5 ms·

Stanford To Offer Free CS and Robotics Courses

86 points by nickb 18y ago

pkrumins 18y ago
I have been blogging about free education for more than 2 years now. I have collected hundreds of video courses from universities around the world on my blog: http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com
netcan 18y ago
The courses are nearly identical to what’s offered to enrolled Stanford students, according to the University. However, those taking courses through SEE are not eligible to receive Stanford credit for them. Are traditional universities the way education can be made freely available?
- aneesh 18y ago
  I'd say yes. Traditional universities are the best equipped to make this curriculum freely available, and the web is making it easier and easier to do so. As a side note, I think Omnisio would be fantastic as a way for students to annotate lecture videos, and ask each other questions. MIT has taken the lead in a huge way with OpenCourseWare (ocw.mit.edu), and even without other schools following, that is a sizeable corpus of educational material for the avid student.
  - netcan 18y ago
    I agree on the 'best equipped' note. They have the knowledge, resources, materials & experience necessary but. They'd potentially be their own undoing. The problem is conflict of interests.
    - aneesh 18y ago
      It depends. I don't think anyone sees OCW as a substitute for going to school at MIT. I'd also argue that universities serve other roles beyond education. Universities are gatekeepers, and your degree has signaling value that free online classes never would give you. Further, the exchange of ideas & friendships developed on a real college campus are nearly impossible to duplicate when delivering free educational content online.
      - biohacker42 18y ago
        The universities are indeed gate keepers. Your degree signals that you're either a non-legacy who got in thanks to talent/brains/what ever. Or you are a legacy and have the IQ of a pumpkin. But even as a pumpkin brain, you probably have connections which guarantee your pumpkin brain will stay upper class. Further, a real college campus gets lots of young ambitious people together in one place and gives them common problems. This combined with a lot of free time and some but not too much responsibility, creates an environment where you will have more fun and make more friend, then at virtually any other time and place. You can also make friends with a lot of old money pumpkin brain legacies. None of the above has anything to do with education, or knowledge. You gain knowledge at university almost by accident, more osmosis then design.
      - netcan 18y ago
        It depends. I don't think anyone sees OCW as a substitute for going to school at MIT. That's the whole point. If it were successful, it would be (a substitute). What you are saying is that it isn't a problem, because it's' not too successful. I'd also argue that universities serve other roles beyond education. Education is what pins it all together. Imagine a future where degrees are not University centred, courses are available online & testing/evaluation is gets solved separately from the institutions. For one thing, filtering is not necessary. There's infinite room in every degree so if any filtering is done, it needs to be done as part of the testing/evaluation. Universities are a shell in this world. Parents are not likely to cough up the $$ they do currently, for students to make friends.
        deleted 18y ago
        [deleted]
        aneesh 18y ago
        If it were successful, it would be (a substitute). I disagree with that definition of success. OCW is very successful -- its goal is fundamentally different from the degree-granting part of MIT. Success for OCW means that everyone who wants to access university-level content can do it for free. If MIT wants to charge tuition for the "premium" version where you live on campus, can ask questions of the professors, get to know your classmates, get a degree, etc, then they certainly have the right to. That is a scarce resource, and can command a price like many other scarce resources people pay for.
thegoleffect 18y ago
> Each course comprises downloadable video lectures, handouts, assignments, exams, and transcripts. This isn't all that much different from a textbook, is it? The free aspect is cool but so is Wikipedia. Being able to ask questions to someone who thoroughly understands a subject would probably make a bigger impact on a person's education.
- aneesh 18y ago
  I think you're missing the point. Of course being able to ask questions would make a much bigger impact. That's why people go to school. This is not meant to replace that. > "This isn't all that much different from a textbook, is it?" 1) Video. 2) Textbooks aren't free. 3) Wikipedia isn't organized into bite-sized lectures, and doesn't include ways to evaluate yourself. Wikipedia is a quick reference, not a comprehensive guide.
nazgulnarsil 18y ago
it would be nice t have a torrent of all the lectures for a given course + materials together.
schtog 18y ago
Wow how awesome isn't this? Major props to MIT and Stanford for pushing making knowledge available to everyone. A lot of universities don't even offer courses like this and here you get it for free.
Prrometheus 18y ago
Has anyone gotten the programs for CS106A to run under Eclipse in Linux or gotten the special Stanford version of Eclipse to run in Linux x64?
sown 18y ago
I'd like 2 things to come out of this 1.) Some kind of lab support. I could buy a kit and go along and build what ever simultaneously with the class I'm following. 2.) an automated way of seeing how well I'm doing. A test giver/grading.

86 points by nickb 18y ago

I have been blogging about free education for more than 2 years now. I have collected hundreds of video courses from universities around the world on my blog: http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com

netcan 18y ago

The courses are nearly identical to what’s offered to enrolled Stanford students, according to the University. However, those taking courses through SEE are not eligible to receive Stanford credit for them. Are traditional universities the way education can be made freely available?

aneesh 18y ago
I'd say yes. Traditional universities are the best equipped to make this curriculum freely available, and the web is making it easier and easier to do so. As a side note, I think Omnisio would be fantastic as a way for students to annotate lecture videos, and ask each other questions. MIT has taken the lead in a huge way with OpenCourseWare (ocw.mit.edu), and even without other schools following, that is a sizeable corpus of educational material for the avid student.
- netcan 18y ago
  I agree on the 'best equipped' note. They have the knowledge, resources, materials & experience necessary but. They'd potentially be their own undoing. The problem is conflict of interests.
  - aneesh 18y ago
    It depends. I don't think anyone sees OCW as a substitute for going to school at MIT. I'd also argue that universities serve other roles beyond education. Universities are gatekeepers, and your degree has signaling value that free online classes never would give you. Further, the exchange of ideas & friendships developed on a real college campus are nearly impossible to duplicate when delivering free educational content online.
    - biohacker42 18y ago
      The universities are indeed gate keepers. Your degree signals that you're either a non-legacy who got in thanks to talent/brains/what ever. Or you are a legacy and have the IQ of a pumpkin. But even as a pumpkin brain, you probably have connections which guarantee your pumpkin brain will stay upper class. Further, a real college campus gets lots of young ambitious people together in one place and gives them common problems. This combined with a lot of free time and some but not too much responsibility, creates an environment where you will have more fun and make more friend, then at virtually any other time and place. You can also make friends with a lot of old money pumpkin brain legacies. None of the above has anything to do with education, or knowledge. You gain knowledge at university almost by accident, more osmosis then design.
    - netcan 18y ago
      It depends. I don't think anyone sees OCW as a substitute for going to school at MIT. That's the whole point. If it were successful, it would be (a substitute). What you are saying is that it isn't a problem, because it's' not too successful. I'd also argue that universities serve other roles beyond education. Education is what pins it all together. Imagine a future where degrees are not University centred, courses are available online & testing/evaluation is gets solved separately from the institutions. For one thing, filtering is not necessary. There's infinite room in every degree so if any filtering is done, it needs to be done as part of the testing/evaluation. Universities are a shell in this world. Parents are not likely to cough up the $$ they do currently, for students to make friends.
      - deleted 18y ago
        [deleted]
      - aneesh 18y ago
        If it were successful, it would be (a substitute). I disagree with that definition of success. OCW is very successful -- its goal is fundamentally different from the degree-granting part of MIT. Success for OCW means that everyone who wants to access university-level content can do it for free. If MIT wants to charge tuition for the "premium" version where you live on campus, can ask questions of the professors, get to know your classmates, get a degree, etc, then they certainly have the right to. That is a scarce resource, and can command a price like many other scarce resources people pay for.

thegoleffect 18y ago

> Each course comprises downloadable video lectures, handouts, assignments, exams, and transcripts. This isn't all that much different from a textbook, is it? The free aspect is cool but so is Wikipedia. Being able to ask questions to someone who thoroughly understands a subject would probably make a bigger impact on a person's education.

aneesh 18y ago
I think you're missing the point. Of course being able to ask questions would make a much bigger impact. That's why people go to school. This is not meant to replace that. > "This isn't all that much different from a textbook, is it?" 1) Video. 2) Textbooks aren't free. 3) Wikipedia isn't organized into bite-sized lectures, and doesn't include ways to evaluate yourself. Wikipedia is a quick reference, not a comprehensive guide.

nazgulnarsil 18y ago

it would be nice t have a torrent of all the lectures for a given course + materials together.

schtog 18y ago

Wow how awesome isn't this? Major props to MIT and Stanford for pushing making knowledge available to everyone. A lot of universities don't even offer courses like this and here you get it for free.

Prrometheus 18y ago

Has anyone gotten the programs for CS106A to run under Eclipse in Linux or gotten the special Stanford version of Eclipse to run in Linux x64?

sown 18y ago

I'd like 2 things to come out of this 1.) Some kind of lab support. I could buy a kit and go along and build what ever simultaneously with the class I'm following. 2.) an automated way of seeing how well I'm doing. A test giver/grading.