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Sebastian Thrun Steps Down as Udacity's CEO

fortune.com

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Re: Sebastian Thrun Steps Down as Udacity's CEO

#11

Post by RyanZAG »

cinquemb wrote: post #10
geomark wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel somewhat the same. I took a couple Udacity courses that were great and quite a few from Coursera. Coursera's free offerings are now partially gutted by restricting non-paying students from taking tests and submitting assignments.

Who would have guessed that the new online education revolution™, where effectiveness is measured in similar status/signaling games, would pander to the status quo? That being said, there's an amazing wealth of knowledge on the internet completely free to consume not locked behind any particular walled garden awaiting those who dare step out of their comfort zones of consumption/absorption, but its not nicely package…

The issue here is that going through a professional institution is the difference between being a 'self taught amateur' and a 'well studied professional'. Even if both people are equally capable, the one with the paperwork is going to have a far easier time getting a job through traditional channels.

Even if you plan on being an entrepreneur, your first media coverage is either going to say 'the Harvard graduate' or 'the self taught .. '. So it's an indicator even then. For Apple and Microsoft, 'college dropout' featured in nearly every early article. It became something of a compliment after a bit though and helped them stand out somehow. Nothing is ever simple, but just being accepted is probably enough even if you don't finish.

Re: Sebastian Thrun Steps Down as Udacity's CEO

#12

Post by Bombthecat »

argonaut wrote: post #3
yeukhon wrote: post #2

> Thrun, who will remain as president and chairman of Udacity, said that he will continue to work full-time at Udacity, but he will take on a role focused on what he is passionate about—innovation. Just personal interpretation whenever someone says he or she is focusing on innovation without too much information: "I am not sure what I want to do, I am going to pretend I know what I want to do with the company's money…

A bit too cynical, I think. This kind of arrangement, where one of the cofounders steps down to let someone else run the company, is very very common. Especially when the person stepping down is more technical/scientific. Remember that Thrun used to be a professor and used to do/lead research at Google.

Yeah running a business is a complete different story.

Re: Sebastian Thrun Steps Down as Udacity's CEO

#13

Post by uulbiy »

geomark wrote: post #9
Artoemius wrote: post #5

I wonder what is hidden behind the phrase "the college partnerships failed". I took some great courses on Udacity, Coursera, and edX back in the days when they regularly offered amazing comprehensive college courses for free. They do still offer free courses. However, it seems that the atmosphere of free accessible education is somehow lost, with the advent of the "specializations" and "nanodegrees" and the like. Or…

I feel somewhat the same. I took a couple Udacity courses that were great and quite a few from Coursera. Coursera's free offerings are now partially gutted by restricting non-paying students from taking tests and submitting assignments.

I think the big mistake was offering something for free and then asking money for it. The first backlash was with the (unverified) certificates and the latest with the tests and assignments.

It might have been a different story if they announced from the beginning that they are only offering their services for free for a certain period of time. They focused on gaining users and they succeeded on that, but now that they are focused on making money they seem to lose users.

Re: Sebastian Thrun Steps Down as Udacity's CEO

#14

Post by canistr »

Artoemius wrote: post #5

I wonder what is hidden behind the phrase "the college partnerships failed". I took some great courses on Udacity, Coursera, and edX back in the days when they regularly offered amazing comprehensive college courses for free. They do still offer free courses. However, it seems that the atmosphere of free accessible education is somehow lost, with the advent of the "specializations" and "nanodegrees" and the like. Or…

As a current Georgia Tech student doing the Online Master's in CS, I wonder this too because it's the primary method of delivery for lectures.

For the most part, I'm not crazy about the Udacity platform and the lectures (they're too short, the mini-quizzes aren't always that great, and the platform doesn't feel like it has been improving in the past 2 years). However, all the value and learning is coming from the interactions with other students/TAs/professors on Piazza as well as the assignments/projects we do.

If you were to ask me how I would rate each component independently, I would say that Udacity is the weakest part of the experience.

Re: Sebastian Thrun Steps Down as Udacity's CEO

#15

Post by nipst »

Artoemius wrote: post #5

I wonder what is hidden behind the phrase "the college partnerships failed". I took some great courses on Udacity, Coursera, and edX back in the days when they regularly offered amazing comprehensive college courses for free. They do still offer free courses. However, it seems that the atmosphere of free accessible education is somehow lost, with the advent of the "specializations" and "nanodegrees" and the like. Or…

I believe the failure was a reference to the failed partnership with San Jose state.. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/18/citing-disapp...

Re: Sebastian Thrun Steps Down as Udacity's CEO

#16

Post by cinquemb »

RyanZAG wrote: post #11
cinquemb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who would have guessed that the new online education revolution™, where effectiveness is measured in similar status/signaling games, would pander to the status quo? That being said, there's an amazing wealth of knowledge on the internet completely free to consume not locked behind any particular walled garden awaiting those who dare step out of their comfort zones of consumption/absorption, but its not nicely package…

The issue here is that going through a professional institution is the difference between being a 'self taught amateur' and a 'well studied professional'. Even if both people are equally capable, the one with the paperwork is going to have a far easier time getting a job through traditional channels. Even if you plan on being an entrepreneur, your first media coverage is either going to say 'the Harvard graduate' or…

So does nothing exist for people to strive for between/beyond wanting to work at places that embody the banality of …Even if both people are equally capable, the one with the paperwork is going to have a far easier time getting a job through traditional channels. and Even if you plan on being an entrepreneur…, or such a between state like that just unimaginable?

Re: Sebastian Thrun Steps Down as Udacity's CEO

#17

Post by dikaiosune »

canistr wrote: post #14
Artoemius wrote: post #5

I wonder what is hidden behind the phrase "the college partnerships failed". I took some great courses on Udacity, Coursera, and edX back in the days when they regularly offered amazing comprehensive college courses for free. They do still offer free courses. However, it seems that the atmosphere of free accessible education is somehow lost, with the advent of the "specializations" and "nanodegrees" and the like. Or…

As a current Georgia Tech student doing the Online Master's in CS, I wonder this too because it's the primary method of delivery for lectures. For the most part, I'm not crazy about the Udacity platform and the lectures (they're too short, the mini-quizzes aren't always that great, and the platform doesn't feel like it has been improving in the past 2 years). However, all the value and learning is coming from the int…

How would you rate the rest of the experience?

Re: Sebastian Thrun Steps Down as Udacity's CEO

#18

Post by abecedarius »

argonaut wrote: post #7
Artoemius wrote: post #5

I wonder what is hidden behind the phrase "the college partnerships failed". I took some great courses on Udacity, Coursera, and edX back in the days when they regularly offered amazing comprehensive college courses for free. They do still offer free courses. However, it seems that the atmosphere of free accessible education is somehow lost, with the advent of the "specializations" and "nanodegrees" and the like. Or…

They need to make money? We should be thankful they haven't resorted to advertising or selling our information.

An idea floated around the time of their very first courses was that they'd double as a recruiter, like Stockfighter now (by my vague impression of both). I wonder what happened to that.

Re: Sebastian Thrun Steps Down as Udacity's CEO

#19

Post by tyrael71 »

RyanZAG wrote: post #11
cinquemb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who would have guessed that the new online education revolution™, where effectiveness is measured in similar status/signaling games, would pander to the status quo? That being said, there's an amazing wealth of knowledge on the internet completely free to consume not locked behind any particular walled garden awaiting those who dare step out of their comfort zones of consumption/absorption, but its not nicely package…

The issue here is that going through a professional institution is the difference between being a 'self taught amateur' and a 'well studied professional'. Even if both people are equally capable, the one with the paperwork is going to have a far easier time getting a job through traditional channels. Even if you plan on being an entrepreneur, your first media coverage is either going to say 'the Harvard graduate' or…

I feel like this has become less and less true in engineering and software in the past decade. A portfolio of projects with varying complexity speaks equally or more about your ability to code or build things. Google and other companies have come out and said they haven't found strong correlations between degrees (with GPA measurement included) and being a better engineer.

> 'college dropout' featured in nearly every early article. It became something of a compliment after a bit though and helped them stand out somehow.

'Standing out' is irrelevant in this context unless your business is entirely based on you being a famous figure in the press. Gates and Jobs are famous because of the incredible companies they built, not the other way around. The press needed to paint a story, so they went with the college dropout narrative. However their success, and the success of every company/founder is entirely independent of founder social validation.

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