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I prefer the MIT model of just having video lectures online. You can do things at your own pace. Whats the advantage of this sign-up and do assignment that get

• lhnn 15y ago
  I wish they offered the quizzes, tests, etc. at will of the student, only unlocking further videos as the students completed tasks in order. This provides the structure of a true lecture, with additional materials, while not making me wait for months to start learning.
  • loganfrederick 15y ago
    They likely have to structure this way just so they buy themselves time to create the content during the quarter/semester.
• geekytenny 15y ago
  IMHO, there is an illusion that i understand stuff just by watching a video. i don't know how much of a noob i still am until exercises and midterms. The stanford model should be emulated...seriously.
• riffraff 15y ago
  other already pointed out that having assignments helps, I'd add that for some people (e.g. me) a _schedule_ is a great advantage. If you are trying to learn something on your own timing it's easy to procrastinate. Maybe you could keep a faster pace but you just won't push yourself a bit. It goes without saying that people with good self discipline can do without a schedule, but for some of us it helps.
  • callahad 15y ago
    I've had the opposite problem: Without a schedule, I'll binge on the material for the first few days, and then utterly burn out or fail to properly learn the information.
• dhx 15y ago
  I'd argue that the key motivator for hackers is the presence of interesting and creative course work that has a clear purpose. Schedules tend to arbitrarily restrict creativity and learning. This means that courses should be designed around the concept of incrementally building something useful. A "subject" would not be broken down into one specific topic area, but rather, would encompass a small project such as: 1. develop a library that performs rudimentary speech-to-text translation and then create a plugin for {selected open source software} that makes use of this library 2. build a geospatial database that stores OpenStreetMap data and then create a rudimentary website that {highlights areas that are not within a 3km diameter of a police station, etc} 3. analyse the implementation of cryptography in {selected open source software} against many avenues of attack, particularly side-channel attacks, entropy of random data sources, etc and prepare patches that solve the problems found In the above examples, mostly-complete plugins or websites could be provided to students so they can focus on more important parts of each problem. I feel this would work because each small project: 1. allows a great deal of creativity from students 2. encourages students to extend themselves throughout and _after_ the small course has been completed 3. doesn't force students to move on too early 4. demonstrates how to _apply_ knowledge they've gained 5. rewards students with something more than a number/grade as they progress 6. encourages entrepreneurship n. ... Many of these points are built into Kahn Academy by design. This is why the theory is well suited to Kahn Academy where you can map out skills and ensure you've ticked off dependencies before moving on. Their new grading system (a learning algorithm) helps students move on _when they're ready_, not at some arbitrarily defined point of time. A course would therefore start by introducing the project, providing a demonstration of the expected outcomes and seeding some ideas for how the project could be extended and applied to unsolved problems. Links to Kahn Academy would provide succinct theoretical background. Course material would apply that knowledge and demonstrate how it is used to do something useful to assist with completing the project. Hopefully this form of education builds a desire to learn. Schedules and grading become irrelevant when students are having fun and making progress on interesting problems. Students will prioritise the project over other things in their life that they'd otherwise procrastinate with. The added benefit to society is increased levels of research and development, entrepreneurship and decreased education costs.
• omlette 15y ago
  the big advantage is that thousands of other students are taking it on the same schedule and you can work together.