What are the fundamental differences of those three teaching modes?

 

You can compare those three teaching modes in the following three dimensions.

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Dimension 1: Are lectures pre-recorded or live.

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For the basic self-paced and premium self-paced modes, the answer is yes. Once you enroll into a course in any of these modes, you can immediately access all pre-recorded lectures. You can them follow your own pace to decide how fast you study and which order you want to follow to study.

 

For the instructor-paced mode, the answer is no. All lectures are live. Each lecture is recorded while it is delivered in a live manner. Therefore, students can watch the recording of a lecture after its live version is taught. However, students must follow the instructor's pace and cannot access a recording (it does not even exist) when its associated live lecture is not delivered yet.

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Dimension 2: Is there any exercise/homework problems?

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For the basic self-paced mode, the answer is no. Students must self-create some exercise problems or final exercise problems from somewhere else.

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For the premium self-paced and the instructor-paced modes, the answer is yes. We prepare a huge number of exercise problems for students to practice. Since AI Olympiad is quite new, this is a very valuable resource. For each class, we prepared hundreds of exercise problems. This helps students thoroughly understand what they learn in lectures.

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Dimension 3: Is there any instructor?

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For the basic and the premium self-paced mode, the answer is no. If a student has any question, s/he needs to figure it out by her/his own, or asks someone else for help.

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For the instructor-paced mode, the answer is yes. If a student has any question about either a lecture or an exercise problem, s/he is welcome to ask the instructor.

 

Why do you prepare hundreds of exercise problems in each course?

 

1. Studying AI and preparing for AI Olympiads require students to do extensive exercise.

2. AI Olympiads are quite new. It is very hard to find high quality exercise problems.

3. Some open-source exercise problems (such as Kaggle problems, exercise problems in some university AI courses) may not be a perfect fit for AI Olympiads. So we need to develop our own to exclusively target at AI Olympiads. 

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What is the course update and iteration speed?

 

Both AI technology and AI Olympias are evolving very fast. To capture the trend, we need to frequently review and update our course materials.

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For the instructor-paced mode, we always teach students the most updated version. Live courses receive the newest curriculum, the latest AI competition trends, model updates, and the latest exam-style content.
All iterations are applied here first before being rolled out to self-paced courses.

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By contrast, for the basic and premium self-paced modes, course update and iteration speed has a 3-6 months lag.

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Is the basic self-paced mode the best option for me?

 

If you meet the following conditions, then this is the best option for you:

 

1. You want to have a flexible schedule and follow your own pace.

2. You do not need our exercise problems to practice.

3. When you have any question, you have a strong independent study ability to find out the correct answer.

4. You are comfortable with studying a version that is 3-6 months behind the latest version taught in the instructor-paced mode.

5. You want to save money.

 

Is the premium self-paced mode the best option for me?

 

If you meet the following conditions, then this is the best option for you:

 

1. You want to have a flexible schedule and follow your own pace.

2. You need our exercise problems to practice.

3. When you have any question, you have a strong independent study ability to find out the correct answer.

4. You are comfortable with studying a version that is 3-6 months behind the latest version taught in the instructor-paced mode.

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Is the instructor-paced mode the best option for me?

 

If you meet the following conditions, this is the best option for you:

 

1. You prefer to take live classes instead of watching recordings.

2. You like to interact with the instructor in class.

3. You need our exercise problems to practice.

4. When you have any question, you may need a guidance from our instructor.

5. You want to study the latest version.

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