Topic: The Future of College Education is Here

[michelleo]

There is a new organization called Udacity.com that has launched its beta program of offering free online college programming courses taught by well-respected professors in their field.  David Evans of UVA and Sebastian Thrun of Stanford University have reformatted a few of their campus-based classes to make them available to anyone in the world at no cost.  Delivered in small chunks of video, followed by interactive quizzes, students can learn the fundamentals of programming.  It's like khanacademy.com on steroids.

I've enrolled in the first intro course called "Building a Search Engine."  The class is broken up into 7 units - one per week.  The Unit lectures and notes are available Monday each week that you go through at your own pace.  Weekly homework must be submitted by the end of the week.  You can audit/observe the class or enroll and receive a certificate of completion when you're done. For this particular class, I'll be learning Python.
 
I have to say I am very excited about udacity.com.  I believe it will become the college of the future.  The university lecture format today is exactly backwards.  Normally you get these brilliant people delivering a dry lecture to 100s of students who then go back to their dorms and do their assignments by themselves.  It should be the opposite.  Have the students listen to the canned lecture materials at their own pace, and then have the brilliant people more accessible for Q&A, student collaboration, etc.

I'm loving the class.  I can't say I was ever as excited in college to take a class as I am now.  They were late getting the homework link set up, and I was checking every few hours to see if it was ready yet.  "open, open, open"  It's crazy, but I've never been this excited for homework, ever.

[Libertas]

Interesting, and good for you!  You'll have to give us progress reports!   

Anything that puts the emphasis upon real learning and cuts out the socio-political noise and boring presentations is a step in the right direction!   

[LadyVirginia]

Sounds great!


I've always thought the arguments against homeschooling --as far as academics --would eventually die because of the rise of online learning.

(Which is why the haters still bring up socialization--homeschoolers have pretty much proven that they are the same or better than their public school counter parts when it comes to subject matter).

I've mentioned it before but Hillsdale.edu is offering their freshman Constitution 101 class free online now.

[Glock32]

What is the language of instruction in your course?  I love programming.  If you always stick to the principle of making it work with pencil and paper before sitting at a keyboard, you will be a good coder.

[michelleo]

What is the language of instruction in your course?  I love programming.  If you always stick to the principle of making it work with pencil and paper before sitting at a keyboard, you will be a good coder.

It's Python.  Sebastian Thrun conducted a class through Stanford using this model called intro to Artificial Intelligence.  He had 160,000 people enroll in the online class.  I'd say there's definitely pent-up demand. 

You're right, LadyV, the socialization argument against homeschooling is the only one they have left.  I'd love to hear someone argue about why a brick-and-mortar college experience is superior - 4/20 Weed Day celebrations, Naked Pumpkin Runs, and regular drunken debauchery?

[Glock32]

Duh, I totally read right past where you mentioned Python.  That's one I have never used.  It's a fascinating subject.  I don't know anything else that combines the creative process with technical/mathematical/engineering quite like software design.

[AlanS]

Anything that puts the emphasis upon real learning and cuts out the socio-political noise and boring presentations is a step in the right direction!   

No more social engineering? We can't have THAT!

Good luck Michelleo!

[Sectionhand]

I'm afraid that the establishment institutions will see to it that course credits or degrees acquired in this fashion will not be recognized . A concept like this cuts into their tuition and fee gold mine . Even if it gains grudging acceptance ( probably forced by the government which opens up a whole new can of worms ) we won't see an organized educational instrument emerge for quite some time to come . 

[Weisshaupt]

I'm afraid that the establishment institutions will see to it that course credits or degrees acquired in this fashion will not be recognized . A concept like this cuts into their tuition and fee gold mine . Even if it gains grudging acceptance ( probably forced by the government which opens up a whole new can of worms ) we won't see an organized educational instrument emerge for quite some time to come . 

Your opportunities when you leave may be more limited- and you may be only able to get a job at a small firm with an intelligent managment (there is a downside there somewhere..), but if you have little to no debt, then that may be worth it.  You can easily undercut the kids from the big schools on salary, till you prove yourself.  Its very much like saying American's won't do the Jobs illegals do.. No. They aren't allowed to. The illegals can come over, get hired for under minimum wage (both employer and employee have committed a crime so no one will say anything) , gain skills and prove their worth, and be earning over minimum wage in no time. An American is denied access to the bottom rung of the ladder.

Hiring based on pedigree is a luxury. As times get tougher, what you can deliver is all that matters.