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Jon Breitenbucher

California looks at MOOCs in online push | Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

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    "San Jose State University on Tuesday announced a deal with Udacity, a major MOOC player, to create a pilot program of three online, entry-level courses that will cost students $150 to take and lead to university-awarded academic credits if passed. San Jose State professors will teach the courses while Udacity contributes the platform and staff support, including mentors who will help track and encourage students' progress."
Jon Breitenbucher

Udacity's Sebastian Thrun, Godfather Of Free Online Education, Changes Course | Fast Co... - 0 views

  • "From a pedagogical perspective, it was the best I could have done," he says. "It was a good class." Only it wasn't: For all of his efforts, Statistics 101 students were not any more engaged than any of Udacity's other students. "Nothing we had done had changed the drop-off curve," Thrun acknowledges.
  • Among those pupils who took remedial math during the pilot program, just 25% passed. And when the online class was compared with the in-person variety, the numbers were even more discouraging. A student taking college algebra in person was 52% more likely to pass than one taking a Udacity class,
  • "At the end of the day, the true value proposition of education is employment," Thrun says, sounding more CEO than professor. "If you focus on the single question of who knows best what students need in the workforce, it's the people already in the workforce. Why not give industry a voice?"
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Learning, after all, is about more than some concrete set of vocational skills. It is about thinking critically and asking questions, about finding ways to see the world from different points of view rather than one's own. These, I point out, are not skills easily acquired by YouTube video.
  • Thrun seems to enjoy this objection. He tells me he wasn't arguing that Udacity's current courses would replace a traditional education--only that it would augment it. "We're not doing anything as rich and powerful as what a traditional liberal-arts education would offer you," he says. He adds that the university system will most likely evolve to shorter-form courses that focus more on professional development. "The medium will change," he says.
  • "I wish to do away with the idea of spending one big chunk of time learning."
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    Some interesting thoughts on the impact of MOOCs and the relevance of Liberal Arts.
Jon Breitenbucher

Udacity, San Jose State University offer online classes for credit | Internet & Media -... - 0 views

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    Remedial classes for credit at a cost of $150.
Amyaz Moledina

MOOCs and disruptive innovation: The challenge to HE business models - 0 views

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    All industries have to cope with the disruption of the unfolding digital revolution, and education is no exception. This multi-faceted disruption can be seen in the new wave of MOOCs. The arrival of 'massive open online courses' appears to be another tectonic shift in the evolution of higher education and HE internationalisation. MOOCs are free of charge, designed for large numbers of people to take them at once, encourage peer-to-peer learning, and award certificates rather than academic course credit. This article, the first of a short series on disruptive innovation in HE, describes three new start-ups - Coursera, edX and Udacity - and explores the challenges they pose to traditional models of delivery in higher education.
Amyaz Moledina

The Coursera Effect - 0 views

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    The article discusses the online learning website Coursera, which was founded by Stanford University professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller in an attempt to provide free online courses. The services are offered to and taken by students from around world, and Ng and Koller believe that their method is changing traditional standards for lecturing by forcing students to be interactive and engaged during the lecture. Topics include how Coursera will ultimately earn revenue, the economic benefit of online education for top-level universities, and a list of other free online education programs, including EDX, the Minerva Project, and Udacity
Amyaz Moledina

5 Potential Ways MOOCs Will Evolve | Edudemic - 0 views

  • Most Likely: More Startups, More Schools Offer MOOCs
  • edX has a track record, albeit brief, of partnership and open access. Perfect for a smaller school without a big technology budget. Look for online schools to perhaps form a similar partnership so they can offer MOOCs. The online schools version would likely be powered by a third-party like Udacity or Coursera. Meanwhile, large tech companies and startups alike work to carve out their own niche in the MOOCs landscape. There’s a lot of money to be had in the transition of education so don’t be surprised if this happens no matter what the future holds for MOOCs.
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    Presents a set of potential directions for MOOC evolution. 
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