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MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

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Re: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

#121

Post by itsoktocry »

wpietri wrote: post #62
itsoktocry wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sometimes I like to listen to a lecture 2 or 3 or even more times. YouTube has a ton of lectures, for free, that you can view and/or listen to in this manner. But doing dishes during a lecture seems antithetical to what they are trying to achieve with remote learning, and isn't the use case they should be catering to.

The notion that there's a single concept of the purpose of remote learning and a single concept of how students learn is exactly the problem. It baffles me that people expect to take a process optimized for a neurotypical 20-year-old subsidized enough to devote 100% time to study and apply it to everybody else on the planet. I get how physical universities ended up the way they did. But software is infinitely soft an…

>Insisting that everybody must learn the same way a bunch of well-off youth did in 1950 is grossly exclusionary and wasteful.

No one is saying "everyone must learn the same way". They are teaching a specific way, and are under no obligation to ensure that "your" unique needs are met.

I mean, you say yourself there's no single concept of how students learn. So maybe explain how you'd expect them to to do it?

There are all kinds of models out there. Udemy, Coursera, good old recorded lectures on YouTube. Find what works for you and use it.

Re: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

#122

Post by hogFeast »

etempleton wrote: post #19

I suspect it was just not a sustainable program from a revenue perspective for either school and has the risk to lower the schools reputation and suck away resources. 2U is one of the biggest for-profit higher education companies and seemingly one of the most successful ones, often partnering with other colleges and universities. I am suspicious of any of the for-profits being able to sustain a business. Most end up…

I would do some more research on 2u, they do not have a good reputation (indeed, almost no for-profit education companies do...the sector is very fashionable because a bunch of Chinese companies have made tens of billions in this market...but it is replete with frauds).

Re: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

#123

Post by jasonharris555 »

whoomp12342 wrote: post #57
hashhar wrote: post #7

I'm sad that all education endeavours eventually turn for-profit and then the goals get misaligned. Produce as many courses at as minimum cost as possible. Enroll as many people as possible without regards for completion percentage. Create an economy where random people are incentivised to create courses and then the course quality tanks. I wish this turns out differently. Even Udemy and Coursera have become commeric…

fuck completion percentage, it is more than just that. consider the QUALITY of completion. e.g. Did you show up 30% of the time? yer a graduate!

Mastery based credentialing is the future. Employers only care what you actually know and can do.

Re: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

#124

Post by jasonharris555 »

adnmcq999 wrote: post #107

Download or get a textbook and read it yourself + find some lectures on YouTube with a high rank that you also feel you are getting something from. This is and always has been the best way to learn most subjects.

This is also how I do it but I would also like some sort of computer based tools to help learn.

Re: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

#125

Post by pyuser583 »

turadg wrote: post #78
benrbray wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to use edX for the first time recently to take a "food science" course, but was disappointed to see that they've resorted to the same dark patterns as Coursera and others, such as: * Removing your access to course materials when the class is done, and disallowing access to past versions of the class. * Pressuring you into joining as many courses as possible, due to fear of missing out. When you visit the site…

This is a dilution of the meaning of "dark pattern". darkpatterns.org which coined the term (and Wikipedia cites) says, "When you use websites and apps, you don’t read every word on every page - you skim read and make assumptions. If a company wants to trick you into doing something, they can take advantage of this by making a page look like it is saying one thing when it is in fact saying another." I don't see any o…

“Dark pattern” is getting way too popular.

Re: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

#126

Post by dragonwriter »

nverno wrote: post #116
itsbenweeks wrote: post #111

I was originally worried at how dishonest seemed to faculty and TAs who have spent years creating many textbooks' worth of content for edX. Something akin to MIT Press selling their catalog to Elsevier or Pearson wouldn't be tolerated by the faculty. But, in the press release they do mention that MIT faculty can opt-out and operate in a MIT-only instance & fork of the Open edX platform: "MIT will continue to offer co…

MIT is the gold standard of education. Most of their computing classes already give you full access to all the course materials, videos, labs, readings, handouts, etc. directly from the course page. These direct resources are far better than typical edX/Coursera courses. The same is not generally true of Harvard courses (with a few exceptions like cs50), which hide all materials behind paywalls.

> MIT is the gold standard of education

A complete tangent, but its somewhat amusing that this idiom remains popular when the literal gold standard itself is no longer generally considered a figurative gold standard of anything.

Re: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

#127

Post by dragonwriter »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #11
jp0d wrote: post #3

I'm doing my Micromasters in Statistics from MIT on EDX. Enjoying the amazing content and recognition of certificate. I'm not sure what this means for enrolled students like me. Is anyone else doing MicroMaster or similar course from a university and worried what this means? "MIT faculty may choose to continue to offer their courses through the new edX after the transaction is completed, or move them to MITx Online."

i had never heard the phrase "micromasters". Wikipedia suggests it is unique to EdX. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroMasters

> i had never heard the phrase "micromasters". Wikipedia suggests it is unique to EdX.

Coursera has something similar called MasterTrack; there's not a generic cross-platform name for it, though if it is successful for multiple platforms and graduate institutions that will probably change over time.

Re: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

#128

Post by truth_ »

benrbray wrote: post #44
wodenokoto wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Breaking courses into useless 2-minute chunks and constant unhelpful quizzes. I really just want to hear the lecturer speak for 20-30 minutes at a time uninterrupted, especially if I'm listening while doing dishes etc. I disagree. If you’re doing dishes you are not taking a college level course. One of the best things about digital courses is that you don’t have to spend an hour zoning out to a professor talking an…

> I disagree. That's something we have in common :). My disagreement spans a few dimensions: * I've already been through school. An undergraduate and graduate degree already taught me how to learn. I have good habits, and I know how to buckle down and study when needed. For me, I find that having something to do with my hands while listening to a lecture actually helps me stay more focused on the topic. Before and af…

Exactly. When I find overlapping content in MOOCs, it becomes very annoying. I don't want to miss out a valuable insight I might gain listening to a different instructor speaking for a different point-of-view. The RoI is quite low. But it has happened in the past, so I don't want to skip overlapping content. So listening to it while tidying up or cleaning the desk makes sense.

And for new content, I never watch lectures with other things. I never did. And I still find 2-4 minutes videos annoying as hell.

Re: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

#129

Post by adolph »

jasonharris555 wrote: post #123
whoomp12342 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fuck completion percentage, it is more than just that. consider the QUALITY of completion. e.g. Did you show up 30% of the time? yer a graduate!

Mastery based credentialing is the future. Employers only care what you actually know and can do.

> Employers only care what you actually know and can do.

That seems to fly in the face of "who you know is more important that what you know" conventional wisdom.

Re: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

#130

Post by dataflow »

benrbray wrote: post #44
wodenokoto wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Breaking courses into useless 2-minute chunks and constant unhelpful quizzes. I really just want to hear the lecturer speak for 20-30 minutes at a time uninterrupted, especially if I'm listening while doing dishes etc. I disagree. If you’re doing dishes you are not taking a college level course. One of the best things about digital courses is that you don’t have to spend an hour zoning out to a professor talking an…

> I disagree. That's something we have in common :). My disagreement spans a few dimensions: * I've already been through school. An undergraduate and graduate degree already taught me how to learn. I have good habits, and I know how to buckle down and study when needed. For me, I find that having something to do with my hands while listening to a lecture actually helps me stay more focused on the topic. Before and af…

Nothing wrong with what you want, but I'm thinking you might not be the target audience?
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