https://www.coursera.org/

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by dlady, May 9, 2012.

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  1. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    If you have not seen this it looks interesting: https://www.coursera.org/

    Doesn't look like you can get credit, but it might make a nice complimentary resource to other DL courses..
     
  2. mbaonline

    mbaonline New Member

  3. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    You might not get college credit, but I notice that some of the courses offers certs. I'm interested.
     
  4. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    I started a spin off thread on this topic. I'm interested in several of these courses as well.
     
  5. AV8R

    AV8R Active Member

  6. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    I don't know why, but this article has me incredibly excited. There are so many of those courses I want to take, and I cannot wait to see what's going to be added. Like I posted in my other thread, I'm curious how this will shape people's resumes and job potentials. If you take enough courses and successfully complete them in a certain field that applies within your career path, I can only imagine that this would strengthen your ability to get hired on somewhere, or for promotion potential.

    These courses will come with certificates of completion, so I firmly believe that they could benefit someone in that regard. I'm excited!
     
  7. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    Udacity offers certificate, but CourseRA gives letter of completion.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  8. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

  9. Jacob Perry

    Jacob Perry New Member

    After receiving an email PR about this yesterday, I very nearly signed up for two of the courses. The variety being offered is impressive as is the quality. I suspect that there will be a time in the future where some form of academic credit will be offered for these types of courses, beyond the certs.
     
  10. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Fair enough that you do, but why do you believe this?
     
  11. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    This model is really tough for me to stomach. I'm conflicted with all of these vendors (UDacity, Coursera, etc.)

    1. It's absolutely wonderful that the grant funding is there for these academics to bring their knowledge to the masses, and especially the people who need it most. I get the driving factors (UN, US grant funding, and elevating the potential of people while getting research data that supports the online learning model. All Good.)

    2. I'm also ok with the concept of students being products and paying for the right to have college credit assigned to them from an institution. The fact that something is free should probably mean that no credit is offered to the student.

    3. The problem I have with it is if I'm doing work, there should be some way I can leverage that into credit without having to go to another institution or CLEP. Let me pay for credit from your continuing education division if it's a Princeton course or a Stanford course if I can pass the course. Let me not have credit if I don't pay for it.

    I don't presume that these courses are a substitute for being in the brick and mortar programs, but don't insult me by sending me a certificate that says "Yay you, you did awesome.. too bad the school and teachers that taught you patronized you the entire term and this means nothing to anyone but you."

    Doesn't feel right
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 19, 2012
  12. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    ITJD, i like your idea about paying for the credits through the school of continuing ed. Quick question, should you pay before hand or can you opt to pay AFTER the course and you find out if you passed or not?
     
  13. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    Two threads, the first depends on subsidies.

    If you're from a country that is being actively subsidized by the UN or a group that is actively subsidized by the US Govt, then you should pay after the fact if at all.

    If you're not from any of those groups and you've got the means to pay, you should be paying before hand.

    The key is that the school should not be allowed to double-dip. They deserve to be compensated for providing a legitimate credential once.

    The second is the ethical position of paying after knowing if you passed or not. There's no precedent set for this sort of thing and to be fair to all of the other students doing things in a more conventional way, you have to pay up front. The consequences of going the other way would eventually upturn the system.
     
  14. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    I signed up for a couple of classes. The first one starts next week. Looking forward to just learning for learnings sake, not sure I need another piece of paper for the wall.
     
  15. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    I did as well, though mine will not start until September, I was really intrigued by a Princeton history course.
     
  16. Jacob Perry

    Jacob Perry New Member

    Short answer is because I think thats what the market will demand. What's interesting to me is the number of humanities options, which are often not as available in most online institutions.
     
  17. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I think third parties will try to find ways to get paid to turn MOOCs into credit, but that the universities offering them will not be part of that. It's not in their interest.

    Agreed. At the same time, though, I can't help but suspect that we're seeing those arise as free MOOCs and only rarely as credit courses because while people are interested in them, they won't actually pay to take them.
     

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