edX - ELEC301.1x: Discrete Time Signals and Systems, Part 1: Time Domain Review

Discrete Time Signals and Systems, Part 1: Time Domain is a 4-week introduction to discrete time signals offered by Rice University through the edX platform. This course was originally 8 weeks, but edX split it up into two parts, one covering the time domain and one addressing the frequency domain. Major course topics include signal properties, signals as vectors, linear time-invariant systems and convolution. The course requires some linear algebra and calculus (it has a pre-course assessment) as well as some basic programming in MATLAB. You don't need to know any MATLAB going in, but if you do you can skip the tutorial. Grading is based on a combination of comprehension questions, homework quizzes, peer graded free responses and a final exam. All of the course content other than assignments is available immediately so you can work ahead if you want to.



Discrete Time Signals and Systems started around the same time as a similar signal processing course on Coursera called "Digital Signal Processing." I found Discrete Time Signals to be much more approachable than the Coursera course; it introduces concepts at a steady but manageable pace and doesn't overload you with math right out of the gate. The course isn't easy, but it isn't too difficult considering the topic. The lecture videos are well-done and the instruction is very good, although some videos could stand to be broken up into multiple parts. Professor Baraniuk tends to stutter, but it didn't really bother me or detract from the quality of the instruction. The MATLAB programming questions are baked right into the edX website and let you get some hands-on experience with the concepts. The final exam is "closed book" which I think is a mistake as it promotes guessing over learning.



All in all, Discrete Time Signals and Systems Part 1 is an excellent introduction to signal processing that is likely to be more accessible than other courses on the same subject you may find elsewhere. The stage is set for a deeper dive into signal processing in Part 2.

I give this course 4.5 out of 5 stars: Very Good.