Massive study on MOOCs
news.harvard.edu
Massive study on MOOCs
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Re: Massive study on MOOCs
#2"Across 12 courses, participants who paid for “ID-verified” certificates (with costs ranging from $50 to $250) earned certifications at a higher rate than other participants: 59 percent, on average, compared to 5 percent. Students opting for the ID-verified track appear to have stronger intentions to complete courses, and the monetary stake may add an extra form of motivation."
Would be interesting to know more about these people.
Re: Massive study on MOOCs
#3"Across 12 courses, participants who paid for “ID-verified” certificates (with costs ranging from $50 to $250) earned certifications at a higher rate than other participants: 59 percent, on average, compared to 5 percent. Students opting for the ID-verified track appear to have stronger intentions to complete courses, and the monetary stake may add an extra form of motivation." Would be interesting to know more about…
Here we go :
"We review preliminary demographic and outcome data for participants who pay to “ID-verify” their certificates. They are slightly older, more educated, more domestic, and less often female than non-verifying participants in the same course."
Moreover since they are "more educated" and the paper also mentions that students are in general graduates in a "disproportionate manner", I assume that these people are very likely to be graduates.
The paper is here : http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2586847
Re: Massive study on MOOCs
#4"Across 12 courses, participants who paid for “ID-verified” certificates (with costs ranging from $50 to $250) earned certifications at a higher rate than other participants: 59 percent, on average, compared to 5 percent. Students opting for the ID-verified track appear to have stronger intentions to complete courses, and the monetary stake may add an extra form of motivation." Would be interesting to know more about…
I'm one of them! But in the end I got behind in the course (it was on the Magna Carta, very interesting), and it closed before I could finish the material/assignments, so I unfortunately wasted 40 dollars (except I like to think of it as a donation to Coursera).
Re: Massive study on MOOCs
#5I took the Intro to AI and later AI for Robotics through Udacity but I was only able to get through one other course.
Now I am in my first semester of Georgia Tech's OMCS and I think it has been very challenging and enlightening. One improvement would be to get other colleges to make a macro-OMCS. Where you could take 10 classes across a wider selection. Maybe that will come with time. I also think there would be a great need for a $7k OBCS, that might be the next step in offering education to a wide group of people.
Re: Massive study on MOOCs
#6I took the Intro to AI and later AI for Robotics through Udacity but I was only able to get through one other course. Now I am in my first semester of Georgia Tech's OMCS and I think it has been very challenging and enlightening. One improvement would be to get other colleges to make a macro-OMCS. Where you could take 10 classes across a wider selection. Maybe that will come with time. I also think there would be a g…
I'm not sure that I see the benefit of a decentralized degree. Udacity & Coursera are already pursuing a path to aggregate content from many schools, and the OMS CS course catalog will not have traditional limits on availability -- once courses are in the catalog they can continue offering them every semester. As a fellow OMS student, the limiting factor has always been graders/TAs up to this point.
I concur about the need for an OBS CS (or ME, EE, CPE,...) at $7k. Cal State Monterey has a fully online BS program...that costs more than the resident program. I don't understand how it costs $300-500 per credit hour for the undergrad programs, except to avoid devaluing the resident offerings.
Re: Massive study on MOOCs
#7I took the Intro to AI and later AI for Robotics through Udacity but I was only able to get through one other course. Now I am in my first semester of Georgia Tech's OMCS and I think it has been very challenging and enlightening. One improvement would be to get other colleges to make a macro-OMCS. Where you could take 10 classes across a wider selection. Maybe that will come with time. I also think there would be a g…
I'm not sure that I see the benefit of a decentralized degree. Udacity & Coursera are already pursuing a path to aggregate content from many schools, and the OMS CS course catalog will not have traditional limits on availability -- once courses are in the catalog they can continue offering them every semester. As a fellow OMS student, the limiting factor has always been graders/TAs up to this point. I concur about th…
I think the TAs/graders will start to scale. There are some amazing TAs in this program. From my experience, I think some of the best are also current students in the program. I think the network effect of having so many students will have a big impact. I think you will start seeing companies encouraging employees to be TAs just for the ability to screen for potential employees.
Re: Massive study on MOOCs
#8"Across 12 courses, participants who paid for “ID-verified” certificates (with costs ranging from $50 to $250) earned certifications at a higher rate than other participants: 59 percent, on average, compared to 5 percent. Students opting for the ID-verified track appear to have stronger intentions to complete courses, and the monetary stake may add an extra form of motivation." Would be interesting to know more about…
I'm curious how much the effect is causal vs correlational. That is are students that sign up for certificates more likely to finish (because maybe they feel like they've already paid and don't want to waste it) or are students that are more likely to finish more likely to sign up for certificates in the first place? I would guess both effects are present but I'd like to know how it breaks down.
Re: Massive study on MOOCs
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure that I see the benefit of a decentralized degree. Udacity & Coursera are already pursuing a path to aggregate content from many schools, and the OMS CS course catalog will not have traditional limits on availability -- once courses are in the catalog they can continue offering them every semester. As a fellow OMS student, the limiting factor has always been graders/TAs up to this point. I concur about th…
I think the TAs/graders will start to scale. There are some amazing TAs in this program. From my experience, I think some of the best are also current students in the program. I think the network effect of having so many students will have a big impact. I think you will start seeing companies encouraging employees to be TAs just for the ability to screen for potential employees.
I agree about the TAs -- actually that was part of my point. Once the pool of TAs begins to scale they will have an easier time continuing to provide the courses with lower time investment from the professor of record than resident classes (since lectures do not have to be repeatedly provided).
One of the questions still open in my mind is whether networking through the OMS will be as valuable as resident programs. Anecdotally, I haven't been able to generate any useful leads so far, but that may be as much on me as the program. (I'm interested in other opportunities, but I have a well-paid, stable job that is far away from any tech hubs...so I'm not desperate, and it's challenging to find opportunities that fit for both parties.)
Re: Massive study on MOOCs
#10I took the Intro to AI and later AI for Robotics through Udacity but I was only able to get through one other course. Now I am in my first semester of Georgia Tech's OMCS and I think it has been very challenging and enlightening. One improvement would be to get other colleges to make a macro-OMCS. Where you could take 10 classes across a wider selection. Maybe that will come with time. I also think there would be a g…
I'm not sure that I see the benefit of a decentralized degree. Udacity & Coursera are already pursuing a path to aggregate content from many schools, and the OMS CS course catalog will not have traditional limits on availability -- once courses are in the catalog they can continue offering them every semester. As a fellow OMS student, the limiting factor has always been graders/TAs up to this point. I concur about th…
"I don't understand how it costs $300-500 per credit hour for the undergrad programs, except to avoid devaluing the resident offerings."
In MOOCs thousands of people are enrolled at the same time, and support is provided by the community of students. It's incredible how this phrasing sounds positive - even to me - while it basically means that support by a qualified instructor cannot be guaranteed and is unlikely to be provided.
In (good) accredited online programs - BSc or MSc - there are 10 to 20 students enrolled per course and you have direct access to the instructor who will adapt his lectures based on the audience feedbacks and specifics. This costs money and therefore has to come at a price.
If the program doesn't offer the above, or if you are a passive student who don't ask questions frequently and interact with others, then I'm with you, "why paying this price ?".
By the way, I am not saying that MOOCs are useless. Personally I see it under this perspective : the Educational System is so broken that in many cases streaming a video to thousands of people without providing them dedicated support is equivalent to the experience they get in physical classrooms.