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I can't wait to see how well this works out. If the results are good it could put another nail in the coffin for classroom only education. Although I foresee a

by steverb 15y ago

I can't wait to see how well this works out. If the results are good it could put another nail in the coffin for classroom only education. Although I foresee a lot of those that register for the free online course dropping out. Most people won't put a high enough value on a free class, especially if they're not getting credit.

vladd 15y ago
> Most people won't put a high enough value on a free class, especially if they're not getting credit. Both Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig are Very Important Persons in Google (Google Fellow / Google Director). This is basically a free diploma to be put in the CV for any Google wanna-be engineer, if they can make it. I doubt even credit would be more important than it.
- steverb 15y ago
  Well, even if you're not a Google wanna-be it's pretty cool. I signed up (for an update when registration is open), but I'm afraid I won't have the time to properly devote to it as well. If it's free of charge learning there is a tendency to let other things get in the way vs. prioritizing it because you paid full tuition price. At least that was my experience in college with the trust fund kids vs. the people that were working three jobs to scrape tuition together. There may be some selection bias there though.
krschultz 15y ago
I agree with your assesment that many (most?) will sign up without truly giving it the effort required. I wish it was $20 - some token amount. To extrapolate metrics on 'paid' users vs free users on most freemium apps, the vast majority of people won't even open their wallet for a dollar. If you aren't serious enough to pay $20 for the class, you aren't serious enough to buy the book and do the homework.
- lzm 15y ago
  I'm really glad it's free. Where I live, $20 pays a month of lunch or public transportation. Even if it were $1 or $0.01 it would exclude people without international credit cards.
- indrax 15y ago
  What's the 6th word on the 3rd paragraph of page 89?
jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
This will not even come close to threatening instructor-led education. There are a very small number of courses that can be automated in this way. I also think that the instructors are going to be surprised when the 10,000 students come up with more than 25 interesting questions. I wonder what happens for the students who need questions answered that aren't deemed sufficiently interesting or unique?

by steverb 15y ago

vladd 15y ago

> Most people won't put a high enough value on a free class, especially if they're not getting credit. Both Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig are Very Important Persons in Google (Google Fellow / Google Director). This is basically a free diploma to be put in the CV for any Google wanna-be engineer, if they can make it. I doubt even credit would be more important than it.

steverb 15y ago
Well, even if you're not a Google wanna-be it's pretty cool. I signed up (for an update when registration is open), but I'm afraid I won't have the time to properly devote to it as well. If it's free of charge learning there is a tendency to let other things get in the way vs. prioritizing it because you paid full tuition price. At least that was my experience in college with the trust fund kids vs. the people that were working three jobs to scrape tuition together. There may be some selection bias there though.

krschultz 15y ago

I agree with your assesment that many (most?) will sign up without truly giving it the effort required. I wish it was $20 - some token amount. To extrapolate metrics on 'paid' users vs free users on most freemium apps, the vast majority of people won't even open their wallet for a dollar. If you aren't serious enough to pay $20 for the class, you aren't serious enough to buy the book and do the homework.

lzm 15y ago
I'm really glad it's free. Where I live, $20 pays a month of lunch or public transportation. Even if it were $1 or $0.01 it would exclude people without international credit cards.
indrax 15y ago
What's the 6th word on the 3rd paragraph of page 89?

jeffreymcmanus 15y ago

This will not even come close to threatening instructor-led education. There are a very small number of courses that can be automated in this way. I also think that the instructors are going to be surprised when the 10,000 students come up with more than 25 interesting questions. I wonder what happens for the students who need questions answered that aren't deemed sufficiently interesting or unique?