Conversely, I've never managed to complete a Coursera course that was on a schedule. And I've failed more university course than I should have, for the same rea

Conversely, I've never managed to complete a Coursera course that was on a schedule. And I've failed more university course than I should have, for the same reason. I'll usually buy textbooks on my own and combine them with online resources to learn on my own time, and this has worked out better than almost any class I've attended. The only exception to that is when professors took special note and allowed me to work differently. I once had a Java professor that instead of working through the weekly goals and quizzes, allowed me to pick a large project to work on over the course of the semester, and he would give me goals from the regular syllabus that I had to meet, but they weren't part of any strict schedule like the other students. Things like polymorphism, using an SQL database to store data, etc. I ended up making a tool for managing player stats and notes for a D&D campaign. It was both the most fun, and most informative course I'd ever taken. However, I understand it is unreasonable to expect a professor to split their time and attention in such a way. Especially if every student wants to pursue their own individual learning style. Courses with a strict schedule are obviously effective for teaching a majority of people. But that doesn't mean it works for everybody, or even that it is the most effective method for that majority of people. I'm very excited to see an institution try out an alternative way of structured learning.