This isn't about the content but the structure and explaining the intuition behind algorithms. There are insights behind every algorithm which needs to be put down explicitly in simple English; not mathematical symbols. A course should be accessible to everyone given the prerequisites. Just because a course is easy for me, does not mean its a good course. The Hinton course is not palatable and you can clearly see that in the discussion forums.
Andrew Ng's CS229 course goes beyond the mathematics and explains the magic behind these algorithms. Unfortunately, I know many people who use the mathematics trope to not share these insights and keep them closely guarded to their chest.
I remember taking Ng's course soon after having taken a similar course. While his offered insights were occasionally useful, I found a number of them distracting, especially when they differed substantially from what I had learned in the other course. I found most of his explanations simple but some of them were unsatisfactory, as the suggested motivations did not imply the taught solutions. This was forgivable where I knew of several alternatives, but not when the information was new to me.
His class left me thinking I was able to apply problems to solutions, not the other way around. I will agree that he was a better teacher than Norvig and Thrun, and more engaging (though less holistic) than Widom.
Andrew Ng's CS229 course goes beyond the mathematics and explains the magic behind these algorithms. Unfortunately, I know many people who use the mathematics trope to not share these insights and keep them closely guarded to their chest.