they will be provided eventually.
Overall
Some have pointed out that the full course (available here) is a much better version than Coursera’s. Unfortunately, I am not able to comment on that since I haven’t gone through the original Stanford version.
Nonetheless, I highly recommend this course to anyone who wishes to learn more about the concepts behind artificial intelligence and machine learning. Professor Ng has done a great job curating a course that achieves a good mix of breadth and depth.
