"Coursera has taken the lead in responding. The company announced in May that it was partnering with several organizations, including the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation in Ukraine, to provide subtitling for lectures in select courses in Arabic, Japanese, Kazakh, Portuguese, Russian, and Ukrainian."
Like the pro bono of lawyers, Senator Ron Wyden(Oregon), the senator attacking PRISM, etc, should legislate all those thousands(?) of language specialists of the NSA and CIA be required to translate MOOC courses for our third world brothers and sisters. All these specialists could learn new subjects too.
I learned more from the clubs I joined and/or formed in university than I did from the lectures.
I do wonder whether, as the technical content becomes more widely accessible, there'll be
A) A premium put on conscientiousness.
and
B) Whether clubs for specific topics will become more popular.
The second one is very ... odd ... because it would seem to require either a provision for local spaces that isn't currently there (but might be as libraries change) or much better tools for online communities.
I think it's hard to quantify amount learned from X vs. Y, speaking as a student who goofed off almost all the time I was in college, there's still stuff from classes I took nearly thirty years ago that gives me fresh insights.
>Twenty-five-year-old Khalid Raza lives in Shakargarh but is taking "The Challenges of Global Poverty," a course taught by a former adviser to the World Bank and a professor of international economics at MIT.
Great. Now the whole world can get indoctrinated into neo-liberal economics and the like, and the educated in all countries can adopt the ideology of the ruiling empire. /s
Now, while this is indeed great for hard sciences, medicine and technology, it's very problematic for ideological and soft courses, from History to Economics to Sociology etc.
It might not be clear, but imagine the inverse: American students getting their sociology knowledge from Pakistani scholars -- with the whole ideological baggage that will carry with respect to the treatment of women, issues of personal freedom, etc.
"Harm"? Seems to me that learning about other cultures is very seldom harmful -- in either direction. In any event, I fail to see how exposing people in pakistan to our ideological baggage would be a bad thing overall -- they're already getting ideological baggage from hellfire missiles.
On the other hand, on the internet finding FALSE information is so easy. A lot of times its in a form thats actually easier to consume. Its important to have these courses equally available to help combat dangerous ignorance.
The growth of MOOCs is clearly massive for the developing world where access to high quality educational resources is limited, but what does it mean for countries like the US? Can a person get the same quality of education from online courses as traditional courses? Can those courses be graded and accredited in a way which means something to employers? Or are we forever stuck in a model of higher education where graduating from a prestigious university is the only thing that matters, and you pay more for the prestige than the actual education itself?
You can probably get the same education if you put in sufficient effort, but going to top level universities is also about the contacts you forge with likeminded people, often in specific social strata, as well as being able to interact in person with top people in the field.
Of course you can get the contacts elsewhere if you make the effort, but the university system is extremely well placed to bring people together for extended periods of time and put them in situations that encourages bonding, and that provides a lot of value.
Frankly, not taking better advantage of that is what I miss the most about cutting my studies short (I left university to co-found my first company; I went back and completed a MSc via correspondence courses, and it served the purpose of documenting my skills, but it wasn't the same without that daily social interaction with people working on the same things).
MOOCs can probably lift the low end, and make the basic education a commodity, but universities will still serve a lot of other purposes. I could even see "universities" pop up for people to attend to take MOOCs from suppliers with top teachers for the main teaching and "just" offering support services and networking/bonding opportunities around that. E.g. universities have long used books from outside their own university, so it just makes sense for them to make use of other resources, including whole courses, when there are ones available elsewhere where they can't compete on the lectures themselves and focus on their strong points.
I guess that since these MOOCs are essentially online study groups with very minimal direct interaction with professors/teaching assistants, it is very hard to verify that a student actually did all the work without help from others. Since educations are essentially tickets to getting job interviews, the incentives for cheating are high. I think that is indeed a problem which needs to be addressed. Maybe by introducing course centers where participants can take an online exam under controlled conditions, i.e., in the presence of observers?
Can a person get the same quality of education from online courses as traditional courses? Can those courses be graded and accredited in a way which means something to employers?
What about the overall success of http://www.open.ac.uk ? Apparently, distance learning is acknowleged by employers.
I see a lot of untapped technological potential in Pakistan. In the past decade they have set records for some of the youngest tech wiz kids in the world, with the youngest nearly 9 years old with a Microsoft certification! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arfa_Karim
I think that if you had an incredibly bright kid in a first world country you probably would have more interesting things for that kid to do than get a Microsoft Certification. (And it totally sucks she died at 16.)
MIT placed lots of courses online long before MOOC boom.
Nowadays Coursera is the dominant MOOC platform with some very decent courses, at least on CS/AI/Neuroscience subjects.
Yale is another source of high quality materials, while Berkeley sucks after rewriting its site and removing bunch of old courses, including classic Scheme based CS 61A and courses on Buddhism studies.
The typical Pakistani education glosses over the real deal, the fundamental understanding of a topic. MOOCs are changing that. The qualification wouldn't get people interviews in Pakistan, but it would enhance their understanding nonetheless.
I just finished Edward Glaeser's Triumph of the City the other day, and after reading this article, I'm really excited to see how his theory about education level being a major factory in whether a city succeeds or not is affected.
I doubt we'll see any short term changes, but in places that don't have good access to education (or in places with an education system like Feynman experienced in Brazil) I can't help but wonder what kind of changes the world is going to experience as average global education level skyrockets due to MOOCs.
This is slightly tangential, but bear with me. I'm mid-50's, and when I started programming it was a weird thing. I'd say I was a computer programmer, and I might have been the first one that normal people had actually met.
It is amazing now to see the world buried in programmers (and more being produced with people from Pakistan & etc. in Coursera's Startup Engineering).
More amazing that a lot of really good work is being done.
So how does it graph? Plateau or Vinge-ian take-off?
Is the flocking around software apps appropriate or an over-concentration of human capital?
Universities offering degrees thru MOOC will bring revolution in terms of employment/unemployment and labor market in general .... i can foresee a scenario where for every single job position there will be lot more international applicant ready to work remotely 10 times cheaper than the same qualified person in 1st world countries ...
The article tells a short anecdote, but does not discuss motivation or future plans of the student, popularity of the program in Pakistan, whether schools and other institutions in Pakistan may start using MOOC material like community colleges in the US... at the end of the day this article does not tell us what happens at all.
Admitably coursera classes arent starting from much, I was part of a parralel programming class mirrored on coursera and those folks did 4 I weeks of our semester class without the final project. I wonder if we will see a cheapening siniliar to ted talks
They don't give you a diploma though. And I bet it would be a separate kind of diploma. And it's not just degree but also connections. An ex-MIT is likely to hire another ex-MIT. So not much is happening at the moment.
Those who will learn this class will be accused that they learn from wrong source. I was accused once for reading wrong bible :) I'm not even very religious.
[+] [-] angersock|12 years ago|reply
No, I am in no way going to benefit from this as a murrican. :)
[+] [-] e3pi|12 years ago|reply
Like the pro bono of lawyers, Senator Ron Wyden(Oregon), the senator attacking PRISM, etc, should legislate all those thousands(?) of language specialists of the NSA and CIA be required to translate MOOC courses for our third world brothers and sisters. All these specialists could learn new subjects too.
Wouldn't that be nice?
[+] [-] mayneack|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 6d0debc071|12 years ago|reply
I do wonder whether, as the technical content becomes more widely accessible, there'll be
A) A premium put on conscientiousness.
and
B) Whether clubs for specific topics will become more popular.
The second one is very ... odd ... because it would seem to require either a provision for local spaces that isn't currently there (but might be as libraries change) or much better tools for online communities.
[+] [-] Tloewald|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gngeal|12 years ago|reply
However, it's great for schizoid people who may not have the same options that you had.
[+] [-] coldtea|12 years ago|reply
Great. Now the whole world can get indoctrinated into neo-liberal economics and the like, and the educated in all countries can adopt the ideology of the ruiling empire. /s
Now, while this is indeed great for hard sciences, medicine and technology, it's very problematic for ideological and soft courses, from History to Economics to Sociology etc.
It might not be clear, but imagine the inverse: American students getting their sociology knowledge from Pakistani scholars -- with the whole ideological baggage that will carry with respect to the treatment of women, issues of personal freedom, etc.
The same harm works both ways.
[+] [-] Tloewald|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seivan|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swalsh|12 years ago|reply
On the other hand, on the internet finding FALSE information is so easy. A lot of times its in a form thats actually easier to consume. Its important to have these courses equally available to help combat dangerous ignorance.
[+] [-] rowanseymour|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vidarh|12 years ago|reply
Of course you can get the contacts elsewhere if you make the effort, but the university system is extremely well placed to bring people together for extended periods of time and put them in situations that encourages bonding, and that provides a lot of value.
Frankly, not taking better advantage of that is what I miss the most about cutting my studies short (I left university to co-found my first company; I went back and completed a MSc via correspondence courses, and it served the purpose of documenting my skills, but it wasn't the same without that daily social interaction with people working on the same things).
MOOCs can probably lift the low end, and make the basic education a commodity, but universities will still serve a lot of other purposes. I could even see "universities" pop up for people to attend to take MOOCs from suppliers with top teachers for the main teaching and "just" offering support services and networking/bonding opportunities around that. E.g. universities have long used books from outside their own university, so it just makes sense for them to make use of other resources, including whole courses, when there are ones available elsewhere where they can't compete on the lectures themselves and focus on their strong points.
[+] [-] ulrikrasmussen|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gngeal|12 years ago|reply
What about the overall success of http://www.open.ac.uk ? Apparently, distance learning is acknowleged by employers.
[+] [-] xerophtye|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tloewald|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dschiptsov|12 years ago|reply
Nowadays Coursera is the dominant MOOC platform with some very decent courses, at least on CS/AI/Neuroscience subjects.
Yale is another source of high quality materials, while Berkeley sucks after rewriting its site and removing bunch of old courses, including classic Scheme based CS 61A and courses on Buddhism studies.
[+] [-] WalterGR|12 years ago|reply
The oldest CS61A I found on http://webcast.berkeley.edu/series.html#c,d,Computer_Science is spring 2008. It's taught by Brian Harvey and is Scheme-based: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/playlist#c,d,Computer_Science,PL...
[+] [-] capex|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Stwerner|12 years ago|reply
I doubt we'll see any short term changes, but in places that don't have good access to education (or in places with an education system like Feynman experienced in Brazil) I can't help but wonder what kind of changes the world is going to experience as average global education level skyrockets due to MOOCs.
[+] [-] jjindev|12 years ago|reply
It is amazing now to see the world buried in programmers (and more being produced with people from Pakistan & etc. in Coursera's Startup Engineering).
More amazing that a lot of really good work is being done.
So how does it graph? Plateau or Vinge-ian take-off?
Is the flocking around software apps appropriate or an over-concentration of human capital?
[+] [-] newsign|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mapmeld|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eliasmacpherson|12 years ago|reply
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistani_Arms_Industry
[+] [-] frozenport|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CmonDev|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ommunist|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] daliusd|12 years ago|reply