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

news.mit.edu

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

#51

Post by itsoktocry »

lmohseni wrote: post #37
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…

> If you’re doing dishes you are not taking a college level course. Sometimes I like to listen to a lecture 2 or 3 or even more times. Sometimes I like to listen to a lecture when I'm going for a run. Sometimes I like to listen while I'm doing chores. Seems presumptuous to say I'm "not taking the course" when we know that learning styles vary so much between individuals.

>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.

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

#52

Post by inputvolch »

lisper wrote: post #50
rossdavidh wrote: post #39

Hypothesis: MIT and Harvard had enough experience in distance learning by now to realize that it is NOT going to be the wave of the future in education. They don't want to exactly say this out loud and take flak for it, so they're just unloading this (for significant $$) primarily in order to refocus on in-person education, since they've realized that distance learning has been around for decades and nothing about th…

To paraphrase Tom Lehrer [1]: education is like a sewer; what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. This is true regardless of the medium. Some people will get value out of distance learning, others won't, just as some people will get value out of in-person learning and others won't. The only difference is the cost. Distance learning can be provided for a lot less money, so you can afford to be less sele…

Education is like a sewer? No matter what I put into a sewer, my guess is that it's going to come out covered in shit.

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

#53

Post by antoviaque »

Note that the benefits of the sale ($800M) will all go to a non-profit dedicated to the development of the Open edX project. This just gave the project one of the largest warchests of any open source project, and freed it from the sometimes conflicting needs of monetization edx.org had.

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

#54

Post by dkarl »

inputvolch wrote: post #52
lisper wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To paraphrase Tom Lehrer [1]: education is like a sewer; what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. This is true regardless of the medium. Some people will get value out of distance learning, others won't, just as some people will get value out of in-person learning and others won't. The only difference is the cost. Distance learning can be provided for a lot less money, so you can afford to be less sele…

Education is like a sewer? No matter what I put into a sewer, my guess is that it's going to come out covered in shit.

Maybe the point is that what you get out of it depends a great deal on what everybody around you puts into it, a depressing fact that online learning can hopefully mitigate at least a little bit for people who have access to it.

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

#55

Post by Finnucane »

tsjq wrote: post #24

MIT and Harvard did this for 800million? Don't these two universities have multi hundred billion dollar endowments ? Squeezing every single drop of money from every single brick of the university : great work, MBAs . Slow clap

No, they do not have 'multi-hundred billion dollar endowments'. Harvard's is around $40 billion, which is a lot, but income from the endowment only covers about a third of operating costs. It is all already budgeted for other purposes. Even for Harvard and MIT, $800 million is a non-trivial amount of money.

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

#56

Post by martincmartin »

nightski wrote: post #49
rossdavidh wrote: post #39

Hypothesis: MIT and Harvard had enough experience in distance learning by now to realize that it is NOT going to be the wave of the future in education. They don't want to exactly say this out loud and take flak for it, so they're just unloading this (for significant $$) primarily in order to refocus on in-person education, since they've realized that distance learning has been around for decades and nothing about th…

The problem with MIT's online courses is that while the content itself was fantastic they refused to treat it like an online course. They wanted to have it run on a schedule, strict no-compromising deadlines, and large fees for full access. That's fine and all but it's forcing the university model they know into an online format and it doesn't work so great for the audience that wants to take online courses imho. The…

The facts are a little different.

For the math & physics classes, the deadlines are 3 weeks after being assigned, whereas when you take the class in person, there's a strict 1 week deadline.

Part of the advantage of taking an online class, as opposed to self study, is the motivating factor of deadlines. I have a lot of textbooks I've started reading, then said "I'll get back to this" and never have.

Another advantage of class over just textbook is discussions with classmates and TAs. Having a schedule helps with that too, since there are others working on the same material at the same time.

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

#57

Post by whoomp12342 »

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!

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

#58

Post by lstmemery »

This really feels like the end of an era. I got my start going through the MITx computer science and probability courses. I wouldn't be a data scientist today if I didn't have those resources available.

I now understand how to self-learn difficult subjects with textbooks and online lectures but I really appreciated MITx's commitment to making rigorous courses freely available.

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

#59

Post by lisper »

inputvolch wrote: post #52
lisper wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To paraphrase Tom Lehrer [1]: education is like a sewer; what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. This is true regardless of the medium. Some people will get value out of distance learning, others won't, just as some people will get value out of in-person learning and others won't. The only difference is the cost. Distance learning can be provided for a lot less money, so you can afford to be less sele…

Education is like a sewer? No matter what I put into a sewer, my guess is that it's going to come out covered in shit.

It is an allusion to an old joke. Here is the original source: https://youtu.be/w8d0GwzY6cA?t=2210

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

#60

Post by benrbray »

itsoktocry wrote: post #51
lmohseni wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you’re doing dishes you are not taking a college level course. Sometimes I like to listen to a lecture 2 or 3 or even more times. Sometimes I like to listen to a lecture when I'm going for a run. Sometimes I like to listen while I'm doing chores. Seems presumptuous to say I'm "not taking the course" when we know that learning styles vary so much between individuals.

> 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.

It's not really catering to disable a feature. You can call it "audit" mode and offer no credential.
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