
San Jose State to offer ground-breaking low-cost, for-credit online courses - whyenot
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_22377206/san-jose-state-partners-silicon-valley-startup-groundbreaking
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Samuel_Michon
Since it isn't mentioned in the article, here's the program page:
<http://www.sjsu.edu/plus/>

Also, they only offer Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra and Elementary
Statistics classes. SJSU's program is clearly intended as a precursor to
attending college, not a replacement.

~~~
barry-cotter
All true. But this could be the start of something beautiful. Within two years
surely it'll be possible to get a STEM Associate of Arts degree online from a
state system.Online education has many flaws and misfeautures but the only
thing I can't see it doing is a thesis, and how many people do those before a
Master's?

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prostoalex
Nice to see a state university taking the lead here. Not to downplay what
Coursera/edX are doing, but for US higher education to get cheaper, it's not
the advanced courses that need to go online, it's the introductory ones, so
that the required freshman and sophomore courses can be taken on the cheap
(maybe while a student is in high school), and advanced ones can then involve
tuition, use of labs, specialized equipment, and other university
infrastructure.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Completely agree. Anything 100 level should be brought online first; I could
see this compressing a "four year" bachelors degree into two years.

~~~
Mvandenbergh
Even compressing a "four year" degree into four years would make a substantial
difference. At American state universities, only 31% of students graduate in
four years.

~~~
furyg3
I thought four-year degrees taking 5 years was a bit ridiculous before I moved
abroad... after moving to Holland I see that the US is just not competitive
here.

In NL, University students complete a Bachelor's in _three_ years, usually
going on to complete a Master's in the following year, or a "Research Masters"
in two years ("research" meaning you actually publish articles). Nearly the
whole time is spent actually studying the subjects in your major.

~~~
Mvandenbergh
True, but a HBO takes four years and is equivalent to an American bachelor's
degree. Part of the problem is that in the US, a whole range of institutions
shares this category called "college" even though everyone knows that MIT and
a regional state university are vastly different.

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suyash
This could potentially start a tuition cost battle (reverse pricing) in the
country and in the end benefit the students. Good to see SJSU taking leads
from bigger players like Stanford and Cal in the valley.

~~~
veridies
Good for students in the short term; long term, it's strongly in students'
interests for universities to get more money.

This is great progress, but it needs to be coupled with better funding for
public universities.

~~~
gojomo
It is not self-evident to me that it's necessarily in students' interest for
universities to get more money.

As a purchaser of anything else -- gas, entertainment, books, electronics,
whatever -- is it always in my long-term interest for the seller to "get more
money"? (Even when that money doesn't come directly to me -- for example,
government subsidies -- their bonanza doesn't necessarily inure to me, the
customer, as opposed to insiders.)

~~~
veridies
Always? No. But when news agencies get more money, they have more careful
copy-editing and better investigative journalism. When hardware companies get
more money, they can afford better R&D, resulting in nicer products down the
road. The things that get cut tend to be what avoids short-term losses, which
isn't always good for the consumer.

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rayvega
Here's the announcement by Sebastian Thrun on Udacity:

[http://blog.udacity.com/2013/01/sebastian-thrun-udacity-
anno...](http://blog.udacity.com/2013/01/sebastian-thrun-udacity-announces-
for.html)

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gebe
Is the ground-breaking part the cost of it? I just think it sounds like normal
online courses. Maybe I am missing something?

~~~
solarmist
It's a for credit online course that's available for cheap and as a non-degree
student (i.e. MOOC). So it's the first set of courses to try and bridge the
gap between MOOC's and "traditional" online courses/degrees.

~~~
gebe
Ok, thank you for explaining! I am not from the US so I didn't know it was
uncommon with online courses for non-degree students.

edit: Although now that I think about it I should have guessed. Having a
system with an expensive tuition to be paid by the student probably doesn't
roll so well with pick-and-choose online courses for everyone.

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mandytolliver
What Udacity and EdX are missing is (1) verifiable testing; (2) accreditation.
They are just starting on this with the Pearson deal.

But SJSU can provide the accreditation. But verifying that someone who could
be in Bangor or Bangkok is really taking their test or doing their own
homework is the big missing piece.

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jcarpio
Not only is this important in terms of accessibility (reach and cost), but
also to consistently provide quality course content.

An online class won't suffer from potential variabilities in quality that may
impact traditional ones. In fact, their quality can easily improve based on
feedback.

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bromang
The University of London offers full distance learning degree courses. They
don't offer very much in the way of support but they are cheap and reputable.
See: <http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/>

~~~
peteretep
Open University, too, <http://www.open.ac.uk/>, and it's got considerably
better name recognition...

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rikacomet
Hmm, I wonder, if they want to make money out of it as well or not. My
question is why I would spend 150$ on a online course, that I can get on edX
or elsewhere for free?

what is the catch :?

~~~
Mutinix
You can take the course for free, but you won't get credit for it. From the
Udacity blog:

"Living up to our promise to always provide a free path to high-quality
education, we are also offering these courses free of charge as conventional
MOOCs, but this path will not include instructor access, additional support
services, or a path to college credit."

Blogpost: [http://blog.udacity.com/2013/01/sebastian-thrun-udacity-
anno...](http://blog.udacity.com/2013/01/sebastian-thrun-udacity-announces-
for.html)

~~~
rikacomet
As a recruiter, how can I tell if someone who payed, did really learn
something from the course? Does the paid version, has a tougher exam?

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mazsa
FYI: <http://online-degrees.findthebest.com>

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drunkenmasta
You can take an in-person, face-to-face course at a community college for
about the same price. I don't see how this program is ground-breaking.

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wilfra
And just like that, it becomes clear how Udacity can become a multi-billion
dollar company. I hope their investors get rich, the World will be a much
better place if they do.

I think there has been a lot of interest in the company lately. I put them on
my linkedin under education and even though I use a lot of popular keywords,
searching 'Udacity' is the #1 way people arrive at my profile by a wide
margin.

~~~
geogra4
I find Udacity sort of gimmicky and too gamified. I really wish I could say I
really enjoyed the intro to CS course. I hope they get better.

I'd jump at the opportunity to get the equivalent of a BS in CS for free. Or
even for a modest per-credit hour fee.

