No I am exactly in the same place. I missed the programming activities (I was going to use numpy instead of octave and it turned out to be too much of an effort). I have re-enrolled in the course going on now so I am also going to do the assignments now.

Also thanks for mentioning Tom Mitchell's course, I didn't know about it. I will be sure to check it out.

And yes I agree Andrew is a great teacher. It became even more obvious when I tried to read up on areas he had not covered in the course.