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We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

turingcollege.blogspot.com

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Re: We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

#41

Post by padwiki »

redthrowaway wrote: post #40
padwiki wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As soon as we have users, we'll have user testimonials and reviews. It's part chicken and egg, I know, but it's the same problem any new product has. Someone has to be the first. Other than user reviews (and the free preview and money back guarantee), what could we do to convince you (or other prospective students in your position) that it's worth the risk? Would a google hangout with Dr. Ostrowski (something we have…

>free preview and money back guarantee Make this more prominent; I didn't see any mention of it. Just "Give us $400 for our awesome class". >Would a google hangout with Dr. Ostrowski make a difference ? Absolutely. An AMA wouldn't hurt, either. Also, sign me up for your newsletter. Email's in my profile.

Thanks for the advice, We'll definitely work on making our guarantee more prominent.

I've been considering an AMA on Reddit, even though I actually had to quit the site three months ago to get to where we are. AMAs on HN are a little tricky as the commenting system is so...unique.

Either way, I'll add your email and keep you updated.

Re: We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

#42

Post by rdl »

padwiki wrote: post #8
stfu wrote: post #4

This is very very a long shot project. I have watched colleges trying to get their first accreditation (I guess most likely going to be DETC in that case), but it is really a difficult process which gives them very little room outside of following the existing for-profit college business model. Plus the pricing is another issue. For example via distance CS Master Degrees at state colleges can go for under $10.000 (Co…

No arguments on the long shot part, and you're right, focusing on accreditation does put some serious limitations on exactly how we can structure our business model. Not focusing on accreditation, however, means it is very easy to create a business model that is impossible to accredit. Udemy, for example, will never be able to achieve their original vision of being a real college or university because their business…

Isn't the traditional way to get a new college accredited to buy an existing, economically failing school which is already accredited and take over the credential?

Re: We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

#43

Post by redthrowaway »

padwiki wrote: post #41
redthrowaway wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>free preview and money back guarantee Make this more prominent; I didn't see any mention of it. Just "Give us $400 for our awesome class". >Would a google hangout with Dr. Ostrowski make a difference ? Absolutely. An AMA wouldn't hurt, either. Also, sign me up for your newsletter. Email's in my profile.

Thanks for the advice, We'll definitely work on making our guarantee more prominent. I've been considering an AMA on Reddit, even though I actually had to quit the site three months ago to get to where we are. AMAs on HN are a little tricky as the commenting system is so...unique. Either way, I'll add your email and keep you updated.

HN AMAs unfortunately seem to be a non-starter. I can definitely sympathize with blocking reddit for productivity reasons, but it's a connection with your target market that shouldn't be ignored.

I like your idea, and I love your goal, but it's going to take more than that to make me a customer who forks over hundreds of dollars. You've got the attention of the technorati; I'd first focus on how you can convert them to paying customers, then deal with the plebs later.

Re: We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

#44

Post by pork »

padwiki wrote: post #19
freshhawk wrote: post #12

That's an excitingly ambitious project. I really hope you guys pull it off. One (extended) question though: The first course is "a cutting-edge class in web application development for mobile devices. Not only does it use texts focused on practical application and cover tech like PhoneGap, Jo, Sencha, jQTouch, and jQuery Mobile, but it is taught by a real-world developer with decades of university teaching experience…

Thanks for the feedback on the copy. It's always hard to find that balance between being informal and jokingly reference overused terms like "rockstar", and being unnecessarily stuffy. We'll definitely take your comments to heart though as we refine the general descriptions. The whole concept of being able to mix real world (trade school) courses with heavy theory is a tricky question. We have traditional theory heav…

Perhaps your use of the word "college" is currently misleading. As the OP says, you're really offering trade school classes. When you offer a comprehensive curriculum that includes a theoretical underpinning, that's when you're a "college".

Re: We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

#45

Post by padwiki »

rdl wrote: post #42
padwiki wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No arguments on the long shot part, and you're right, focusing on accreditation does put some serious limitations on exactly how we can structure our business model. Not focusing on accreditation, however, means it is very easy to create a business model that is impossible to accredit. Udemy, for example, will never be able to achieve their original vision of being a real college or university because their business…

Isn't the traditional way to get a new college accredited to buy an existing, economically failing school which is already accredited and take over the credential?

Sure, it's traditional if you are unable to meet accreditation standards on your own and have a spare $10mil in the bank. We can meet those standards on our own, however, we don't have a spare $10mil in the bank.

Re: We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

#46

Post by padwiki »

pork wrote: post #44
padwiki wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback on the copy. It's always hard to find that balance between being informal and jokingly reference overused terms like "rockstar", and being unnecessarily stuffy. We'll definitely take your comments to heart though as we refine the general descriptions. The whole concept of being able to mix real world (trade school) courses with heavy theory is a tricky question. We have traditional theory heav…

Perhaps your use of the word "college" is currently misleading. As the OP says, you're really offering trade school classes. When you offer a comprehensive curriculum that includes a theoretical underpinning, that's when you're a "college".

Our first class definitely has practical application, but it is still taught by a PHD and covers more ground at a higher level than the current college or university standard.

If teaching applied material makes you a trade school, someone should tell Harvard: http://cs76.tv/2012/spring/

As for the use of the word "college", well, it's the most accurate descriptor of what we are building. We're not there yet, but we will be soon, and having to print a whole new batch of business cards is just too darn expensive. We could have chosen a more startup-ey name, but we hate startup-ey names. I could have named it after myself as well, maybe something like "Huffman Coding". We checked though, and that was taken.

While we're discussing it though, singularity university isn't a university, and clown college does not cover the theoretical aspect of clowning sufficiently. Also, University of Maryland College University is mildly redundant. And why do you park on the drive way and drive on the park way?

Re: We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

#47

Post by freshhawk »

padwiki wrote: post #19
freshhawk wrote: post #12

That's an excitingly ambitious project. I really hope you guys pull it off. One (extended) question though: The first course is "a cutting-edge class in web application development for mobile devices. Not only does it use texts focused on practical application and cover tech like PhoneGap, Jo, Sencha, jQTouch, and jQuery Mobile, but it is taught by a real-world developer with decades of university teaching experience…

Thanks for the feedback on the copy. It's always hard to find that balance between being informal and jokingly reference overused terms like "rockstar", and being unnecessarily stuffy. We'll definitely take your comments to heart though as we refine the general descriptions. The whole concept of being able to mix real world (trade school) courses with heavy theory is a tricky question. We have traditional theory heav…

The bootstrap problem explanation makes it more clear where you are coming from. That makes a lot of sense.

I think a few things struck a nerve with me because I've had a lot of interactions with junior developers who identify with the HN crowd, the startup culture, rockstar programmer thing who show really strong anti-intellectual opinions about CS.

Then they end up reinventing the wheel poorly because they would never bother looking up the 30 year old algorithm that solves their problem on wikipedia, nevermind reading an actual published paper. Every time I have to throw away weeks of their work because they wrote their own crappy sorting algorithm or didn't google "bloom filter" I blame their educators and feel bad for them. Because it never occurred to them to think about the high level problem and see if maybe one of those ivory tower geniuses solved their problem already. Sometimes they know they could have but don't know where to start or feel intimidated by that part of the web.

I'm gearing up to do some recruiting for my startup so it's on my mind. "Turing College? sounds like my kind of people. 'Rockstar' programmer? sounds like those kind of people".

Maybe that's unfair and I shouldn't be so crotchety when I'm barely in my 30's. Some clarity on where you guys will fall on the theoretical/practical spectrum and how the theoretical foundation courses will support the practical courses in your curriculum would help people like me get on board.

Maybe some copy on your roadmap for the curriculum and your higher level ideas about how you'll be teaching?

Re: We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

#48

Post by freshhawk »

olalonde wrote: post #13

What does HN think of my prediction? Within the next decade, we will see the rise of the teacher superstar. They will have salaries/compensations comparable to movie stars except their performance will be teaching online to massive amounts of students. We can already see a beginning of that trend with Salman Khan or Peter Norvig teaching an AI class online.

I think you're probably on the right track with that one.

How about a further prediction:

Once there are teacher superstars and they are considered a normal part of our culture the pressure to pander or appeal to the masses will result in the most famous being pretty crappy educators. It will be like politics and acting, superstar attributes are more important than teacher/leader/actor attributes.

Unless we get a really good way of measuring student performance somehow. If we can get that good enough then it becomes like sports, the superstars are actually among the best at what they are supposed to be doing. This is the optimistic prediction.

The first one is the realistic one.

Re: We’re #3 on Paul Graham’s Frighteningly Ambitious Idea List

#49

Post by freshhawk »

padwiki wrote: post #46
pork wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps your use of the word "college" is currently misleading. As the OP says, you're really offering trade school classes. When you offer a comprehensive curriculum that includes a theoretical underpinning, that's when you're a "college".

Our first class definitely has practical application, but it is still taught by a PHD and covers more ground at a higher level than the current college or university standard. If teaching applied material makes you a trade school, someone should tell Harvard: http://cs76.tv/2012/spring/ As for the use of the word "college", well, it's the most accurate descriptor of what we are building. We're not there yet, but we w…

Since I started using the term "trade school" here I want to be clear I don't use it as a pejorative term, just a differentiation.
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