A new online learning experience founded by Sebastian Thrun. Anyone know about this? Udacity - 21st Century University http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Thrun
In classic Silicon Valley style, it has a lot of buzz, but as of yet no revenue model. I definitely wish them well, but we'll see what happens.
I read of Udacity elsewhere and paged through one of their courses a couple of days ago to see what it was like. I was intrigued. The course-segments (about 40 of them) seemed to me like self-extracting "instructional zip-files" with well-presented info in each. I'm definitely going back! Hey - it's free and interesting. Why wouldn't I? Dr. Thrun says "degrees will go away" and be replaced by the type of (paid) certification Udacity intends to offer, alongside a continued free model. If so, I'd say it will take an awfully long time. Despite WGU's progress, it seems (per this article) that the U.S. Higher Ed. system isn't entirely ready for competency-based learning. Barriers to competency-based education may be lifting, panel says | Inside Higher Ed I wish Dr. Thrun success with Udacity. I think he's a true original and he's really onto something with Udacity. He's the kind of highly cerebral guy who likes to shake things up and hopefully, this will. But wholesale replacement of the existing system? I dunno - it will probably work alongside the traditional system for a long time to come. As in France - sure, many people get credits and credentials by competence-based learning (demonstrated under VAE) but far more get qualified by more traditional routes. Oh yes - here's the Forbes article (link stolen from another forum) that started me on this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2012/06/05/udacity-sebastian-thrun-disrupting-higher-education/ Anyway - from my short experience of it, I think Udacity is great and wish them success -even if Dr. Thrun is never able to make degrees obsolete. Wait a minute - if he does succeed, won't we have to re-name the forum? Johann
Just a thought - Dr. Sebastian Thrun envisions the kind of edu-shakeup Mark Cuban has been talking about. Maybe they should work together. Hey, maybe they already are! http://www.degreeinfo.com/general-distance-learning-discussions/42030-mark-cuban-coming-meltdown-college-education.html Johann
I hear you Steve, but the exact same could have been said of another place - and it looks like that one'll be around for a while... Khan Academy I wish them both well! Johann
Part of the reason I posted this was because I had the idea that this was the sort of endeavor that Mark Cuban was referring to (in that other thread).
Their situations are completely different. Khan Academy is a non-profit organization that's meant solely to offer that sort of thing, which is why they attract the big grants it takes for them to continue. Udacity is a company, one that sooner or later must produce profit.
I might have known that, Kizmet - if only I'd taken this course! Practical Mind-Reading: A Course of Lessons on Thought Transference - William Walker Atkinson - Google Books Just kidding! :jester: Johann
News from Udacity. Go big or go home, I guess... Udacity to Launch 5 New Courses, from Statistics to Physics. Shooting for Largest Online Class Ever. | Open Culture Johann PS - looks like Dr. Thrun is taking a run at the record (partly his own) established by the free on-line AI course he co-taught at Stanford. 53,000 sign-ups, around 24,000 completes, IIRC. See Thrun See Thrun run. Run, Thrun, run! :jester:
