Learn MATLAB using Octave-online (Udemy.com)
Learn MATLAB programming without installing anything on your computer or tablet
Created by: Mike X Cohen
Last updated August 2026
What you will learn
- Ability to use an online emulator to learn MATLAB
How it compares
Against the other 335 rated Udemy courses in Engineering on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 55% of them
- Reviews512#147 of 336 by number of reviews
- Length0.7 hoursshorter than 99% of them
- Last updatedAugust 2026more recently than 91% of them
Course Description
Do you need to learn MATLAB but don't have a license? Is your computer too space-limited to install >2GB programs? Then this course might be right for you. You will learn how to use Octave-online as a tool for learning the MATLAB programming language. Octave is a free cross-platform numerical processing software that interprets almost all MATLAB code (and code from many other programming languages). Therefore, people often use it as a way to learn and use MATLAB even if they don’t have access to MATLAB.
But most people install Octave locally on their computer. That’s fine, of course. But there are times when you want to use a program without having to install it. That’s the neat part of Octave-online: You don't need to download or install anything! All you need is a browser and an internet connection. And I assume you have that if you’re reading this text ;)
Please note that this is not a course on programming; this is a course on using an online tool that will help you learn MATLAB programming. That means you won’t learn how to program in MATLAB here; you will learn about a free tool that you can use to help you learn MATLAB.
Instructor Details
- 4.5 Rating
512 Reviews
Mike X Cohen
I am a full-time educator and writer, and former professor of neuroscience. I "retired" from that position so I could focus my time and energy creating high-quality educational material just for you.
I have 20 years of experience teaching programming, data analysis, signal processing, statistics, linear algebra, and experiment design. I've taught undergraduate students, PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and full professors. I have taught in "traditional" university courses, special week-long intensive courses, and Nobel prize-winning research labs. I have >100 hours of online lectures on neuroscience data analysis that you can find on my website and youtube channel. And I've written several technical books about these topics with a few more on the way.
I'm not trying to show off -- I'm trying to convince you that you've come to the right place to maximize your learning from an instructor who has spent two decades refining and perfecting his teaching style.
Over 350,000 students have watched over 50,000,000 minutes of my courses. Come find out why!
I have several free courses that you can enroll in. Try them out! You got nothing to lose ;)
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By popular request, here are suggested course progressions for various educational goals:
MATLAB programming: Get Started with MATLAB; Master MATLAB; Image Processing
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Reviews
By Mark Wheeler on 11/30/2022
octave-online is a great resource for those who do not have a MATLAB license. The instructor provides a straightforward and easy-to-follow walkthrough using a few coding examples--really well done!
By Luciano Zanchet on 5/24/2020
I am thoroughly enjoying the course and the way the instructor conducts it. I will try to follow his signal processing course as well as it will greatly help me on my MSc degree in CFD where I will sough to capture the effects and characteristics of turbulent flows.
By Vadrif Draco on 4/21/2020
Pretty fun instructor, and overall great tutorial, just a bit too advanced for a MATLAB beginner, but then again it's not a course that teaches MATLAB, it just shows how to use MATLAB stuff in octave.
By Lawrence Krukrubo on 3/23/2020
Yes. I knew some about Matlab, having taken a tutorial before, now I'm taking a computer vision course on Udacity and was just about subscribing to Matlab before I saw this tutorial on free octave and so far it has served its purpose.
By Adrian Peirson on 9/20/2019
Not used Matlab before, and found this a very good little intro, the language used looks very user friendly and the course gives an overview of some of the key capabilities of Octave / Matlab. Octave appears to be a free version of Matlab. Overall I found this a very useful course because it's now given me the confidence to believe that Matlab, Octave would not be too daunting.
By Stephen Berman on 6/14/2019
I had never worked with MATLAB or Octave and have no access to a copy of MATLAB. I had wondered whether or not Octave was close enough to MATLAB to use in learning MATLAB. This answered my question in the affirmative. It also gave me a basic, though brief, introduction on how to use Octave/MATLAB. I am surprised at how user friendly it seems. Now I need to take some more detailed courses but this should enable me to do so with much more confidence than I would otherwise have.
By Daniel Barrientos on 4/4/2019
No es un curso para aprender a programar con Octave. No es un curso para aprender el lenguaje, ni para aprender las diferencias de Octave con Matlab. Es un curso para aprender a usar Octave Online y aprovechar todas sus ventajas. En el camino también se puede recordar algunos comandos y hay ejercicios interesantes y entretenidos básicos. Muy buen curso!
By Vinícius Corrêa on 1/5/2019
Infelizmente não era o que esperava, começa de uma maneira muito avançada e elaborada.
By Mihail Kuyumdzhiev on 12/20/2018
I would like to create complete Octave course from the beginning to the end with accent on Signal and Digital processing. Keep the going and stay fun as well. I like very much your taste for humor (:. Have a nice day and good luck with teaching, we need more people like you. Mihail Kuyumdzhiev from Bulgaria.
By Mohammad Ibrahim Alhashash on 10/2/2018
Nice course, I have learned many useful things in just half a day. In my opinion, more information is needed to clarify the buttons in the menu, the icons in the script and even who create this website. by the way, thank you very much.
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 90 / 100












