Stanford Online Courses Delayed; More Time To Sign Up 66
Posted
by
timothy
from the in-your-copious-free-time dept.
from the in-your-copious-free-time dept.
mikejuk writes "Online Computer Science classes that have attracted tens of thousands of students have been put back for a couple of weeks. Is this on account of Sebastian Thrun's resignation from Stanford? Whatever the reason, providing certificates for online students seems to be a real point of contention. James Plummer, dean of Stanford's School of Engineering, said 'I think it will actually be a long time, maybe never, when actual Stanford degrees would be given for fully online work by anyone who wishes to register for the courses.' The good news is that the delay means that there is still time to sign up."
*Sigh* There's no drama. (Score:5, Insightful)
There have been suggestions (from, most notably, Professor Jeffrey Ullman) that Stanford got spanked by disability advocates who complained that the courses were not accessible to the visually impaired and that the development team was working to get this fixed before launch; hence the delay.
As for certificates - it has always been made very clear that there would be no certification or credit of any kind, issued by Stanford for these courses or for the courses run by Sebastian Thrun's outfit. For there to be contention, there needs to be some area of disagreement - there is none.
Nice to know that so many still WANT to learn (Score:5, Insightful)
I would still be taking college courses just for fun, if I could afford it. There is something to be said for the idea of "never stop learning" and not resting on your laurels. I wish more people would adopt this philosophy, instead of getting to a certain place in their lives and just saying "Well, no need to learn anything new." I've worked with many programmers who hadn't learned a damn thing since they were in their 20's. They just become more obsolete every day they live.
Re:college is not setup for continuing education (Score:5, Insightful)
This is seriously a problem with society. If it doesn't make you money, or if it isn't directly related to making money, it is thought of as useless. GP said he would take classes for fun, who cares what any company thinks about it. I did the Stanford machine learning course because it was interesting, not because it would help me make money in any way, I will do more for the same reason, and in more diverse fields. People learning about things not related to their job or area of expertise is a good thing, it is something to be encouraged.