Established education providers v new contenders • Hacker News Board

Re: Established education providers v new contenders

#31

Post by garysieling » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 1:53 PM UTC

bootload wrote: post #8

garysieling wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming this matches the print version, it discusses the history of MooCs from Khan Academy forward, to paid credential programs, and how people are being assessed. Some notable points: 1. Universities should work to define a more "premium" experience to compete with nanodegrees and the trend toward short, very modularized classes 2. Online programs have not cannabilized universities as expected (more likely people…

nice @gary, spent a bit of time finding things I'm researching. Not sure how you'd describe it, Search engine for ^stuff^ (vid,sound) on learning? One thing I had trouble finding was Hal Ableson, 6.001 MIT lectures. [0] I know where it is, but I couldn't find it, searching for it by terms. Terms tried: * lisp algorithms * MIT lisp algorithms * MIT lisp Hal ableson How come? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Abels…

Good question - short answer is I've been focusing on finding collections that people don't know about, but I'm working on adding the MIT lectures - should be up in a day or two :)

I'd describe this as a discovery engine for lectures - the goal is to replicate some of the experience of browsing a library for interesting books (vs. traditional search, which is more about minimizing clicks between you and an answer)

Re: Established education providers v new contenders

#32

Post by shokunin » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 2:04 PM UTC

"However it is done, the credentialling problem has to be solved. People are much more likely to invest in training if it confers a qualification that others will recognise."

Exactly. Immigration officials don't care how many MOOCs you have taken.

Re: Established education providers v new contenders

#33

Post by jononor » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 3:08 PM UTC

sherlockgopher wrote: post #14

I read yesterday that MOOC are on an all time low with regard to subscription and the number of users finishing it, on account of them charging $$ and removing free certifications

Link?

Re: Established education providers v new contenders

#34

Post by jononor » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 3:12 PM UTC

wbillingsley wrote: post #26

geomark wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever taken a MOOC? A quality one, like Andew Ng's Machine Learning, or Data Analysis and Statistical Inference from Duke.

Some of them are good. But I doubt people will look back on their MOOC-taking years with quite the same level of nostalgia and camaraderie as their college years...

Not that I see that as a big problem, but - as long as the social component is strong enough, I don't see why not. I sometimes get nostalgic for the times I played e-sports competitively (Battlefield 2).

Re: Established education providers v new contenders

#35

Post by jononor » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 3:14 PM UTC

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #27

edthrowaway2222 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tertiary education is already a commodity -- the process by which that commodity is attained is simply becoming more efficient.

McDonalds isn't merely a more "efficient" burger, and that's the point here. Cutting substance in favor of cutting price (or being "efficient") has been a disaster in American culture -- from food to education.

What key substance of education is being cut with a MOOC? And how can we minimize it?

Re: Established education providers v new contenders

#36

Post by ismail » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 3:17 PM UTC

I recently found out a "verified certificate" is not actually verified in any way by Coursera.

It seems they have dropped the verification step they used to have before completing assignments [1].

Coursera have initiated this change without even an announcement or any communication. I feel it is a bit disingenuous to claim the person completing the course has been verified when they have done none of that.

[1] Typing & PhotoID - https://learner.coursera.help/hc/en-us/articles/209818953-Se...

Re: Established education providers v new contenders

#37

Post by posterboy » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 3:24 PM UTC

ig1 wrote: post #28

misterbishop wrote: post #22

MOOCs are the McDonalds-ification of education. It's disgusting honestly. Western Capitalism is utterly failing to provide a decent, affordable secondary education even to its relatively privileged middle class, so instead they try to convince us that watching a few videos is a decent substitute. We know how capital views education, just get a service job and watch the horrific training videos. That's what Khan Acade…

For the majority of university students the learning process is largely composed of sitting in large lecture halls with minimal interactions being lectured by someone who'd much rather be doing research than teaching. Why precisely is that superior to a video of a lecture delivered by someone who's focus is teaching ?

*whose (i'm so sorry (for being off-topic))

Re: Established education providers v new contenders

#38

Post by TACIXAT » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 3:31 PM UTC

I am really disappointed by my Masters program online courses because of the quality of the low cost online courses available on the web. I pay 3000 dollars a course for a professor reading slides and forced discussion. On the other side I have paid 27$ for 70 hours of very high quality content.

Professors in universities are not primarily educators. Many are contract or research focused. Teaching is their secondary job. Online courses have instructors who are designing courses and highly invested in the course quality. I think we need some pure educators in universities, otherwise they're going to get burnt when the online courses figure out accreditation.

Re: Established education providers v new contenders

#39

Post by maroonblazer » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 3:39 PM UTC

sidusknight wrote: post #9

Anyone have any MOOC recommendations?

I'm in the middle of "Effective Thinking Through Mathematics"[0]. I struggled with maths in high school, didn't really need it in college (music degree) and went back and tackled it on my own via self-study after college.

The focus of the course is not so much on the maths but the creative process of solving problems that just happen to fall in the domain of math. I've found these same techniques to be applicable to more traditional 'creative' pursuits as well (e.g. writing music).

It's also interesting in that you get to watch and deconstruct people's thought process for how they approach challenging problems.

[0]https://www.edx.org/course/effective-thinking-through-mathem...

Re: Established education providers v new contenders

#40

Post by codingdave » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 3:47 PM UTC

Rather than trying to fit MOOCs into the current paradigm, society may just grow to embrace more ambiguity in education. Traditionally, it was very linear -- elementary --> secondary --> college --> graduate, and at some point you jump into the working world. Now, you still jump to the working world, but continue flexibly on a variety of educational goals, with or without accreditation, and with courses of varying quality. But people care more about what you can accomplish that what papers you hold.

Some people will still choose the traditional 4 year college degree and the cycle of deconstruction, analysis and reconstruction that it teaches, while others will forego that for a more pragmatic approach of MOOCs and the working world. Either way should be accepted.