I’m on record as being a big fan of Coursera and have wanted to try and create my own video content ever since I saw theirs. Obviously they’re much better at it than I am, both in terms of production quality and content. Still, there probably isn’t much call for actuarial lectures on their site and it’s not so easy to get on the docket at a CAS event. (To say nothing of the fact that it restricts me to the US.) The other inspiration is Lars Brownworth’s fabulous series of podcasts on medieval history. Again, he’s loads better at this than I am, but a great example of what an enthusiastic amateur is capable of.

This first “episode” is little more than a narration of my post about using maximum likelihood to parameterize the regression equation. Don’t like to read? Watching a video is even more passive!

I’ll be experimenting with this over time, but here’s the first cut. Initial gripes are the watermark (which may be removed if I pay ScreenFlow some money) and I had no idea that I could rant for 16 minutes. I had figured the video would have been much shorter. I’m starting to pity anyone who’s had to listen to me give a presentation.