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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

#71

Post by candu »

Kalium wrote: post #66
vanderZwan wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bit hand-wavy. Can you elaborate why you claim this?

It's a matter of requirements for external resources. If a system needs constant infusions of external money, its ability to grow will be determined by its ability to bring in such external money. This is how non-profits tend to work and why they dedicate such attention to fundraising. Systems that generate what they need to grow don't have the same constraints. If money is what your business needs to grow and it gen…

OK. Find me an example of a system that doesn't require external resources :)

Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In

#72

Post by Kalium »

candu wrote: post #71
Kalium wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a matter of requirements for external resources. If a system needs constant infusions of external money, its ability to grow will be determined by its ability to bring in such external money. This is how non-profits tend to work and why they dedicate such attention to fundraising. Systems that generate what they need to grow don't have the same constraints. If money is what your business needs to grow and it gen…

OK. Find me an example of a system that doesn't require external resources :)

It's not about that. It's about not needing continual fresh infusions. This is why GE, which doesn't need to raise money every six months, is more likely to be around in ten years than any given startup trying to raise a B round.

Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In

#73

Post by alistairSH »

gavazzy wrote: post #67
wolfgke wrote: post #65

I personally don't like that Coursera dropped free certificates of accomplishments for many courses. While this might not be such a problem in the US, I (living in Germany) see this as a serious problem in countries as Germany, Austria or Brazil, where it is essential that you have some certificate to prove that you really took the course. What I'm particularly angry about is that in former days you could get a free…

Do employers look at certificates at all?

As I review resumes, it's just another data point, along with degree, previous jobs, etc. They aren't required, or even preferred. But, they do display an interest in learning and progressing professionally, which is always good.

Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In

#74

Post by vanderZwan »

Kalium wrote: post #66
vanderZwan wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bit hand-wavy. Can you elaborate why you claim this?

It's a matter of requirements for external resources. If a system needs constant infusions of external money, its ability to grow will be determined by its ability to bring in such external money. This is how non-profits tend to work and why they dedicate such attention to fundraising. Systems that generate what they need to grow don't have the same constraints. If money is what your business needs to grow and it gen…

Yes, that clarifies your point a lot. Thank you.

Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In

#75

Post by minthd »

tboyd47 wrote: post #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 de…

I often noticed that some books are phenomenal, and don't really have a mooc, but should definetly have something.

I wonder if there's a place for a site that:

1. Gathers recommendations the best book on a given subject + some set of practice material

2. Helps to forum study groups or classes, gives them forum/hangouts,etc,offer some structure, etc

3. Enables P2P grading by students

Basically ,helps as much as it's possibly can for students to form great classes around great books.

What do you guys think ?

Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In

#76

Post by binarysolo »

dhawalhs wrote: post #51
tboyd47 wrote: post #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 de…

We launched yesterday reviews for modern day credentials like Specializations and Nanodegrees to tackle this problem. Sorta like 'Credentialing the credentials'. It can be found here: https://www.class-central.com/certificate It still early but this might help potential students get a sense of quality of the credential before hand.

Meant as constructive criticism: the page is really blue... kinda an eyestrain -- have you considered going for more readability-friendly colors?

edit: just saw the other comment -- yeah, same dealie

Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In

#77

Post by mrdrozdov »

randomwalker wrote: post #24

I'm the instructor of an upcoming Coursera course [1]. A couple of observations from my point of view: * I wish there were a way to fund online education through philanthropy/donations. Coursera being for-profit leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. At a practical level, it complicates what images I can use in my lectures and qualify as fair use. * After several years the site is far from being at a point where a…

Have you looked at http://www.donorschoose.org/? From their site:

DonorsChoose.org makes it easy to help classrooms in need. Public school teachers post classroom project requests which range from pencils for poetry to microscopes for mitochondria.

I bet there's a way you could sneak in support for your Coursera teaching.

As for uploading content, that seems like a really tough and time consuming problem. Are you allowed to put together a wiki or webpage? I was doing some prep for an Operating Systems course and read this excellent blog post about why textbooks should be free [1]. In the post, the writer mentions that "perfect is the ultimate enemy of good", so he decided to write the initial draft of a textbook purely in plain text rather than properly format it with something like LaTeX. Getting the necessary content out there seems like a good first step for you and your team.

[1] http://from-a-to-remzi.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-case-for-fre...

Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In

#78

Post by ilaksh »

I feel like when I get time I should learn deep learning and agent-embodied AGI stuff, business and management stuff.

I just can't see how taking online courses, especially for money, is a cost- and time- effective way to do that.

I think I need to actually build an agent-based deep learning system and run multiple businesses to actually learn those skills. How-tos and background, reading, exercises etc. for all of those things is available online for free for filling in gaps between trying things out.

Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In

#79

Post by tboyd47 »

minthd wrote: post #75
tboyd47 wrote: post #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 de…

I often noticed that some books are phenomenal, and don't really have a mooc, but should definetly have something. I wonder if there's a place for a site that: 1. Gathers recommendations the best book on a given subject + some set of practice material 2. Helps to forum study groups or classes, gives them forum/hangouts,etc,offer some structure, etc 3. Enables P2P grading by students Basically ,helps as much as it's p…

I think it's a neat idea. This thread has got me thinking too. Email me at p2peducationideahn@gmail.com if you want to brainstorm.

Re: As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In

#80

Post by withzombies »

Nursie wrote: post #68
new_hackers wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can testify to the quality of this course. I completed both Crypto 1 and Crypto 2. Both were very well presented.

Wait what? I did't think crypto 2 had ever run? I took the first round of crypto 1 and have been waiting for 2 ever since!

He probably went to Stanford and took it in person.
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