Online Learning: Three Free Introduction to Computer Science Courses

These days, with a bit of perseverance and discipline, it is entirely possible to receive a world class education in computer science for free online from the comfort of your own home.  Many of the top computer science departments at US universities make their course lectures and materials freely available on the net, providing motivated individuals with a range of choices that is almost unbelievable in its scope.  In this post, we'll take a look a three Introduction to Computer Science courses that have been made freely available online from Harvard, MIT and Stanford.  The Harvard course provides an introduction to C, PHP and JavaScript.  Stanford focuses on Java. And MIT utilizes the Python programming language. 

Harvard's Intensive Introduction to Computer Science
Course site and description:

This free online computer science course is an introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science. Topics include algorithms (their design, implementation, and analysis); software development (abstraction, encapsulation, data structures, debugging, and testing); architecture of computers (low-level data representation and instruction processing); computer systems (programming languages, compilers, operating systems, and databases); and computers in the real world (networks, websites, security, forensics, and cryptography). The course teaches students how to think more carefully and how to solve problems more effectively. Problem sets involve extensive programming in C as well as PHP and JavaScript.

Stanford's Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Methodology
Course site and description:

This course is the largest of the introductory programming courses and is one of the largest courses at Stanford. Topics focus on the introduction to the engineering of computer applications emphasizing modern software engineering principles: object-oriented design, decomposition, encapsulation, abstraction, and testing. 

Programming Methodology teaches the widely-used Java programming language along with good software engineering principles. Emphasis is on good programming style and the built-in facilities of the Java language. The course is explicitly designed to appeal to humanists and social scientists as well as hard-core techies. In fact, most Programming Methodology graduates end up majoring outside of the School of Engineering. 

MIT's Introduction to Computer Science and Programming
Course site and description:

This subject is aimed at students with little or no programming experience. It aims to provide students with an understanding of the role computation can play in solving problems. It also aims to help students, regardless of their major, to feel justifiably confident of their ability to write small programs that allow them to accomplish useful goals. The class will use the Python programming language.  Many of the problem sets focus on specific topics, such as virus population dynamics, word games, optimizing routes, or simulating the movement of a Roomba.