By Sean Scarpiello
In the recent article, “Udacity: A New Type of Education,” there was a lot of discussion on both the pros and cons of this new type of online education. Online education is quickly rising in popularity for its low cost. This means more and more education professionals are entering this field... As the head of the Udacity project, Sebastian Thrun, is beginning to enroll more students into more classes, he is addressing the problems of Udacity and finding new and innovative ways to fix them.
The first major problem Thrun is fixing is Udacity’s ability to give credit to students who pass the class. At the moment, students can take this college level class, complete all of the work and assignment, yet not receive any credit for all of their hard work. Since Udacity is not technically an accredited university, at the moment, degrees for classes cannot be given to students. Udacity is fixing this flaw by acting almost like a recruiting agency for companies to help their students get jobs. For example, if a company is in need of an employee with certain credentials, Udacity will give the company a list of students in the area who are qualified in certain fields and have passed Udacity’s classes. This is a great way to solve the accreditation problem because students are taking the Udacity classes to improve their knowledge at the workplace and to get better jobs in general.
One other problem that Udacity is fixing in their future classes is the social aspects of learning. Large class sizes, especially large class sizes online, can lead to the lack of student to student and student to teacher interaction. This needs to be addressed because students can learn a lot by asking other students and the professor questions. Udacity’s plan is to have interactive office hours for students. This acts as a time for students to ask the professor questions about the course and any problem they have had with the course material. Also, discussion forums will be set up online for students to interact with each other Here, students can ask each other questions, share opinions, and decide which topics the class should review with the professor.
Overall, there is a general rise in the popularity in online education. Many different universities and education professionals are beginning to start online education programs. There is a high demand in this field but as online education becomes more and more developed, only the best online programs will survive. Udacity is a pioneer in this field is well on its way to becoming successful. These new improvements to the curriculum are setting Udacity up above the rest of the programs. Ultimately, this rush to online education will lead to an entirely new form of education altogether where more students are being educated at lower costs.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/education/moocs-large-courses-open-to-all-topple-campus-walls.html?pagewanted=2&sq=moocs%20education%20classes&st=nyt&scp=1
Showing posts with label Thrun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thrun. Show all posts
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Udacity: A New Type of Education
By Sean Scarpiello
Sebastian Thrun, a former college professor, has recently resigned from his position at Stanford University to work on an online education project called Udacity. The project’s goal is to bring education to people all over the world at affordable costs. The program has already been successful as Thrun had taught an Introduction to Artificial Intelligence class. The class was completely free and comprised of 160,000 students from all over the world. Using the internet, Thrun made videos and interacted with students who took the course. He even enlisted the help of volunteers to translate the course to over 40 different languages. Approximately 23,000 students from 190 different countries graduated the class. Of this amount, 248 students graduated with a final grade of 100%, which is better than any Stanford student. Thrun also discovered that his students in Stanford dropped the traditional classroom course for the online version. They described how the online course was much more personalized and helpful. Thrun plans on offering two new courses at no cost for students in February. The courses are on building a search engine and programming a robotic car. So far Thrun’s project looks to be successful, but some educators do not think the classes will do as well as predicted.
A lot of the criticism against Thrun’s project is based on each class’s accreditation. The people teaching the classes are college professors with PhDs who have taught at respected universities like Stanford and University of Virginia. Since the professors have good reputations in the academic world, there should not be any disputes. Problems do emerge when the instructor of the course is not a leading figure in their field. As Thrun is a professor, he will not hire anyone who he thinks is not qualified to teach. Thrun also has a lot of colleagues who are college professors lining up to teach classes through Udacity. However, there are problems associated with Udacity being recognized by the academic world. Every college and university needs to go through a strict accreditation process to make sure that their academics meet high standards. This will not be easy because there are currently only a few classes that make up Udacity. Also, it will be difficult for students of the classes to receive credit for the class at other institutions and in the workplace.
If one of Thrun’s students wants find a job and use Udacity’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence class as a credential, then Thrun needs a way to show that the student successfully completed the class. Also, the potential employer of the student will want to know that the class is taught by credible individuals. Thrun will have to come up with a system to show that the student deserves credit for taking a high level course. Moreover, Thrun needs to get Udacity’s name out there to everyone. If Thrun can become a well-known name in the academic community, Udacity will be successful. Udacity would need to be regarded as the Ivy League University of the internet. This is a very difficult task because very few universities became household names overnight.
Overall, Udacity has a lot of potential and has already proven to the world that an online education can be provided at a low cost and reach thousands. The problems now lie in receiving international accreditation for classes and expanding the university. Udacity has the potential to become one of the best online colleges as it is cheap and courses are taught by qualified professors.
Source: http://www.i-programmer.info/news/150-training-a-education/3658-sebastian-thrun-resigns-from-stanford-to-launch-udacity.html
Sebastian Thrun, a former college professor, has recently resigned from his position at Stanford University to work on an online education project called Udacity. The project’s goal is to bring education to people all over the world at affordable costs. The program has already been successful as Thrun had taught an Introduction to Artificial Intelligence class. The class was completely free and comprised of 160,000 students from all over the world. Using the internet, Thrun made videos and interacted with students who took the course. He even enlisted the help of volunteers to translate the course to over 40 different languages. Approximately 23,000 students from 190 different countries graduated the class. Of this amount, 248 students graduated with a final grade of 100%, which is better than any Stanford student. Thrun also discovered that his students in Stanford dropped the traditional classroom course for the online version. They described how the online course was much more personalized and helpful. Thrun plans on offering two new courses at no cost for students in February. The courses are on building a search engine and programming a robotic car. So far Thrun’s project looks to be successful, but some educators do not think the classes will do as well as predicted.
A lot of the criticism against Thrun’s project is based on each class’s accreditation. The people teaching the classes are college professors with PhDs who have taught at respected universities like Stanford and University of Virginia. Since the professors have good reputations in the academic world, there should not be any disputes. Problems do emerge when the instructor of the course is not a leading figure in their field. As Thrun is a professor, he will not hire anyone who he thinks is not qualified to teach. Thrun also has a lot of colleagues who are college professors lining up to teach classes through Udacity. However, there are problems associated with Udacity being recognized by the academic world. Every college and university needs to go through a strict accreditation process to make sure that their academics meet high standards. This will not be easy because there are currently only a few classes that make up Udacity. Also, it will be difficult for students of the classes to receive credit for the class at other institutions and in the workplace.
If one of Thrun’s students wants find a job and use Udacity’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence class as a credential, then Thrun needs a way to show that the student successfully completed the class. Also, the potential employer of the student will want to know that the class is taught by credible individuals. Thrun will have to come up with a system to show that the student deserves credit for taking a high level course. Moreover, Thrun needs to get Udacity’s name out there to everyone. If Thrun can become a well-known name in the academic community, Udacity will be successful. Udacity would need to be regarded as the Ivy League University of the internet. This is a very difficult task because very few universities became household names overnight.
Overall, Udacity has a lot of potential and has already proven to the world that an online education can be provided at a low cost and reach thousands. The problems now lie in receiving international accreditation for classes and expanding the university. Udacity has the potential to become one of the best online colleges as it is cheap and courses are taught by qualified professors.
Source: http://www.i-programmer.info/news/150-training-a-education/3658-sebastian-thrun-resigns-from-stanford-to-launch-udacity.html
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