The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
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Re: The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
#2Coursera vs. MITx. Any views?
Re: The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
#3Coursera vs. MITx. Any views?
By what metric do you want to make such a comparison? I love both programs considering the reputation of both universities, certification would go a long way to get the foot in the door when it comes to jobs. I am currently taking 5 courses under Coursera and I wish i had a binding certification after completion
Re: The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
#4For me to get a Statement of Accomplishment, will I have to go along with the course or can I start later and still get it. I'm interested in CS101 but the course is already in its fifth week.
Re: The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
#5I think this is great and having such high quality level instructors is very good. However, I'd caution the typical view nowadays, especially around here, that this signals the end of traditional college and that we should just throw it out.
Re: The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
#6I want to address the following quote from the article: "During the fall term, the Stanford students taking CS221 preferred watching the KnowLabs videos. Thrun says this improved their performance."
I took the official Stanford offering this past fall. I am not a Stanford student (anymore), but I enrolled as part of SCPD. As a result of the official course starting two weeks earlier than the public offering, the course staff usually didn't post up the YouTube videos in time for me to do the assignments, so I relied primarily on the lectures. (Actually, as a distance student, I relied upon the lecture recordings.)
I eventually did catch up on the YouTube videos, and I can attest that they are indeed better. However, they produced superior results mainly because they covered more material. For example, in one case, I did over two pages of error-prone calculations because I didn't know the mathematical shortcut that was taught in the YouTube videos. And I gasped as the professors spelled out in detail how to do problems that I had to think hard about how to do. Indeed, one problem that I was pleasantly challenged by on the midterm was simply not covered in lecture; in contrast, the professors explained it tutorial-style on YouTube.
Using the terminology of the course, I would say that the YouTube videos "overfitted" to the homework and exam problems -- so of course the students preferred the videos!
I do suspect that short, interactive, and extremely polished videos will be proven to be better in most cases, but unfortunately this experiment cannot be used as a basis for forming that conclusion. Clearly, the lectures were handicapped.
And to be honest, I am skeptical of how videos would perform against some of the tremendously excellent lectures out there, such as the introductory computer science lectures that are posted at Stanford Engineering Everywhere.
With all this said, I had a great deal of fun taking this course. I applaud the course staff for doing a stellar job, and I am grateful to be part of what I am certain will be a historical experiment.
Re: The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
#7I think this is great and having such high quality level instructors is very good. However, I'd caution the typical view nowadays, especially around here, that this signals the end of traditional college and that we should just throw it out.
I agree. I don't know about computer science students, but as a civil engineering student college means a whole lot more to me than just being lectured at. I'm involved in half a dozen student organizations, and a lot of the time I find myself learning more outside the classroom working with professors and other students on competition teams and organizations than I am in class. It's sad that so many people think watching videos can teach them as much as actually plugging into a real life program with other students and experience faculty to interact with. I think it shows there's something wrong with how most people are approaching college in general.
Re: The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
#8I think this is great and having such high quality level instructors is very good. However, I'd caution the typical view nowadays, especially around here, that this signals the end of traditional college and that we should just throw it out.
I agree. I think if it does happen, it will be a slow transition(several decades) because that's how long culture takes to change.
Re: The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
#9Coursera vs. MITx. Any views?
MITx supplies a textbook which is very nice. A Jeff Kent hacked together a scrolling textbook viewer as well. MITx needs a bit more moderating on the discussion boards. Many people are going to fail the class when they find out that there is more to the class than finding the answer in the forums.
MITx suffers a bit from small assignments and small exercise sets. They've compensated for the shortcoming already by adding tutorials. (I didn't notice them when I first took a gander - I think they were added.) The textbook also counters this deficit.
The first assignment for 6.002x was due last weekend but they take the best 10 out of 12, so it's still worthwhile to sign up!
Coursera's offerings are also nice. One of the features that was there that is no longer working for me is increased video playback speed. The +/- buttons do not work. Playing video at ~1.4x was quite nice. MITx can play at 1.25x and 1.5x. Dr. Aggarwal's (MIT) Hindi-Bostonian accent at 1.5x chipmunk speeds is a bit too much for my brain to process, but at 1.25x he seems even more excited about his teaching!
I'm also having issues with the video crashing or hanging with Coursera. To counteract that I am taking advantage of downloading the videos and using VLC to chipmunk them. Coursera is more portable. But in both cases students have hacked together downloaders for the entire course anyway.
And as always, check how you are evaluated. Just like a real course, the way you are evaluated changes from course to course.
I'm really enjoying the Natural Language Processing. The first assignment is due on Sunday I think.
Other than the SaaS and Model Thinking class, everything else is still just starting or hasn't started yet. I am going through the Model Thinking videos course even though I registered way too late. Really really worth it.
My TL; DR: I narrowly prefer the MITx setup over Coursera.
Re: The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
#10I think this is great and having such high quality level instructors is very good. However, I'd caution the typical view nowadays, especially around here, that this signals the end of traditional college and that we should just throw it out.
I agree. I don't know about computer science students, but as a civil engineering student college means a whole lot more to me than just being lectured at. I'm involved in half a dozen student organizations, and a lot of the time I find myself learning more outside the classroom working with professors and other students on competition teams and organizations than I am in class. It's sad that so many people think wat…
I agree that what students do outside the classroom is as important, if not more important, than the lectures. However, going through the lectures, in person or through a video, lessens the learning curve for critical skills that are a prerequisite to outside the classroom learning experiences. In other words, these videos give everyone who watches them an opportunity to engage in the next level of learning.
I believe it is possible that with these prerequisites moved outside of universities, it becomes possible for more group learning experiences, not unlike those you experienced with professors and other students, to become available to everyone. Currently, the latter is only available (mostly) to students at a university.
People don't (read: shouldn't) think that all it takes to become a computer scientist or civil engineer is to watch a few videos. They definitely know that they can't without learning the concepts in those videos, allowing themselves to become more involved with real challenges in the field and further their educations.