As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
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Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
#2Shameless plug: MOOCs presented in a course catalog format http://www.coursebuffet.com
Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
#3Which University dropped out of Coursera, out of curiosity?
Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
#4Two anecdotes on this front: First, I'm currently pursuing a master's degree because doing MOOCs left me hungry for more.
Second, a whole lot of the questions in the end-of-class survey for the most recent MOOC I completed where things like, "My opinion of [University] has improved since taking this course," and, "I am considering applying at [University]."
Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
#5> The company has created a series of courses that add up to mini-degrees that students can earn quickly, and pay a small fee to certify that they successfully completed them. “It’s mostly people in their 20s and 30s who are interested in learning more skills and making themselves prepared for better jobs,” said Mr. Levin.
Has anyone else noticed that since this recent pivot, the quality of Coursera's classes have declined?
I recently tried a course hosted on Coursera from an Ivy League school, as part of a business "specialization" that consists of 4 classes at $90 each. The class was 4 weeks long and was taught by 3 different professors. The only material provided was a series of video lectures (10-20 5-minute lectures per professor) and a smattering of blog posts and news articles for optional reading.
There was some discussion in the forums that the lectures seemed to jump around, and didn't cover all the material represented in the final exam. Some previous students were guessing that the gaps in instruction were because the course used to be 9 weeks long before they started charging for it.
I enjoyed the class but didn't feel like I got my money's worth. In the end I decided I could get more value by just buying and reading books on business development on my own.
Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
#6Definitely had to google what a MOOC was: Massive open online course.
Even though this isn't the same thing at all, this reminded me of a course I had in college where instead of attending in-person and in-class meetings, we all had to create Second Life avatars and meet online.
The professor was doing research on the subject and I quickly found the online meetings for 'educational computing' (Microsoft Office class) to be pretty useless. Luckily this was long enough ago when it was possible to not have a good enough video card for such an activity and I was allowed to not attend those meetings anymore.
Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
#7Shameless plug: MOOCs presented in a course catalog format http://www.coursebuffet.com
Looks nice! One suggestion - can you add whether subtitles are available for the courses listed? This info is crucial to people like me who are hard of hearing and also for non-native English speakers.
Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
#8Do people typically put qualifications from a Coursera class on a resume? The credibility of a college education in the professional world can't be replaced as easily.
I've taken a few Machine Learning / Big Data courses using MOOCs and done enough homework such that I get a certificate. But I'd never put it on a resume because that would imply mastery of the subject, and no MOOC is as sufficient in coverage as a normal college curriculum.
I took the MOOCs mostly for context in areas where online tutorials are terrible; at the least, it'll help lead to some sweet blog posts. :)
Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
#9I like Coursera, but I've been waiting on a class to happen for the past two years and they keep rescheduling it. I really wish they'd address it by either canceling the listing or actually making it happen.
The class is Dan Boneh's Crypto 2 course.
Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
#10> The company has created a series of courses that add up to mini-degrees that students can earn quickly, and pay a small fee to certify that they successfully completed them. “It’s mostly people in their 20s and 30s who are interested in learning more skills and making themselves prepared for better jobs,” said Mr. Levin. Has anyone else noticed that since this recent pivot, the quality of Coursera's classes have de…
Honestly, I think that's the best way to learn. A lot of great programmers/entrepreneurs end up taking an autodidactic approach to learning whatever they need to learn to become successful. I always use Sean Parker as an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Parker
I don't buy into the belief that the only way to learn something is by taking a course or getting a degree. I can buy the same programming book or the same physiology textbook used in a course and read it on my own. The only problem is that, unless you really do something outstanding to prove that you know the material, its not something you can put on an application/resume.