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(Coursera engineer here) It's great to see thoughtful critiques like this. Thankfully, we have a data analytics team now (3 out of our 17 engineers), and they

(Coursera engineer here) It's great to see thoughtful critiques like this. Thankfully, we have a data analytics team now (3 out of our 17 engineers), and they are studying our retention statistics and the factors that affect it. They're also running A/B experiments to see what increases it and getting some interesting results. We do see some big advantages of the timed model for learning, particularly in classes with peer-to-peer grading and evaluations, but there's obviously a big desire for the self-study mode, which is enabled for a few of our classes currently. We're also introducing things like Signature Track, which some students sign up for just to encourage themselves to make it to the end (and it seems to work for many of them). We'll keep experimenting to see what makes students both happy and successful. :-)

mikevm 14y ago
Nice to see you here! I do hope that you will open up most (if not all) of your courses for self-study mode. There are a few courses I really wanted to take, but due to the lack of time I really couldn't commit myself at the time they opened (I wanted to do them in the summer instead!). I also think this guy makes valid points: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5469909 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5469909
jahmohn 14y ago
Hi, Pamela. I am a long-time user of Coursera and I love the site. I have feedback for you as regards retention of students. The number one thing is due dates and late penalties. If I sign up for a course and work through the first few weeks and get everything done, and then I miss a deadline because life happens, suddenly I am no longer able to get a 100% in the class. I do not mind getting an A- in a class if it happens naturally because the material is difficult, but losing my A+ or A because I am 12 hours late on an assignment ruins the experience for me. I usually drop a class when this happens and wait for it to come around again. A counter-example to prove the rule: Robert Sedgewick's Algorithms course. The last time he gave it, he had late penalties and I only had time to get through the first two weeks of the class without getting behind. This time around, there were no late penalties. Being enormously busy with other things, I was not able to keep up with the class as it went along. However, because I lost no credit for doing things late, I was able to complete the entire class in the final 10 days of course and I got an A. I have no problem staying up all night to finish interesting programming assignments and quizzes, but I need to be allowed to do this on my schedule. I strongly encourage you to encourage your professors to do away with late penalties. It should be up to us as students to determine what our work schedule is. I know for some courses, those that use peer-evaluation, this is impossible, but many more could take this route than currently do. I agree that Signature Track does have the effect of encouraging one to keep up with the class.
- robryan 14y ago
  For online learning the grades aren't likely to matter, people are mainly doing it to get the knowledge. I can see though if you distilled it down into telling people what you got, say a B, won't reflect how well you actually learned the content if the B was only the result of late handins. On the other side of the coin though people are relying on the strictness of handin times in order to motivate them to get through the course in a reasonable amount of time. Timed based on a final date to finish everything is a compromise but wouldn't work for everyone, as some would loose motivation after falling too far behind. So maybe there needs to be a few deadlines throughout the course, but not a weekly one. The only course I have done I ended up missing a week handin as well, I think most working people would be in the same boat.
- olalonde 14y ago
  Genuine question: why do you care so much about your grade?
  - VLM 14y ago
    Both sides are pretending its a "for credit" class. So both draconian late penalties and great concern over the grade are appropriate.
- bbbbbbbbb 14y ago
  With work, family and everything that goes around, it is very hard to be in time... Standford Class2go gives you half credits if you are late for all the quizzes and exercises but the final exam counted triple so you could skip a few things here and there and still work it out(you had to study them for the exams though!). I love the fact that there is a due date, it forces me to do it and a certificate is very rewarding too (I tend to give up the courses that give me no "credits")... I think in general,the schedule are too tight though.
zura 14y ago
For me, the killer feature would be the availability of textual/reading material corresponding to 100% of the content provided by videos. So successfully completion of the course won't require watching the videos.
- mark_l_watson 14y ago
  You may want to rethink that. For most of the classes I have taken the lectures were very enjoyable. I like the frequent quiz breaks also. The videos have captions if you like them.
  - Radix_ 14y ago
    Also, the video's become much more enjoyable at 1.25x or 1.5x speed, depending on the speaker.
    - kragen 14y ago
      For the Stanford Introduction to AI course, I was at about 1.7x to 1.8x, depending on who was speaking and how fast they were talking; but I had to use a combination of pitch-shifting and non-pitch-shifting audio speedups to get that far.
  - zura 14y ago
    Yes, I find them enjoyable as well, but it is about time. I'd spend much less time with reading materials.
  - dgabriel 14y ago
    This might be true for you, but I always prefer a transcript. I hate watching videos, unless it's strictly for entertainment and requires little real attention.

mikevm 14y ago

Nice to see you here! I do hope that you will open up most (if not all) of your courses for self-study mode. There are a few courses I really wanted to take, but due to the lack of time I really couldn't commit myself at the time they opened (I wanted to do them in the summer instead!). I also think this guy makes valid points: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5469909 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5469909

jahmohn 14y ago

Hi, Pamela. I am a long-time user of Coursera and I love the site. I have feedback for you as regards retention of students. The number one thing is due dates and late penalties. If I sign up for a course and work through the first few weeks and get everything done, and then I miss a deadline because life happens, suddenly I am no longer able to get a 100% in the class. I do not mind getting an A- in a class if it happens naturally because the material is difficult, but losing my A+ or A because I am 12 hours late on an assignment ruins the experience for me. I usually drop a class when this happens and wait for it to come around again. A counter-example to prove the rule: Robert Sedgewick's Algorithms course. The last time he gave it, he had late penalties and I only had time to get through the first two weeks of the class without getting behind. This time around, there were no late penalties. Being enormously busy with other things, I was not able to keep up with the class as it went along. However, because I lost no credit for doing things late, I was able to complete the entire class in the final 10 days of course and I got an A. I have no problem staying up all night to finish interesting programming assignments and quizzes, but I need to be allowed to do this on my schedule. I strongly encourage you to encourage your professors to do away with late penalties. It should be up to us as students to determine what our work schedule is. I know for some courses, those that use peer-evaluation, this is impossible, but many more could take this route than currently do. I agree that Signature Track does have the effect of encouraging one to keep up with the class.

robryan 14y ago
For online learning the grades aren't likely to matter, people are mainly doing it to get the knowledge. I can see though if you distilled it down into telling people what you got, say a B, won't reflect how well you actually learned the content if the B was only the result of late handins. On the other side of the coin though people are relying on the strictness of handin times in order to motivate them to get through the course in a reasonable amount of time. Timed based on a final date to finish everything is a compromise but wouldn't work for everyone, as some would loose motivation after falling too far behind. So maybe there needs to be a few deadlines throughout the course, but not a weekly one. The only course I have done I ended up missing a week handin as well, I think most working people would be in the same boat.
olalonde 14y ago
Genuine question: why do you care so much about your grade?
- VLM 14y ago
  Both sides are pretending its a "for credit" class. So both draconian late penalties and great concern over the grade are appropriate.
bbbbbbbbb 14y ago
With work, family and everything that goes around, it is very hard to be in time... Standford Class2go gives you half credits if you are late for all the quizzes and exercises but the final exam counted triple so you could skip a few things here and there and still work it out(you had to study them for the exams though!). I love the fact that there is a due date, it forces me to do it and a certificate is very rewarding too (I tend to give up the courses that give me no "credits")... I think in general,the schedule are too tight though.

zura 14y ago

For me, the killer feature would be the availability of textual/reading material corresponding to 100% of the content provided by videos. So successfully completion of the course won't require watching the videos.

mark_l_watson 14y ago
You may want to rethink that. For most of the classes I have taken the lectures were very enjoyable. I like the frequent quiz breaks also. The videos have captions if you like them.
- Radix_ 14y ago
  Also, the video's become much more enjoyable at 1.25x or 1.5x speed, depending on the speaker.
  - kragen 14y ago
    For the Stanford Introduction to AI course, I was at about 1.7x to 1.8x, depending on who was speaking and how fast they were talking; but I had to use a combination of pitch-shifting and non-pitch-shifting audio speedups to get that far.
- zura 14y ago
  Yes, I find them enjoyable as well, but it is about time. I'd spend much less time with reading materials.
- dgabriel 14y ago
  This might be true for you, but I always prefer a transcript. I hate watching videos, unless it's strictly for entertainment and requires little real attention.