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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Prediction and Control with Function Approximation by University of Alberta

4.8
stars
820 ratings

About the Course

In this course, you will learn how to solve problems with large, high-dimensional, and potentially infinite state spaces. You will see that estimating value functions can be cast as a supervised learning problem---function approximation---allowing you to build agents that carefully balance generalization and discrimination in order to maximize reward. We will begin this journey by investigating how our policy evaluation or prediction methods like Monte Carlo and TD can be extended to the function approximation setting. You will learn about feature construction techniques for RL, and representation learning via neural networks and backprop. We conclude this course with a deep-dive into policy gradient methods; a way to learn policies directly without learning a value function. In this course you will solve two continuous-state control tasks and investigate the benefits of policy gradient methods in a continuous-action environment. Prerequisites: This course strongly builds on the fundamentals of Courses 1 and 2, and learners should have completed these before starting this course. Learners should also be comfortable with probabilities & expectations, basic linear algebra, basic calculus, Python 3.0 (at least 1 year), and implementing algorithms from pseudocode. By the end of this course, you will be able to: -Understand how to use supervised learning approaches to approximate value functions -Understand objectives for prediction (value estimation) under function approximation -Implement TD with function approximation (state aggregation), on an environment with an infinite state space (continuous state space) -Understand fixed basis and neural network approaches to feature construction -Implement TD with neural network function approximation in a continuous state environment -Understand new difficulties in exploration when moving to function approximation -Contrast discounted problem formulations for control versus an average reward problem formulation -Implement expected Sarsa and Q-learning with function approximation on a continuous state control task -Understand objectives for directly estimating policies (policy gradient objectives) -Implement a policy gradient method (called Actor-Critic) on a discrete state environment...

Top reviews

WP

Apr 11, 2020

Difficult but excellent and impressing. Human being is incredible creating such ideas. This course shows a way to the state when all such ingenious ideas will be created by self learning algorithms.

AC

Dec 1, 2019

Well peaced and thoughtfully explained course. Highly recommended for anyone willing to set solid grounding in Reinforcement Learning. Thank you Coursera and Univ. of Alberta for the masterclass.

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51 - 75 of 145 Reviews for Prediction and Control with Function Approximation

By Kinal M

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Jan 12, 2020

A great and interactive course to learn about using function approximation for control. Great way to learn DRL and its alternatives.

By Ivan S F

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Nov 9, 2019

Great course. Slightly more complex than courses 1 and 2, but a huge improvement in terms of applicability to real-world situations.

By Yingping Z

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Jan 2, 2021

Very nice a biref introduction to sutton's book! But seems to leave out somt charpter in the book which makes me a little unhappy.

By Pablo S

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Aug 11, 2023

Really Fantastic, the previous courses materials get into a more practical formulation to problems closer to real world situations

By Jicheng F

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Jul 11, 2020

Martha and Adam are excellent instructors. This course is so well organized and presented. I have learned a lot! Thanks very much!

By Francois R

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Sep 11, 2023

Great content, Great presentation.

I really appreciate the efforts that were made to create this comprehensive course.

Thank you.

By Tri W G

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Mar 27, 2020

Give nive theoretical foundation. I found RL courses are abstract, but the programming assignment give a nice conceptualization.

By Andrew G

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Jan 26, 2020

Did a good job of attaching a programming assignment to each lesson and giving clear and detailed instructions throughout

By Alexander P

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Dec 14, 2019

Great course on more advanced reinforcement learning techniques. Can't wait to apply these new skills in the wild.

By Mathew

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Jun 7, 2020

Very well structured and a great compliment to the Reinforcement Learning (2nd Edition) book by Sutton and Barto.

By Ayan S

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Jul 4, 2021

I really liked the lectures and how they clearly explained all the necessary details of such difficult topic.

By Hannes

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Sep 13, 2021

This course is as excellent as its predecessors! Well-structured, engaging and with clear explanations.

By Joosung M

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Jun 14, 2020

The course materials were very informative, the assignments were challenging enough. Highly recommended!

By Tolga K

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Dec 25, 2020

Great course, great material and notebooks like previous courses. It was a great experience. Thank you!

By J B

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Oct 13, 2020

Very helpful course. Excellent delivery and practical labs. There's even someone helping in the forum!

By Shubh A

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Jul 21, 2023

Most challenging part of the entire series till now, hoping to implement all of these in real world

By LI C Y

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Aug 14, 2022

Without these video lectures, it is not easy to understand some difficult contents in the textbooks.

By Eduardo I L H

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Jan 14, 2021

Excellent course. Focused in the theory of function approximation for reinforcement learning.

By Yitao H

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Aug 29, 2021

Intellectually challenging experience to combine supervised learning into RL framework!

By Huang C

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Jan 25, 2022

Great course to take for combining function approximations with reinforcement learning

By RICARDO A F S

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Nov 21, 2020

A great course, I took a long time doing the assignments, but in the end I solved it

By Artur M

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Nov 3, 2020

Great course! Wished to see more about policy gradient methods, but it was awesome.

By George M

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Mar 11, 2021

Comprehensive and intensive course.

More challenging than the previous two courses.

By WC C

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Oct 14, 2019

The course presentation is wonderful. I can't stop after I watch the first video.

By Rishi R

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Aug 3, 2020

It has amazing content with no compromise on concepts yet holds simplicity.