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These are for MOOCs, not online degree courses, though. There's no certifications with these. You can't get an accounting, law, or medical degree, bachelor/ass

by tony 7y ago

These are for MOOCs, not online degree courses, though. There's no certifications with these. You can't get an accounting, law, or medical degree, bachelor/associate certificate, or anything you'd need professional accreditation for. Maybe the completion rate is similar for people who buy books. I'd end up getting a book thinking it'd be an investment as it would be good as learning a subject. The next day I didn't really want to spend 12 straight hours learning Visual Basic. Also these aren't like auditing a class and listening in on a real lecture either. Just from the list for UT Austin (a very good school): https://www.edx.org/school/utaustinx https://www.edx.org/school/utaustinx There are university lecturers people listen to all the time though, through the Great Courses / Teaching Company. Those sort of fit the leisure-learner path and don't require logging into some system for it.

the_jeremy 7y ago
> Maybe the completion rate is similar for people who buy books. There's an even lower bar to entry: all the MOOCs I've participated in have been free.
- strken 7y ago
  They might be free, but all the MOOCs I've participated in have required a weekly time commitment to complete them, which is a sort of hidden cost completely separate from money. I've started the Stanford ML course on Coursera three times now, and each time some real-life thing has come up and taken me out of action for a couple of weeks.
  - learnstats2 7y ago
    That's just what free means, isn't it? The cost is separate from money. I don't think it's hidden that you have to study in order to learn.
    - strken 7y ago
      Studying isn't the problem, deadlines are the problem. If you could work at your own pace then I'd guess the completion rate would be substantially higher.
marvindanig 7y ago
this is has a lot do with our attention span. it has slowly been in decline ever since scrolling took over. the running animation over content tires us out and it is hard for the eyes to follow and track lines. whenever somebody asks me how do people read on the web?, I say: they don’t. people rarely read web pages word by word. instead they scan for information with keywords, uninvested and disinterested, ala, lowered attention span, less commitment. this behavior immediately translates to poor results on everything and MOOCs aren’t any different.
- vezycash 7y ago
  I've many Udemy courses and my observation is this: Most course creators do absolutely no video editing. Sure they slap in an intro but that's it. So you'll get a lot of umms, & silence, waiting for the creator to gather their thoughts. There's also a lot of filler content. So a 2 hour course might have 1.5 hours of history, reasons for the course, setting things up and 30 minutes of useful stuff. So I watch most videos at 1.5x speed or more. I also download Udemy videos for offline view - therefore, Udemy doesn't know which courses I've left untouched, started, abandoned halfway or completed.

by tony 7y ago

the_jeremy 7y ago

> Maybe the completion rate is similar for people who buy books. There's an even lower bar to entry: all the MOOCs I've participated in have been free.

strken 7y ago
They might be free, but all the MOOCs I've participated in have required a weekly time commitment to complete them, which is a sort of hidden cost completely separate from money. I've started the Stanford ML course on Coursera three times now, and each time some real-life thing has come up and taken me out of action for a couple of weeks.
- learnstats2 7y ago
  That's just what free means, isn't it? The cost is separate from money. I don't think it's hidden that you have to study in order to learn.
  - strken 7y ago
    Studying isn't the problem, deadlines are the problem. If you could work at your own pace then I'd guess the completion rate would be substantially higher.

marvindanig 7y ago

this is has a lot do with our attention span. it has slowly been in decline ever since scrolling took over. the running animation over content tires us out and it is hard for the eyes to follow and track lines. whenever somebody asks me how do people read on the web?, I say: they don’t. people rarely read web pages word by word. instead they scan for information with keywords, uninvested and disinterested, ala, lowered attention span, less commitment. this behavior immediately translates to poor results on everything and MOOCs aren’t any different.

vezycash 7y ago
I've many Udemy courses and my observation is this: Most course creators do absolutely no video editing. Sure they slap in an intro but that's it. So you'll get a lot of umms, & silence, waiting for the creator to gather their thoughts. There's also a lot of filler content. So a 2 hour course might have 1.5 hours of history, reasons for the course, setting things up and 30 minutes of useful stuff. So I watch most videos at 1.5x speed or more. I also download Udemy videos for offline view - therefore, Udemy doesn't know which courses I've left untouched, started, abandoned halfway or completed.