There are no negatives to trying to take this course and failing exams. Nothing. So, do what you can to learn Physics, Electricity and Magnetism.
No disrespect - but.............I doubt you'd be so bold to walk into a classroom on the first day and say that to the professor. It's no different just cause it's "free" or "online". Just my 2 cents.
I will promise you one thing. Even if you don't "succeed in this course", you will end up with more knowledge than when you started.
Eeek! Well, I'll let others chime in, but this thread is a bit awkward, really. I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer but...
The class is almost all math and theory. The first few chapters are interesting. Lots of resistor networks and how to solve them - but then it goes off the hook and you'll be doing integrals and stuff for the rest of the class. Never will there be an arduino mentioned, or even the difference between a real op-amp and an ideal op-amp.
I guess what I'm saying is that for someone wanting to learn, that isn't up on the electo/mag college level physics class(that's 3'rd semister physics on a college level) - it's going to be ugly - I don't think you'll like it - and I don't think it will be worth your time. (perhaps reading Chris Anderson's book on the "free" economy would actually suite this topic quite well- lol - it's quite apropo and stuff.)
I wish you the best of luck - how about you report back after chapter 3 and prove me wrong? I'd love to hear that you're doing well on it.
Again - I'm all for people learning, and I love that MIT is offering this class for free (hopefully the 1000:1 drop out rate won't be a burden on them).
There is a college class like this, it''s more of an AC/DC circuit class - it's a non-calc class, I don't even know if they teach it at MIT - maybe not - but that class would be much better suited to someone that hasn't taken all the calc and pzx classes. I learned a lot in it. Tons of good "how to build/tune a filter"
Anyone have a link to an non-calc AC/DC series of lectures?
Anyways, just my 2 cents.