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Columbia CVN

Joined
7/8/11
Messages
15
Points
13
Anyone attended any course from CVN ? What was your experience ?

Here is my concern:
The sample videos that are posted on their website for some courses are from 2004.
I emailed them asking wether these were "sample" videos just to pre-view and there are "true" videos more updated (considering they ask ~4000 per course). Their answer was that those old videos are the definitive ones and that TA assistants should answer assingments and coursework given in 2004 (even tough the titular professor changed and now the course is completely different).
 
Hi Andy, thanks for taking the time to search the forum for me. Believe me that I've searched the web for any information possible, including previous posts. All have questions similar to mine, but no one has inside information or appreciations of someone who really attended CVN. Thnxs.
 
I think that the best thing to do is to sign up for a course which is currently being taught and videotaped. This means that in the "days" column on the far right of the listing of courses, something other than "Pre-Taped" is shown.

http://www.cvn.columbia.edu/crs.php

That means that the recordings you would view should be freshly prepared each week this term.

Also, should you happen to be in New York, you could sit in on the actual class lecture from time to time (if you can find a spare seat...)
 
Hi myampol,
Yes there seem to be some live recordings, but I counted 3/11. And think that "just signing up" means ~ 4000 out of pocket to "just see how it goes".

Im in NY and I would be allowed to sit in the course (I cant attend all classes at 2 PM tough), but my point is that it will be a different course with no connection to what is videotaped, so it's not worth even going to capus for a few classes.
For example: Videotaped class for Financial Engineering I was taught by Yiengar in 2004 and now it's being teach by Rama Cont, both courses have different schedule, content, homework, etc, etc.
That's exaclty my point. Video recordings are totaly disconected from live classes, professors and TAs and homework assigned.

That's why Im asking for someone who actually attended any course to see how they managed to work it out.

Are you assigned homework by Rama Cont while seeing videos from 2004 from Iyengar ?
 
You are not understanding my response.

My original suggestion was that you register only for those courses which do not indicate "Pre-Taped" on the CVN course listing, because it is only those courses which you would be able to visit in person and to interact directly with the current instructor.

There is only one course in the financial engineering program which is being videotaped while it is being taught in the upcoming fall term. That is the final course on the list, i.e., the Data Analysis course (E4709) which Steve Kou will teach on Thursday afternoons.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/subj/IEOR/E4709-20113-001/

So, if you sign up for THAT course, then you can be pretty confident that each week's taped lecture will be that which Prof. Kou has just delivered. And, as you are located in NY, you can show up and sit in on occasional lectures. You could also sit for the exams with the rest of the students, which would eliminate the need to find a proctor and sit for the exams on your own.

Although there are two other courses offered by the IEOR department which are being taped as they are running during the fall term, neither of those two courses is applicable to financial engineering.

With regard to the other 7 or 8 courses which do pertain to OR & Financial Engineering, yes, it appears that they are showing videos from a prior year. So, regardless of whether that same course is also being given "live" in the fall term (for on-campus students) , as you point out above, there may be little, if any, relationship between what would be taught in the (old) videotaped course vs. the (currently offered) live course, especially when it is a different instructor.

As the only relevant Financial Engineering course so offered under CVN during Fall 2011 would be
IEOR E4709 Data Analysis for Financial Engineers

http://www.cvn.columbia.edu/review.php?course=IEOR E4709&sem=A11

my suggestion is that if you are considering spending $5,000 for a CVN course during the Fall 2011 semester, you should choose this one rather than the others, which are old tapes. Perhaps in a future semester they might replace the old videos of some of the other courses with "live" video of the then-current instructor; you could wait until such time to take the other course(s) in which you have interest.
 
Yes, thanks, still I want someone who already went trough it to give me insight. If the past courses have been recorded and not updated since 2004 I would like to know what to expect from someone who could actually speak from his/her own experience on CVN. That was my aim on the original post. Someone who went through it and could tell us his/her own experience with CVN.

OFF TOPIC: This is the complete list of courses for Fall 2011. There are 11 courses, 3 live 8 recorded from Evaand Adan time.
http://www.cvn.columbia.edu/crs.php?sem=A11
 
Some of the classes are taped from pervious years, but I don't see any problem with that. They still teach the same topics, assign similar homework problems / exams (that were exactly the same as the ones assigned to folks who took that class from previous years). It's just like taking the same classes as the on-campus people, but you're in a different section. Some pretaped classes are handled by TAs (i.e. "course manager"), and some are handled by the professor who taught it. If the fact that certain classes are pre-taped from prevoius years bothers you, then you might as well attend the live classes in person on campus. I personally have zero problem with this.
 
Hi coolharvard, did you attended any CVN course ? which course? what was your experience? did teachers answer your questions?

The fact is that classes are from 2004 and now new professors have taken over some of them and they changed everything, the topics, the lenght, the homework, it´s a completely different thing online and on campus.
I cant attend personally that´s why Im signing for something online.
 
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