MIT To Expand Online Learning and Offer Certificates 96
mikejuk writes "MIT has announced an online learning initiative that will offer its courses through a new interactive learning platform that will enable students to participate in simulated labs, interact with professors and other students and earn certificates. Is this just a reaction to the Stanford experiment in running courses complete with exams and informal statements of accomplishment? (The first AI course has just finished and the exam results are in.) If so let's hope it spurs other educational establishments to do the same!"
Re:interesting times (Score:4, Interesting)
Since my day job is CS professor, these kinds of things aren't in my personal interest (unless I land a tenured job at MIT, which is unlikely :P), but I think they have considerable merit.
It might actually be in your personal interest. Perhaps there's a possibility that some of your students will take these online courses to prep for your courses in the future. Plus, everyone is served by having a well educated society. How to help make that happen is a different thing...
Re:This will get lecture book publishers crying (Score:4, Interesting)
Simpler reason actually...
We endure buying useless books for 4 years. We listen to music and watch films for the rest of our lives.
One has a great impact. We decry textbooks while students. But ceased to be concerned upon graduation as it passes.
RIAA/MPAA is a persistent hemmoroid on the remainder of our lives.
Quite the contrary, I believe (Score:3, Interesting)
I never attended high-school (I went to vocational school and then started my engineering studies) so I never got to study those interesting-sounding subjects like psychology and philosophy. Now that all the most famous universities have been putting their introductory courses online, I've watched quite a few of them.
When I was watching Introduction to Psychology [academicearth.org] (Prof. Paul Bloom, Yale, extremely interesting and entertaining way to spend some 20-odd hours) I thought "Hell, I could actually do more than watch these lectures. I think I'll actually buy the book and read the recommended chapters!".
The course book costed something like 150+ dollars, which I thought was astounding but that actually wasn't the showstopper for me (I have a job and am quite prone to buying stuff on a whim in my sleep-deprivation induced mania). What made me pissed off was that they (=every store I could find by googling the book) didn't sell an electronic version of the book. What made me more pissed was that they clearly had electronic version: If I were to buy the physical book, I would get the PDF on CD with the book. There simply was no way of buying just the PDF (I would have been willing to accept DRM, to pay the full price, whatever... I just didn't want to wait a week, spend a phonecall arguing with customs officers, pay another 30 bucks for shipping, another 30 bucks of import taxes, etc. as is usually the case when I order stuff online).
In the end, I was annoyed that the stores selling the book could have made my life easier but had chosen not to, so I didn't buy the book. However, open courses like these cause large amounts of people like me to consider buying books that we never would have otherwise bought. If the industry can implement minor reforms to approach us a bit, I'm sure there's a lot of potential for more profit.
Re:interesting times (Score:2, Interesting)
This is sorely needed in the US in particular. I have watched a few documentaries on primary education here in the states, and needless to say, that unmitigated disaster is not going to be fixed anytime soon. So why not let people "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and learn higher education themselves.
There are a ton of people who don't do well in High School only to realize later that they want a better job. For the most part, we view those people as unfortunate and lost. We say they are ignorant, but this is a fallacy.
People are smart, really really smart. If given the opportunity, many unfortunate folks would work really hard to improve their education and get a better job/career.
The Internet can help be the Great Equalizer in education, without putting people in $10-30k worth of debt.