I like Udacity's new focus on courses designed by companies. Traditional education is far too detached from what is required in industry, and has trouble keeping up with the pace of innovation.
Ha, yeah, very funny.
World's First Massive Online Degree Program Starts Today
21–30 of 68 posts
Re: World's First Massive Online Degree Program Starts Today
#22Some dreaming on my part...
I'm rooting for this to work out. If you can do it alongside a job they could very well "compete with nonconsumption" of sorts. This already exists on somewhat large scale in some countries. The biggest (by enrolment) university in Germany is a "Fernuniversität"
Ultimately I hope these take off, prices go down (they become essentially free with payments for taking tests i.e. universities become more certification agencies). Hope the brand name of universities will be measured by the quality of the free education they provide in the future. 7k$ is not a price point that excites me.
And of course I hope this leads to the non-online classes getting better and better as they have to provide truely great value.
[especially for CS I could also see companies tapping in and offering some sort of mentoring/intern programs]
Re: World's First Massive Online Degree Program Starts Today
#23Most interesting to me was this: "88% of the applicants are US-based as compared to 10% for the on-campus degree." My guess is that the $7K price that seems revolutionary in the US is just too expensive in a worldwide context. At lot of international students do come to the US, but that's for traditional on-campus education. If you're not going all-in in that manner, might as well attend a local institution for a fra…
I think many MOOC studies show that while "the poor girl in Afghanistan" is theoretically possible and a nice heart-warming story, the reality is that it's mostly used by already fairly well educated Caucasian males from well developed countries.
[classes are also mostly not completed etc.]
I'm really wondering why that is the case and feel like they should focus a lot on fixing this because bringing great education to people that otherwise can't get it would be the real breakthrough (insert solar powered mini-TV story by Christensen for the old compete with nonconsumption here)
Either way I hope this prototype succeeds and which them luck.
Re: World's First Massive Online Degree Program Starts Today
#24wait, the admissions are closed?!?! What gives :( Btw it seems they found a solution to some of the problems faced by MOOCs. Lower the drop-out rate by introducing an entry barrier. And also restict the class size to reach a manageable amount for actual class-like experience. Also, offer an ACTUAL degree, thus providing incentive to students to carry on with the program.
"it seems they found a solution to some of the problems faced by MOOCs ... "
So its exactly the same as a traditional distance course then?
In what way does this solve any of the problems of MOOCs? (And I question whether MOOCs should even look at drop-out rates as a failure, but thats another rant)
Its not "massive" by any stretches of the imagination. It just happens to be an online course. I welcome the age of online degrees and I hope the trend continues and that they can scale it to become 'massive' in the future without damaging the prestige of the degree. But they have a way to go yet.
Re: World's First Massive Online Degree Program Starts Today
#25It's a not particularly massive online degree program using similar mechanisms to those used in MOOCs for classes—but it's not the first such program by any stretch of the imagination. Such programs are actually older than free MOOCs, and a number of instutions have had them for years; Kaplan has several, including a JD program. This seems to be the first to try to leverage the attention to MOOCs in te marketing, and…
I have to admit I don't see the difference between what Udacity are doing in this particular course and what Open University has been doing for years.
Re: World's First Massive Online Degree Program Starts Today
#26Most interesting to me was this: "88% of the applicants are US-based as compared to 10% for the on-campus degree." My guess is that the $7K price that seems revolutionary in the US is just too expensive in a worldwide context. At lot of international students do come to the US, but that's for traditional on-campus education. If you're not going all-in in that manner, might as well attend a local institution for a fra…
Interestingly, 8k€ is what it would cost an American for a year's tuition in Belgium (where I'm from). For Belgians, it's less than 1k€.
I don't understand why studying in Europe is not a more popular choice amongst young Americans.
Re: World's First Massive Online Degree Program Starts Today
#27Most interesting to me was this: "88% of the applicants are US-based as compared to 10% for the on-campus degree." My guess is that the $7K price that seems revolutionary in the US is just too expensive in a worldwide context. At lot of international students do come to the US, but that's for traditional on-campus education. If you're not going all-in in that manner, might as well attend a local institution for a fra…
Interestingly, 8k€ is what it would cost an American for a year's tuition in Belgium (where I'm from). For Belgians, it's less than 1k€. I don't understand why studying in Europe is not a more popular choice amongst young Americans.
Probably lack of awareness in both directions - apart from Oxford and Cambridge, how many European universities are well known in the US?
And for Europeans - apart from Harvard, Yale (and MIT and Stanford for people in the tech world) how many people know about other US universities? This also probably applies within Europe - I have no idea what the top rated universities are for CS or engineering are in Germany or France... and I'm in the UK (showing my own ignorance - I really should know).
Re: World's First Massive Online Degree Program Starts Today
#28Most interesting to me was this: "88% of the applicants are US-based as compared to 10% for the on-campus degree." My guess is that the $7K price that seems revolutionary in the US is just too expensive in a worldwide context. At lot of international students do come to the US, but that's for traditional on-campus education. If you're not going all-in in that manner, might as well attend a local institution for a fra…
That would be correct. In Portugal, university fees are around €1000 per annum. A private university costs around €5000. So by our standards, this is expensive.
A second disadvantage is that American degrees are not automatically recognized here - you have to ask for an equivalence; and very likely an online degree would not be recognized, because it does not follow a traditional format in terms of course attendance and examinations.
The only advantage of this degree is the fact that you can take it online, and that is not very compelling, as you can find most of this material for free.
Re: World's First Massive Online Degree Program Starts Today
#29I like Udacity's new focus on courses designed by companies. Traditional education is far too detached from what is required in industry, and has trouble keeping up with the pace of innovation.
Funny, as I have found most of the newer courses seriously lacking any tangible depth or usefulness (Intro to Hadoop/MapReduce took a few hours and barely covered the basics). The old Artificial Intelligence or Parallel Programming are probably some of the best on the site.
The newer courses seriously lacking any tangible depth or usefulness
Interesting. I have to admit that I didn't participate in one of the newer coures yet.
Sure, good ideas != good execution.
Re: World's First Massive Online Degree Program Starts Today
#30Since when is a 375 person class massive? I'm all for what Udacity, Coursera, and others are trying to do, but there have been proper online universities such as the Open University doing this for years with hundreds of types of degrees, and with bigger classes. Let's put the "massive" back in "MooC". Also, $7k? I can get a on-campus CS masters in a world top 100 university here in Ireland for that price. I guess edu…
Education, like most things in the US, is supported by debt. Tuition for a single semester at Georgia Tech, for an out of state student like myself, would run $14,861: http://www.bursar.gatech.edu/student/tuition/Spring_2014/Spr...
Also the debt cannot be gotten rid of by declaring yourself bankrupt. It is a 'federal' debt.
Think the UK has sort of got this right. Your tuition fees are a debt (at very low interest rates) that you never have to pay off unless you start earning significant amounts of money. It's repaid as a percentage of your salary above a certain income level.