Udacity offers new classes from this summer

http://udacity.blogspot.in/2012/05/udacity-expands-course-offerings-five.html

by fnaticshank • 14 years ago

83 17 14 years ago

udacity.blogspot.in

see all the courses here -- http://www.udacity.com/courses

Wow, these classes actually look interesting. I'm glad they aren't just sticking to computers. It would be neat if they could somehow tie up all of the subjects together. Such as a course on computing applied to physics.

paradoja• 14 years ago

Certainly not what you asked for, but maybe you'll be interested in this: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicm/ .

jaysonelliot4• 14 years ago

I've been having a lot of discussions with friends about open courseware lately. I love what Udacity, MIT, Stanford, Khan Academy and others are doing, but I can't wait until students can earn degree credit from OCW.

For millions of people, a four year degree isn't an option because they can't go to the school's physical location, pay the tuition, and either work part-time or not at all while studying full-time. People in that situation aren't going to put in the time and effort for OCW classes that don't count towards a degree, and they end up missing out on a ticket to a better life. Some people will, of course, and obviously already do, but for the vast majority, it's not the same incentive as the opportunity to actually get a degree.

Of course there's a lot of value in the education itself, but once open courseware becomes accepted as a legitimate way to earn a degree, we're going to see a radical change in humanity's future. As soon as people around the US and the world can afford the time and money to earn Ivy League-quality degrees from wherever they live, they'll flock to them, and we'll see the benefits of an educated society around the globe.

moistgorilla2• 14 years ago

It would be awesome if some sort of body was able to release a syllabus with the information you are required to learn and some course materials. Then, after a certain time period, they would give a standardized test that determined if you passed the course or not. It would motivate people to go out on their own and learn things their way. The only disadvantage is that they wont have the social interaction component associated with college.

jaysonelliot4• 14 years ago

That's very true. You can get some level of social interaction online, but it's not a substitute for the college experience.

It would still be amazing for people who otherwise had no chance at a degree to be able to do so through OCW.

Even the ability to earn some degree credits online, and then apply them to a shortened on-campus degree program would be a huge leap forward.

TheCount• 14 years ago

Yes, this seems like a much more appropriate progression than imposing the credit-degree system on online education. A standardized test would assess the depth of one's knowledge, with proper validation and scoring to allow one to compare any one test-taker to another. It's also more meritocratic, because as it is, one might be forced to compare the grades of say, a Stanford grad with that of a Cal State grad, and there's no easy way to compare the two given the potential differences in course content, difficulty, grade inflation, peer competitiveness, etc. With a way to objectively compare students, the value of a prestige degree, decoupled from the implied intellectual capacity of its holder, might decline.

We already do this with Advanced Placement tests, although it would make sense to have more granular grading, to distinguish say the top .1% from the 1% from the 10%.

The most important part of this, for it to gain mainstream credibility, is for employers to actually hire people on the strength of these qualifications, as well as their interviewing skills, demonstrated work ethic, etc. Most people are going to school to get a good job, and if online education can provide that cheaper and faster, then brick and mortar schools will lose a lot of their advantage.

The optimistic scenario: employers, entrepreneurs and teachers get together to decide what they want potential employees to know, and go about writing a test that covers that material. Then the educators write courses that cover that material. In turn, these schools might even publish their student passing rates, pointing the way to the best teaching resources and methods.

While there'd be a certain amount of teaching to the test, if the tests are written well, that's not such a bad thing - the student would ace the test by knowing the material.

kevinyien• 14 years ago

Do you think granting credit towards the standard degree is the direction these types of services are aiming? What do you think about a new measure of education (i.e. not the degree)?

For tech companies (especially startups), it seems like formal education is not the primary measure of a potential hire. Developers use github to showcase their talents. Designers use Dribble. Everyone can use personal projects/blogs.

Obviously, this doesn't work for a lot areas such as hard sciences (physics, biology, chemistry), business, medicine, etc. However, there does seem to be a decent portion of careers/passions that do not require formal education; both to perform and to be judged by.

I would love to here what you (and others on HN) think.

P.S. Couldn't agree more --> "we'll see the benefits of an [more] educated society around the globe."

jaysonelliot4• 14 years ago

I don't think it's the direction they're aiming at the moment, but that makes me sad. There's an opportunity here to step out of our privileged bubble of tech startups and make a difference for the world as a whole.

I was watching Charlie Rose's last interview with Carl Sagan recently. He cited a NY Times article, "Americans Flunk Science" that said less than half of American adults understood that the Earth rotates the sun yearly. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/24/us/americans-flunk-science... Carl Sagan pointed out that "if we (the general public) don't understand, then who is making all the decisions about science and technology that are going to determine our future?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jod7v-m573k

When the general level of education suffers in a society, you get superstition, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, bigotry, and many other things. It's in everyone's interest to raise the educational level of the human race.

If open courseware is viewed as something that's only for those that already have a love of learning, it will remain elite and cloistered among a small segment of society. If it becomes available as a formal education, it could go mainstream, and suddenly anyone with access to a good internet connection will be motivated and able to pursue higher education.

If we want to make quality advanced education mainstream and widespread, most people will need to see OCW as an opportunity to earn degree credits, not just as an opportunity for "personal growth." Sure, I think everyone ought to love learning just for the sake of learning, but I'm realistic, and I know that if you want to bring everyone in, you have to entice them with tangible benefits. They'll catch the love of learning once they are exposed to the kind of things a service like Udacity offers, but first you have to get them in.

Another commenter was worried about services like these becoming "Phoenix University wannabes." There will be some OCW services that will cater to the less ambitious or less intellectually capable. That's not a bad thing. For the impoverished or otherwise disadvantaged student capable of Stanford or MIT-level academics, though, there will be more challenging OCW services.

I can envision no scenario where making quality education and formal degrees available to anyone willing to step up and take advantage of it could be a bad thing. It's important for us to remember that while a formal degree might be unnecessary for someone with the right connections and opportunities, for most people in the world, it's still a very important thing to have.

Alex39172• 14 years ago

Udacity has specifically said they have no intention of ever becoming accredited, and I know a lot of other alternative education programs take the same stance. Which to me makes a lot of sense. Becoming accredited would basically ruin these programs, because instead of being about learning and personal growth they become about something else entirely. So you'd no longer have intelligent people hanging out there, it'd just become another Phoenix University wannabe.

jaysonelliot4• 14 years ago

I disagree pretty strongly with that viewpoint. It seems very elitist to me. What defines Phoenix University is the quality of its courses, not the social status of its students.

The idea that you'd no longer have "intelligent people" at Udacity if it were accredited makes no sense to me. If the courses are of sufficient quality, you'll have intelligent people. The fact that it's available to someone who might need an alternative to spending four years and $136,000 at Stanford doesn't lower the intelligence of the students.

Sebastian Thrun, speaking to Charlie Rose, was thrilled at the fact that 150,000 students from around the world had been able to access Stanford's open courseware. He talked about democratizing education. At no point did he say he was worried about it being compared to Phoenix University.

What is the difference between someone who takes a course to earn degree credits and someone who takes it for "personal growth?" Is the course going to be dumbed down for the degree-seeker? I see no reason at all that it should be. I'm sorry, but wanting to deny access to degree credits in the name of worrying that it would be "another Phoenix University wannabe" just sounds snobbish.

ivan_ah• 14 years ago

The physics syllabus looks quite good. Let's hope they go into the details. Physics is quite simple once you know what derivatives and integrals are. Then you get to understand where the equations come from. F=ma, so given F_net, you can find a of an object. And a is def as dv/dt. So if you integrate a, you get v(t) = at + v_o, where v_o = v(t=0). And v is def as dx/dt, so we integrate v(t) to get:

    x(t) = 0.5*a*t*t + v_o*t + x_o.

They should use Feynman's lectures on physics as the course textbook. That stuff is gold.

@moistgorilla yeah some code along with each lecture would be really cool. You explain theory in four pages, then you say "check out these functions" and you show for each equation in the theory sections is implemented in code. For example. x(t) = int( int('a',t,initval=v_o),t,initval=x_0). can simpy do the int part?

ph0rque2• 14 years ago

Anyone know if premiere means non-free? If they are free, what's the difference between premiere and non-premiere?

xi• 14 years ago

I'd guess premiere just means offered for the first time.

ph0rque2• 14 years ago

Thanks, my sleepless brain interpreted premiere as premium.

damian2000• 14 years ago

Get into them now before these companies start charging for these, which they probably will at some point in the future. Personally I'd be more than happy to pay something, but I know that there are a lot of people around the world who would be excluded if any fee was charged, even a small nominal fee.

Udacity offers new classes from this summer

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