Question

is there video session or how do I access the material. Pretty confusing website

Answer 1

If you are talking about the mechanical mooc, check out your email for previous mails by 'the machine'. The course material is found at mit:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-189-a-gentle-introduction-to-programming-using-python-january-iap-2011/
Also you can practice at:
www.codecademy.org

And this place is for asking questions along the way.

Answer 2

Hi, there will be video included as part of the course, but you will watch it through the MIT OpenCourseWare site. This is the forum for asking and answering questions.

Answer 3

There is also http://mechanicalmooc.wordpress.com/ where MOOC-E stores all the emails.

Answer 4

Another source of stuff is

https://www.coursera.org/course/interactivepython

(same start date as mechanicalmooc, also 8 weeks).

Focus is somewhat different.

Answer 5

Hi Estudier. Can you tell me what you think the difference is? Better? Worse? Thanks

Answer 6

There is no access to the course yet so best I can do is provide some quotes from the intro page:

"This course is designed to help students with very little or no computing background learn the basics of building simple interactive applications."

"we have developed a new browser-based programming environment that makes developing interactive applications in Python simple. These applications will involve windows whose contents are graphical and respond to buttons, the keyboard and the mouse."

"With the exception of the first week’s project, these mini-projects will be peer-assessed. The class will also include simple supplemental programming exercises."

The link between /game) project and programming principles can be seen at
http://www.codeskulptor.org/coursera/syllabus.html

Typically you learn programming bottom up (ie things like GUI and projects come a bit later on); in this offering, the attempt is to do it at the same time, which is an interesting idea.

Myself, I am going to try and do the mechanical and the coursera at the same time if I can.

As to which is better, time will tell, coursera and co are clearly spending some money but that's no guarantee in and of itself....