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Coursera to combine with Udemy

investor.coursera.com

251–260 of 395 posts

Re: Coursera to combine with Udemy

#251
post #52

As someone who had to drop out of school in the 2008 crisis (family trouble), I owe a good chunk of my learning to the first era of online teaching. Those courses that were basically “we’re a top university and we let someone record the class from the back” were a literal life changer. Honestly, that was all I wanted. Everything that came after has been substantially worse. Work is gamified, teachers spend more time…

> Those courses that were basically “we’re a top university and we let someone record the class from the back” were a literal life changer. Honestly, that was all I wanted. Does anyone remember what happened to UC Berkeley? They had a lot of their courses recorded and uploaded to youtube; an absolute joy. Then, some [beep] sued them for not making the recording accessible enough, i.e. not providing captions alongside…

It got archived https://archive.is/D1Ail

Re: Coursera to combine with Udemy

#252
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we went back to recording lectures by the worlds best and putting it online for free with attached books and exercises, we could improve the world a lot. I learn well this way. You learn well this way. However, the big revelation from the early experiments with online courses and MOOCs is that most people don’t. Fundamentals of math, history, physics, and other core topics aren’t changing except maybe for some c…

You need forced exercises, you need grading, you need something of a schedule. Not to say people can't do it. But, especially for difficult material, even a lot of motivated people won't. I mean I remember what undergrad (and grad school) was like and I'm pretty sure doing that independently and optionally would be tough.

I've been trying to figure this out for myself. I've heard a couple things

- you need a plan of what you're going to do with the information you're going to learn, after you learn it

- you need measurable improvement and feedback validating your improvement

- you need a community supporting you to keep you accountable

I guess at school, until your final year anyway, you get all three. Item 1 is lost once you realize your academics don't really help you at work.

Re: Coursera to combine with Udemy

#253

Coursera courses used to be good when I still had time to do courses, while udemy was very trashy low effort for my tastes. I am surprised Coursera became as bad as everyone says, I kind of refuse to believe it. But I don't have any spare time right now to study stuff edit: omg I just looked at coursera and it's so bad! it's all "AI this" "AI that" who uses all that stuff? who wants that? the whole site looks so sad…

Ironically the very first coursera course was (IIRC) Andrew Ng's machine learning course, which was fantastic, and the deep learning specialization, which was also phenomenal. I can unironically say that Andrew Ng was the best instructor I ever had in grad school (and I didn't go to Stanford...).

Doesn't he own Coursera?

Re: Coursera to combine with Udemy

#254
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same way you double check with any other method you prefer? Duh. LLMs are vastly superior to compile and spread knowledge than any other thing preceding them.

Professionals who know there subject are still the best way

That's true, but they are also a) a lot more expensive and b) unlike LLMs, the vast majority of professionals have family and friends and need sleep and food, and as such are not available 24/7/365

Re: Coursera to combine with Udemy

#255
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They got sued for not having subtitles… no thanks. I think I’ll blame the chucklefucks that thought, “Oh an opportunity for a quick buck” and resulted in everyone losing a valuable resource.

It's not about money it's about making sure things are accessible. The ADA is one of the reasons America is more accessible then Europe. Lawsuits are the enforcement mechanism

How accessible is the course now?

Re: Coursera to combine with Udemy

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing important context, which is that they were required by (federal) law to provide said accommodation, and they failed to do it (some would say they chose not to do it). It was easier (cheaper) to pull the plug. Don't blame the litigant. If you don't like it, change federal law.

They got sued for not having subtitles… no thanks. I think I’ll blame the chucklefucks that thought, “Oh an opportunity for a quick buck” and resulted in everyone losing a valuable resource.

Yeah, and without subtitles, the course content is not accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing... which the law says it has to be. UC Berkeley decided not to make their content accessible, and when someone complained, they took it all apart rather than making a reasonable (and legally required) accommodation. I guess I don't see why I'd blame the person filing the lawsuit here. UC Berkeley could have just... put up subtitles.

Re: Coursera to combine with Udemy

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And they had to take down all their published courses! No. They chose to take them down, instead of providing reasonable accommodations to those with disabilities. Choosing to see everything in the most cynical light doesn't make that version of events true.

You realize it would cost a significant resources to make the “accommodations” you are suggesting? Money, despite what you may believe, doesn’t grow on trees. Given the range of worthy competing interests where the money could be spent, the university likely had no practical choice but to take it offline, lest it face the bad press and wrath of Progressives. You remind me of people who insist every single new apartme…

Our society is better when the things that are available are available to everyone, not just the privileged. I don't see why accommodations for the disabled are considered some unnecessary burden; they should be considered a cost of doing business, for everyone who does business.

Re: Coursera to combine with Udemy

#258
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

So if 4% of the population cannot partake, then the other 96% should be barred from participating?

If 4% of the population cannot partake of your services, then it is you who are being the asshole, not the 4% of people asking for an accommodation.

Re: Coursera to combine with Udemy

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They got sued for not having subtitles… no thanks. I think I’ll blame the chucklefucks that thought, “Oh an opportunity for a quick buck” and resulted in everyone losing a valuable resource.

Yeah, and without subtitles, the course content is not accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing... which the law says it has to be. UC Berkeley decided not to make their content accessible, and when someone complained, they took it all apart rather than making a reasonable (and legally required) accommodation. I guess I don't see why I'd blame the person filing the lawsuit here. UC Berkeley could have just... put u…

It had subtitles. The demand was better subtitles, and the project had barely any budget.

While I think fixing it or even having a fundraiser would have been a much better response, I do put a good share of blame on the person that filed the lawsuit against a free side project.

Re: Coursera to combine with Udemy

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize it would cost a significant resources to make the “accommodations” you are suggesting? Money, despite what you may believe, doesn’t grow on trees. Given the range of worthy competing interests where the money could be spent, the university likely had no practical choice but to take it offline, lest it face the bad press and wrath of Progressives. You remind me of people who insist every single new apartme…

Our society is better when the things that are available are available to everyone, not just the privileged. I don't see why accommodations for the disabled are considered some unnecessary burden; they should be considered a cost of doing business, for everyone who does business.

Yes, business.

This wasn't business. There were no profits to divert into making better subtitles.

And the ratio of effort between making a recording versus making a recording and then manually subtitling it is completely out of whack compared to the ratio you have in full produced works. There's a reasonable level of accommodation, and the reasonable level is below a doubling in costs.

I'm someone that would significantly raise the subtitling requirements on youtube if I could. But in this case I just don't feel it.

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