Networked Life

Michael Kearns

Networked Life will explore recent scientific efforts to explain social, economic and technological structures -- and the way these structures interact -- on many different scales, from the behavior of individuals or small groups to that of complex networks such as the Internet and the global economy.

Video Lectures

https://class.coursera.org/networks-2012-001/lecture/30

https://class.coursera.org/networks-2012-001/lecture/1

https://class.coursera.org/networks-2012-001/lecture/2

https://class.coursera.org/networks-2012-001/lecture/3

https://class.coursera.org/networks-2012-001/lecture/4

OverviewOverview

CompletedOverview
Video (MP4) for Overview

Introduction to Networks

Announcements

Quiz Questions and Issues

I realize that many of you have questions about some of the quizzes, are uncertain why certain answers are correct, feel that there may be bugs, technical issues and so on. This note is about these issues and how we'll try to address them when warranted.

First of all, please understand that this online course is entirely new, and creating quizzes for it is as much art as science. Given the deliberately inclusive and interdisciplinary nature of the course, it's impossible to know in advance what people will find easy or hard, what concepts will create confusion, and so on. The current quizzes are far from perfect, and are the least tested aspect of the course; in contrast, the lectures are based on years of teaching the material offline at Penn. So far we have refrained from trying to answer every question in detail, mainly because we were unsure how big a job this would be. But for at least the major points of confusion, it seems more feasible now, on which more below.

All this being said, here are some things we'll be trying to do to help out:

* I have asked the TAs for the Penn version of this course to monitor the discussion forums on a regular basis and try to respond to those threads that seem to express legitimate sources of confusion or problems, and have the most posts. By "regular" I don't mean immediate response; think more like daily. The TAs are named Hoda Heidari and Sneha Jha. They are full-time Penn graduate students with their own full load of coursework and research, and are doing this voluntarily, so please treat them with respect and patience.

* If we find actual "bugs" in quizzes, or questions we think need replacing or rephrasing, we will go ahead and do so. This means it's possible people who take a quiz later will see a different and improved version than those who took it earlier. This will of course be taken into consideration when considering certification (which again I anticipate awarding to all those who demonstrated mastery of the basic course concepts, and will definitely be done "on the curve", since the curve is my best guide to the utility of the quizzes).

* Apparently there were actually some technical issues at Coursera itself in the last day or so which may have caused some of you to see inconsistent feedback and results on quizzes. Coursera staff are fixing this, and say they will inform affected students via email.

In summary, please keep doing your best and being patient. Your constructive feedback will help us improve the quizzes for future instances of the course, and hopefully we'll address any major issues promptly.

Best
Prof Kearns

Sun 16 Sep 2012 2:59:00 PM PDT

Quizzes

Introduction to Networks

(expanded, click to collapse)

Quiz 1: What is a Network?
Attempt QuizShow Previous Attempts

Due Date: Mon 17 Sep 2012 11:59:00 PM PDT

Hard Deadline: Mon 17 Sep 2012 11:59:00 PM PDT

# of Attempts: 0 / 2

Effective Score: N/A

Last Attempted: N/A

Last Attempted Score: N/A

Previous Attempts

# Time Raw Score Review

No submissions yet
Quiz 2: The Erdos Number Project
Attempt QuizShow Previous Attempts

Due Date: Mon 17 Sep 2012 11:59:00 PM PDT

Hard Deadline: Mon 17 Sep 2012 11:59:00 PM PDT

# of Attempts: 0 / 2

Effective Score: N/A

Last Attempted: N/A

Last Attempted Score: N/A

Due Date:	Mon 17 Sep 2012 11:59:00 PM PDT
Hard Deadline:	Mon 17 Sep 2012 11:59:00 PM PDT
# of Attempts:	0 / 2
Effective Score:	N/A
Last Attempted:	N/A
Last Attempted Score:	N/A

#	Time	Raw Score	Review
No submissions yet

Due Date:	Mon 17 Sep 2012 11:59:00 PM PDT
Hard Deadline:	Mon 17 Sep 2012 11:59:00 PM PDT
# of Attempts:	0 / 2
Effective Score:	N/A
Last Attempted:	N/A
Last Attempted Score:	N/A

Welcome to the course discussion forums.

Please help all of us experience the best learning environment possible:

Be friendly and considerate when talking to your fellow students. (Example)
Use up-votes to bring attention to thoughtful, helpful posts. (Example)
Search before you post. (Example)
Post in the appropriate sub-forum. (Example)
Use the icon to report inappropriate content or highlight posts related to platform issues.

Sub-forum	Latest Activity
General Discussion *General discussion about the course, life and everything under the sun.*	*Where Are You From?* *2 minutes 6 seconds ago*
Assignments *Specific questions regarding the assignments.*	*Quiz 4 question 5 and 8* *1 hour 33 minutes ago*
Study Groups *Find friends and arrange meet ups!*	*Russian skype group* *2 hours 19 minutes ago*
Technical Issues *Submit any technical issues you have encountered.*	*???/8.00 for qiuz 7* *28 minutes 23 seconds ago*

Latest Forum Activity

Thread Title / Original Poster	Last Post	Votes	Posts	Views
*Where Are You From?* Cortland Bradford (Student)TagsKazakhstan	*Amin Dehdarian* *2 minutes ago*	0	109	940
*Retaking the quizzes* Anonymous Tags	*Anonymous* *14 minutes ago*	0	1	3
*???/8.00 for qiuz 7* Tímea Tóth (Student)Tags	*Alberto Aguilar* *28 minutes ago*	7	14	210
*Why do people make anonymous posts?* *Anne DagenTags***	*Anonymous* *37 minutes ago*	-2	5	101
*Quiz 7: III.Clustering of Connectivity - results totally lost* Inga Kuusik (Student)Tags	*Inga Kuusik* *44 minutes ago*	0	1	2
*What Does It Mean?* *Cynthia L. MunozTagsdiameterclusteringcoefficient***	*Anne Dagen* *1 hour ago*	0	4	28
*Un-enroll not working* Anonymous TagsCantUn-enroll	*Anonymous* *1 hour ago*	0	1	4
*This is a course about Networking - so let's network!* *Alexander HaganTags***	*Angela R Johnson* *1 hour ago*	18	45	1.1k
*Quiz 3 question 2 - no correct answer?* kristina margaret smithTagsquiz3	*Daan Bloembergen* *1 hour ago*	0	2	26
*Grupo de Estudio en Español / Spanish Study Group (Facebook)* *Segundo Lorenzo Ortiz AquinoTagsGroupFacebookgrupoestudioespaolspanish***	*Laura Flores García* *1 hour ago*	1	30	308
*Quiz 4 question 5 and 8* Andrea ClementiTagsquizerror4answer	*Azadeh Mohammadi* *1 hour ago*	0	13	272
*This course is not what I expected. It is not application of network science to solving complex problems* Anonymous Tags	*Anonymous* *1 hour ago*	-1	2	42
*quiz4 question 5* *Azadeh Mohammadi (Student)Tagsquiz4*	*Azadeh Mohammadi* *1 hour ago*	0	3	52
*Quiz 5 deletes my answers* *Noor (Student)Tagsquiz5*	*Noor* *1 hour ago*	2	4	39
*Quiz 16, Question 3* Anonymous Tags	*Daan Bloembergen* *1 hour ago*	0	2	11
*Russian skype group* *Tatyana GudkovaTagsrussianskype***	*Liubov Smirnova* *2 hours ago*	3	30	293
*Our network - Problem?* *Tom BruciaTags***	*Anne Dagen* *2 hours ago*	0	2	16
*So many mistakes in the quizzes...* *Demian Bianchi BertozziTags***	*Liubov Smirnova* *2 hours ago*	9	11	467
*Kudos and props to Prof. Kearns* *Cameron RycroftTags***	*Cameron Rycroft* *2 hours ago*	3	1	23
*Google adds 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' search tool* Jordan (Student)Tags	*M. Lisa Yeo* *3 hours ago*	5	2	56
*quiz not processing answers* Susannah Strellis (Student)Tags	*Alexander Hagan* *3 hours ago*	3	7	66
*Introductions, tell everyone something about yourself.* *Joshua BurkeTagsukraine***	*Janet Langdon* *3 hours ago*	30	319	4.6k
*Quiz 4, question 3 - two answers?* Alexey Voytenko (Student)TagsMultichoicequestions	*Tammy Marcou* *5 hours ago*	0	8	121
*Coursera website fault* *Rishabh AggarwalTags***	*Rishabh Aggarwal* *5 hours ago*	0	1	15
*Answers not recorded for quiz 8 (???/7.00)* Omar RaywardTagsquiz8	*Omar Rayward* *6 hours ago*	0	1	2