there's a MOOC aggregator to help keep on top of course offerings and it tracks programs globally: www.class-central.com
List of the Most Popular MOOCs
61–70 of 88 posts
Re: List of the Most Popular MOOCs
#62I wonder how many of these were actually completed...
Enrolment would be an empty number to me, completion would be the mark of quality.
Re: List of the Most Popular MOOCs
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is a big reason why Coursera is so appealing and it won in the MOOC race. By having a few open sessions a year, they can provide official support from course TA and students all gather in an active forum to discuss the material and help each other. It's why MIT's OpenCourseWare is not nearly as popular as Coursera. I'd argue it's a must for the to keep going with this approach, otherwise it will turn into anothe…
There's really no "right" answer to how asynchronous courses should be. On the one hand, if you just open things up, make some videos available, maybe some machinery for auto-grading where appropriate, I'm not sure you can meaningfully call that material a MOOC at that point. It's some YouTube videos with an associated website of which there are already many for all sorts of content. On the other hand, if you run thi…
>There's really no "right" answer to how asynchronous courses should be.
Sure, but given Coursera's popularity it seems to be doing something right.
>On the other hand, if you run things on a tight schedule, real life will get in the way for a lot of people in that many of the better courses are fairly significant time commitments.
But is it? The time commitments are watching few videos, learning and doing the assignments, all of this in a week. I think it's enough even for people working full time. If you don't have enough time on your hands to do all this, I'd argue you don't have the time required to complete the course.
Furthermore having time constraints is very important for students to keep on track.
Re: List of the Most Popular MOOCs
#64The Design Of Computer Programs on Udacity by Peter Norvig is pretty awesome. As someone who's only been seriously programming for a year or two , each problem set went like this : Write the code here to do X : I write a messy 4 liner after lots of thinking. Professor Norvig comes along and does it in a simple functional one liner. Mind blown. He teaches good functional style program design one epiphany at a time.
>> Professor Norvig comes along and does it in a simple functional one liner.
>> Mind blown.
Re: List of the Most Popular MOOCs
#65I typically hate ranking lists like this, since I believe student completion rates are more important than enrollment. However, I did find some joy in finding a new MOOC I could add to the backlog of courses I need to take.
Re: List of the Most Popular MOOCs
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since 2 = e ^ ln 2, use the identity: 2^x = (e^(ln 2))^x = e ^ (x * ln 2)
Well, that's the specific example, but there exist a class of educational blocks such that the learner doesn't know where they're stuck, because if they could define it, the act of correctly defining the stuck step would inherently unstick it. So MOOC strategy works for some areas that don't have sticking points like that, but not so well where five minutes with a Socratic strategy tutor could save a lot of video re-…
A lot of those questions are taken care on the forums. People tend to stumble on the same sticking points. But it part of learning to learn in this new medium.
Re: List of the Most Popular MOOCs
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's really no "right" answer to how asynchronous courses should be. On the one hand, if you just open things up, make some videos available, maybe some machinery for auto-grading where appropriate, I'm not sure you can meaningfully call that material a MOOC at that point. It's some YouTube videos with an associated website of which there are already many for all sorts of content. On the other hand, if you run thi…
>There's really no "right" answer to how asynchronous courses should be. Sure, but given Coursera's popularity it seems to be doing something right. >On the other hand, if you run things on a tight schedule, real life will get in the way for a lot of people in that many of the better courses are fairly significant time commitments. But is it? The time commitments are watching few videos, learning and doing the assign…
I don't really disagree. As I said, if you take away all the constraints, what's unique about Coursera or any other MOOC, really?
That said, people with busy schedules, travel, etc. can easily get behind on a more time-consuming course and, at that point, the natural reaction is just to drop it.
My personal preference is to have structure but to build sufficient wiggle-room in that someone can catch up a week or two.
Re: List of the Most Popular MOOCs
#68I typically hate ranking lists like this, since I believe student completion rates are more important than enrollment. However, I did find some joy in finding a new MOOC I could add to the backlog of courses I need to take.
I'm not sure why you'd worry about completion rates. When I've taken online courses I've completed all the lectures and their associated exercises. But if I'm taking a course it means I have some end in mind for the skills it teaches me and that makes any final project or exam superfluous.
Re: List of the Most Popular MOOCs
#69Im Noticing a lot of these courses are coursera, and one of the most frustrating things about the plattform is the fact that most courses close and access to course materials/videos etc. is revoked after the course is over, this destroys the whole point of a mooc for me, and this choice seems arbitrary. Why cant education materials just be open and remain open to everyone, journals and textbooks included? There are e…
That is a big reason why Coursera is so appealing and it won in the MOOC race. By having a few open sessions a year, they can provide official support from course TA and students all gather in an active forum to discuss the material and help each other. It's why MIT's OpenCourseWare is not nearly as popular as Coursera. I'd argue it's a must for the to keep going with this approach, otherwise it will turn into anothe…
One of the things I've always found a bit odd about Coursera is the lack of general subject forums. Sure, you can meet with and interact with some students in the forum of a particular course, but then when that course is over the forum empties out. And if you are taking the course on your own schedule, the place is often empty because you're doing a lot of the work after the course ended.
I understand that open ended courses might not have the volume to create an active forum, but why not create subject forums where people can discuss things and create a community? In my experience, communities are a very important way to give people the motivation to complete some of these courses.
Re: List of the Most Popular MOOCs
#70Im Noticing a lot of these courses are coursera, and one of the most frustrating things about the plattform is the fact that most courses close and access to course materials/videos etc. is revoked after the course is over, this destroys the whole point of a mooc for me, and this choice seems arbitrary. Why cant education materials just be open and remain open to everyone, journals and textbooks included? There are e…
Andrew Ng is one of Coursera's founders. He's big on learning as the development of habits...in American educational philosophy this idea can be traced back at least to John Dewey with academic formality. So it's not surprising that Coursera often chooses fixed schedules and cohesive cohorts over self-pacing. Indeed, Ng's most popular course, Machine Learning is open enrollment, but not self paced and sends reminders when the student falls behind schedule.
That said, there are plenty of courses on Coursera where the materials stay up and online for years. But there's nothing wrong with teachers controlling how, when and where their course materials are accessible, and since many of the courses are from private institutions, e.g. notably Ng's Stanford, tax paying and citizenship (two orthogonal concepts orthogonal to accessibility of course materials) are mostly tangential to major MOOC mechanics.
It's absolutely amazing that the resources are so freely available and high quality. I am not sure where one would get standing to make demands upon the private entities providing them.