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OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University

openclassroom.stanford.edu

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Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University

#31

Post by Qworg »

ddw wrote: post #21
iqster wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bump. In the past, I've been through Stanford's IOS dev course and ML course (via iTunes). Currently, I'm doing the AI course. It is truly amazing that Stanford is giving away this content for free. As an academic, it makes me wondering how education will change over the next 10 years. If a prof gives a fantastic lecture in the Fall of 2010, does he need to repeat himself in 2011? I had the experience of lecturing an…

I'm taking the ML class and Dr. Ng occasionally mentions in the videos how he talks to Silicon Valley start-ups to helped them implement algorithms. What if the future professor not only make his money from teaching at a university but by consulting with businesses? She would just be using her expertise to teach in a different area. There's often a disconnect between academia and business that doesn't make a lot of s…

This is what Carnegie Mellon is already doing - contrary to other university's I've seen/attended, CMU has three classes of professors, instead of two.

1) Tenured Professors - traditional tenure track. 2) Untenured Instructors - traditional instructors. 3) Research Professors - essentially freelance entrepreneurs in the research space under the CMU umbrella. They seek their own funding, hire students, advise, but don't teach.

Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University

#32

Post by webspiderus »

I'm actually taking the Applied Machine Learning class at Stanford, and I'll be honest - I'm a little disappointed that most of the content is delivered through video instead of lectures. I find it difficult to actually watch through the videos, mostly because there's no easy way for me to skim or jump around the content. I've actually ended up using the notes from the class I took last year (http://cs229.stanford.edu/materials.html) if I need to refresh my memory on the finer points.

Prof. Ng did remark that they decided to switch to videos because they saw dropping attendance rates in the past as students begin to utilize our remote learning solution later in the quarter (i.e. get lazy to go to class), but I wish that there was also a transcribed version of the videos that could be made available for people who prefer learning that way.

Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University

#33

Post by webspiderus »

dpatru wrote: post #15

There are tens of thousands of students taking these courses. There's probably a business opportunity here. How could a startup make money by hiring, say, one hundred of the best Machine Learning graduates?

the Machine Learning class (at least for the Stanford students) also has a project component, so I'm sure a startup could see some use even from just having the graduates work on their problems for a research project, if nothing else! personally, I ended up doing two projects last year with data from my previous internship, and I think it's a great way to both have interesting problems and useful results.

Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University

#34

Post by karls »

truly amazing!

about the stanford ML course (i'm not taking any others) -- i especially like the fact that i can always rewind, re-watch, pause-take notes-play, answer questions during the "lecture" without the embarrassment of getting it wrong the first time, unlike in real lectures. the forums are there in case of questions/problems. the content is presented in a clear and concise manner. and the length of each "lecture" is 10-15 minutes, no need to focus heavily for an hour straight.

for people who have not seen the ted talk by salman khan http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/salman_khan_let_s_use_vide... which, along with increasing number of online courses from prominent universities, suggests that the educational system is changing.

people who are behind this, i salute you.

Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University

#36

Post by natasham25 »

This is truly incredible. I have been trying to learn how to code, but am having a hard time, mostly because I'm used to the university lecture style. The Stanford Courses are amazing - the provide lectures, handouts, homework assignments, reading assignments. It's just like being in class, and I'm loving it. I have mad respect for Stanford and all the other colleges who are being progressive and opening up their education to everyone.

Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University

#37

Post by wtallis »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #24
dpatru wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I worry that it might not be sustainable. The rise of Wikipedia with the concomitant decline of commercial, paper encyclopedias offers some insight into the future of education. In the future, there will be more education available and it will be very cheap. What will not be sustainable anymore is a career in education where one gives essentially the same lecture for 30 years but gets paid as if he has created an e…

> What will not be sustainable anymore is a career in education where one gives essentially the same lecture for 30 years but gets paid as if he has created an entirely new lecture every year. // It will be interesting to see how this affects the development of subjects like mathematics. Without the income from teaching students how will the capitalist system maintain academics in research? Who will pay if education…

Math is probably the subject least at risk. Every prospective engineer or scientist needs to learn a lot of math, and a significant fraction of those students will be unable to master the subject by simply watching videos. That means that there will always be a significant demand for real, live math teachers.

Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University

#38

Post by Rotor »

webspiderus wrote: post #32

I'm actually taking the Applied Machine Learning class at Stanford, and I'll be honest - I'm a little disappointed that most of the content is delivered through video instead of lectures. I find it difficult to actually watch through the videos, mostly because there's no easy way for me to skim or jump around the content. I've actually ended up using the notes from the class I took last year ( http://cs229.stanford.e…

Personally I don't see the video format being a huge drawback, although having the in-video quizzes in HTML5 would be fantastic for tablets. It makes it convenient to learn the content and there is always the ff/rewind buttons. You can take notes.

These remote learning classes from Standford are somewhat new and there is some experimentation taking place, I would rather not see these classes be canceled due to lack of attendance.

All-in-all a great experience, I hope more universities follow suit in this open style of teaching.

Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University

#39

Post by dstein64 »

barik wrote: post #16

It seems that there is a digital divide between universities that "get it", and universities that don't. I applaud universities like MIT and Stanford for opening up education for everyone. Other universities, like NC State and Georgia Tech, give platitudes about equal access to education for all but then fail to deliver. At the end of the day, this is because online education for them is not about equality, but rathe…

One reason for NC State's restricted sharing policy might be to encourage participation in class. Some students may be discouraged from participating in lectures if the content will be distributed.

This seems less likely in the NC State example though, given that the same policy seems to apply to all course material, in addition to video lecture recordings.

Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University

#40

Post by pyoung »

iqster wrote: post #8
ashamedlion wrote: post #4

I really respect Stanford's willingness to share content for free. They seem to have let go of the elitist notion of the past wherein content is worth so much to universities. This feels like they actually want people to learn.

Bump. In the past, I've been through Stanford's IOS dev course and ML course (via iTunes). Currently, I'm doing the AI course. It is truly amazing that Stanford is giving away this content for free. As an academic, it makes me wondering how education will change over the next 10 years. If a prof gives a fantastic lecture in the Fall of 2010, does he need to repeat himself in 2011? I had the experience of lecturing an…

I think the Stanford AI and ML classes demonstrate what can be done with lower division and introductory classes of technical nature (physics, chemistry, CS, etc.). However, this model doesn't work as well with liberal arts classes (where assignments tend to be in the form of papers and essays, not easy to grade/standardize) and upper division tech classes (where the material is too complex for a 'stock' lecture).

As such, I doubt this will lead to any major shifts in the employment situation of academics.

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