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What's the next step from here to replacing "a college education" all together? Of course I can't walk into a job offer and explain to them how I watched course

What's the next step from here to replacing "a college education" all together? Of course I can't walk into a job offer and explain to them how I watched coursera videos online, but I'm wondering what the path from A to B will be.

bradddd 14y ago
We're a long ways from that point, but you're right. There's currently a "rush" on getting educational materials as content. I think it'll take a couple more years to really polish up the content delivery strategies, but it's rapidly developing.
waterlesscloud 14y ago
The path forward will be made by the people who take these classes succeeding at various projects. Much like traditional schools increase their reputation via the achievements of their alumni, so will the MOOCs. You're seeing some success stories already, but wait until someone high profile credits their success to what they learned at Coursera or Udacity. On another front, the first traditional school has decided to award credit for a Udacity class, if the student takes a proctored test. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/education/colorado-state-to-offer-credits-for-online-class.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/education/colorado-state-t... We're just about a year out from that first Thrun/Norvig Stanford AI class. Things have moved very quickly when you put it in that perspective.
michael_miller 14y ago
I think the next step will be proctored exams, like edX just introduced. With proctored exams, the student can prove that s(he) really did succeed. After that, all that's needed is time. As with any cultural shift, newer generations are comfortable with things the previous generation wouldn't even dream of.
ippisl 14y ago
One path is people working , that need to learn something(say machine learning) for their jobs, and doing so online with the knowledge of their workplace. If the result is good , it'll warm some workplaces to online courses. Another path is using the fact that graduates of online courses can achieve a specific learning goal much cheaper and much shorter(in some jobs people don't need a full degree , only some courses). This opens a path for cheaper employees for companies and a solution for the talent crunch. Maybe some more venturesome companies will start using it. And the word will get out and it will become more common.
icelancer 14y ago
>Of course I can't walk into a job offer and explain to them how I watched coursera videos online... Yes you can. I would put you very close to the front of the line for my group (data science) if you told me you self-taught yourself ML using Ng's classes and could show me some samples on GitHub.
prostoalex 14y ago
I don't think it will ever happen "all together". For hard sciences you still need expensive labs and hands-on training. For medical schools, I'd prefer that an operating surgeon had some practical experience as well. But a good portion of the courses (that frequently happen to be taught by TAs, not professors, anyways) belong online. One finicky part at the moment is testing, which relies on honor code, so there might be a move towards professional-level testing, the type you see for major exams (GRE, TOEFL) as well as professional certifications. Since most of the testing facilities charge money, it will probably provide a good reason for universities to charge for credits as well - you can still view the course for free, but to pass a series of tests and get credit you would have to pay.

bradddd 14y ago

We're a long ways from that point, but you're right. There's currently a "rush" on getting educational materials as content. I think it'll take a couple more years to really polish up the content delivery strategies, but it's rapidly developing.

waterlesscloud 14y ago

The path forward will be made by the people who take these classes succeeding at various projects. Much like traditional schools increase their reputation via the achievements of their alumni, so will the MOOCs. You're seeing some success stories already, but wait until someone high profile credits their success to what they learned at Coursera or Udacity. On another front, the first traditional school has decided to award credit for a Udacity class, if the student takes a proctored test. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/education/colorado-state-to-offer-credits-for-online-class.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/education/colorado-state-t... We're just about a year out from that first Thrun/Norvig Stanford AI class. Things have moved very quickly when you put it in that perspective.

michael_miller 14y ago

I think the next step will be proctored exams, like edX just introduced. With proctored exams, the student can prove that s(he) really did succeed. After that, all that's needed is time. As with any cultural shift, newer generations are comfortable with things the previous generation wouldn't even dream of.

ippisl 14y ago

One path is people working , that need to learn something(say machine learning) for their jobs, and doing so online with the knowledge of their workplace. If the result is good , it'll warm some workplaces to online courses. Another path is using the fact that graduates of online courses can achieve a specific learning goal much cheaper and much shorter(in some jobs people don't need a full degree , only some courses). This opens a path for cheaper employees for companies and a solution for the talent crunch. Maybe some more venturesome companies will start using it. And the word will get out and it will become more common.

icelancer 14y ago

>Of course I can't walk into a job offer and explain to them how I watched coursera videos online... Yes you can. I would put you very close to the front of the line for my group (data science) if you told me you self-taught yourself ML using Ng's classes and could show me some samples on GitHub.

prostoalex 14y ago

I don't think it will ever happen "all together". For hard sciences you still need expensive labs and hands-on training. For medical schools, I'd prefer that an operating surgeon had some practical experience as well. But a good portion of the courses (that frequently happen to be taught by TAs, not professors, anyways) belong online. One finicky part at the moment is testing, which relies on honor code, so there might be a move towards professional-level testing, the type you see for major exams (GRE, TOEFL) as well as professional certifications. Since most of the testing facilities charge money, it will probably provide a good reason for universities to charge for credits as well - you can still view the course for free, but to pass a series of tests and get credit you would have to pay.