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Here's a hypothesis... When you have top school's materials online, it makes no sense to go to a second tier, or n-tier school other than for the networking. An

Here's a hypothesis... When you have top school's materials online, it makes no sense to go to a second tier, or n-tier school other than for the networking. And by definition a 'n-tier' school is not going to be all that great at providing networking opportunities. Would you take a machine learning course from an unknown, likely outdated professor when you could listen to Andrew Ng for free? What the internet has brought is a 'winner takes all' for education.

avs733 9y ago
I think this is a little narrow but perfectly valid. People get all squingy in my program when I bring up the idea of what value a college or program creates. They assume I'm being arch-capitalist about it. The schools don't create value for students because they are bad at teaching. Having all the materials online is not learning, and its not good education. But, the fact that students can create a better learning environment themselves than can a faculty member who knows the content and works at a university teaching the conten should be shocking.
ForHackernews 9y ago
Counterpoint: Ng's Coursera machine learning course is outdated now, unlikely to ever be updated, and focuses on applications of old algorithms without teaching the underlying fundamentals.
- avs733 9y ago
  appeal to theory: The issue with education is rarely the currency of content. To assert that models education primarily as an information transfer process, which it isn't...or at least shouldn't be.
mrguyorama 9y ago
I DID take a machine learning course from an unknown professor. One he was just doing as a fluke! It was incredible. I went from having zero background in Statistics or Machine learning, not even really understanding what they were, to applying several different techniques to exam large, million row datasets, using tools I had zero experience with, as well as learning how to interpret the results and avoid statistical pitfalls like overfitting and misinterpreting things. Compare this to when I tried to take an AI class online offered by stanford, and I had to drop it because it was impossible to grok. The difference? One professor actually taught, and the other simply wrote inscrutable symbols on the board and expected you to interpret it yourself. When we informed the professor on our lack of requisite statistics background, the unknown one simply adjusted his lessons to introduce the necessary concepts, while the Massive online course simply required a thorough background in probability to watch even the first few lectures. Independent learning can kind of scale, in half-hearted ways, but actual TEACHING does not scale. Real teaching requires one on one effort. I went to a low tier university because I had zero chance of getting actual access to an MIT professor, and the local ones were good enough to teach me everything I needed to have a real chance in the field.

avs733 9y ago

I think this is a little narrow but perfectly valid. People get all squingy in my program when I bring up the idea of what value a college or program creates. They assume I'm being arch-capitalist about it. The schools don't create value for students because they are bad at teaching. Having all the materials online is not learning, and its not good education. But, the fact that students can create a better learning environment themselves than can a faculty member who knows the content and works at a university teaching the conten should be shocking.

ForHackernews 9y ago

Counterpoint: Ng's Coursera machine learning course is outdated now, unlikely to ever be updated, and focuses on applications of old algorithms without teaching the underlying fundamentals.

avs733 9y ago
appeal to theory: The issue with education is rarely the currency of content. To assert that models education primarily as an information transfer process, which it isn't...or at least shouldn't be.

mrguyorama 9y ago

I DID take a machine learning course from an unknown professor. One he was just doing as a fluke! It was incredible. I went from having zero background in Statistics or Machine learning, not even really understanding what they were, to applying several different techniques to exam large, million row datasets, using tools I had zero experience with, as well as learning how to interpret the results and avoid statistical pitfalls like overfitting and misinterpreting things. Compare this to when I tried to take an AI class online offered by stanford, and I had to drop it because it was impossible to grok. The difference? One professor actually taught, and the other simply wrote inscrutable symbols on the board and expected you to interpret it yourself. When we informed the professor on our lack of requisite statistics background, the unknown one simply adjusted his lessons to introduce the necessary concepts, while the Massive online course simply required a thorough background in probability to watch even the first few lectures. Independent learning can kind of scale, in half-hearted ways, but actual TEACHING does not scale. Real teaching requires one on one effort. I went to a low tier university because I had zero chance of getting actual access to an MIT professor, and the local ones were good enough to teach me everything I needed to have a real chance in the field.