I very strongly agree. Udacity courses gives you this feeling that they step back, and tried to reinvent how would an online course be if it was invented today,

I very strongly agree. Udacity courses gives you this feeling that they step back, and tried to reinvent how would an online course be if it was invented today, taking advantage of the tools we have today. While coursera has that feeling that they took existing courses, and just threw it online and hoped for the best. For example, I have the feeling that Python was chosen for udacity (among other reasons) specifically because it could have an online interpreter. While coursera feels like they just reused whatever language and tools they were using before, just because. If I try to consolidate the udacity advantages it would be: - Short videos: This have many different advantages and works well if its other properties. Let's you set your own pace, instead of following the long video's pace. Easier to separate topics into different parts you can easily click to go back to. When necessary, it's easier to pause between topics (since the video pauses automatically) for you to take a step back and think about you just learned for a minute. It matches the interpreter nicely, learn something new, try it, learn something else, try it. It allows the instructor to better separate links to appropriate material in the description, by topic. - Online interpreter and automated tools: I suppose this is one of the reasons why they chose python. Similar to how codeacademy works, udacity is like codeacademy + video instructions instead of text. And this is genius. The videos are taking into account that you have an interpreter with you, and everything is integrated. The lessons, quizes and homeworks are all automatically integrated with the interpreter to make sure that you try out what's being taught and the class can give you instant feedback if you're doing it right. - Production value: Not only the videos look better, but they are edited to be more efficient. Unnecessary parts are cut out for brevity. The video and sound quality makes sure everything is easy to see and hear. Some other online courses often times display a printscreen of the IDE, with low resolution, which makes the code unreadable. On udacity, the code is always readable and the audio always easy to listen. The better UI makes it easier to navigate. And of course, the superior visual quality just makes the whole thing more pleasant to consume. These 3 characteristics I wish every online course would try to learn from udacity and implement themselves. It's important to note how these 3 are glued together and help each other. Short videos gives you breaks to use the interpreter. Higher visual quality makes the code easier to read and then try on the interpreter, etc etc Udacity just feels like a consistent and smart bunch of ideas put together to make sure we learn easier. Hopefully, others will evolve with them.