
Coursera shuts access to old platform courses - reachtarunhere
http://reachtarunhere.github.io/2016/06/11/Golden-Age-of-MOOCs-is-over-and-why-I-hate-Coursera/
======
latenightcoding
It is truly sad to see Coursera getting greedier by the day. I can honestly
say this website changed my life, I was living in a third world country and
still in high school when I enrolled in Andrew Ng's machine learning class and
thanks to that MOOC I was able to get a machine learning job building
recommender systems for a Canadian company straight out of high school. There
are plenty of amazing MOOCs that Coursera has completely removed from the
website or are only available for people who want to pay upfront. Please don't
be like Udacity Coursera.

BTW you have until June 30 to download your courses.

~~~
quincyla
If institutional partners treated MOOCs as a marketing exercise for their
university's brand, instead of trying to monetize courses and certificates,
people could continue to have this content for free. Unfortunately,
universities don't exactly exemplify long-term thinking.

Most of the content for these MOOCs is created by professors as part of their
jobs, so this content is owned by their universities. I bet a vast majority of
professors would prefer their MOOCs to stay open.

Most of the work has been done already, and the quizzes and exercises are
automated, so there's no practical reason these videos couldn't be hosted on
YouTube and thrown into an open source MOOC framework like EdX's and continue
to serve millions for a few hundred a month in server costs. Except that
Coursera is explicitly forbidding non-private use of these courses.

For what it's worth, Free Code Camp gets about 1/8 of the traffic Coursera
does, and our (non-opportunity) costs are pretty minor. I don't think hosting
these MOOCs would add much to the burden.

If only the individual professors who created these MOOCs could give us
permission to host these courses. But there's no way we're going to get
anywhere with the university bureaucracies themselves.

~~~
pakitan
> If institutional partners treated MOOCs as a marketing exercise for their
> university's brand

Top universities already have plenty of brand recognition and get way more
applicants than what they can accept. The monetary value of any additional
marketing is probably very close to zero for them.

~~~
acjohnson55
I don't buy that reasoning. If that were true, they'd cease doing anything for
marketing purposes. In reality, a brand and a reputation of educational
leadership is something that requires continuous investment.

~~~
deprave
Correct, and top universities do that through investment in research and
publication rather than populist fads.

Every once in a while people call into question the value of higher education
and ask whether MOOCs mark the end of traditional universities. I find it
ironic that when top universities flex their muscles and start asking those
people to pay up for classes - the same classes that you otherwise would have
had to go through admissions and tuition to get into - they're being called
money grabbers.

~~~
lazaroclapp
Maybe we should have a Coursera-like site exclusively for non-US universities,
then. Meaning the courses are taxpayer funded and free for students (or, in
some places, you might be paid to take them ;) ).

~~~
freedamn
Why, I'd like see teaching and testing separate in that case, so the
information stays accessible, while the capitalization on the students is left
to those in need to submit to it. I suppose that's what you meant.

The judgment on exercises that is helpful to the students in traditional
universities is a factor proportional to the size of courses. On the one hand
there is automatic testing, that's feasible in basic matters. Take Khan
Academy for example. A test that anyone can do with advanced knowledge is a
simple application.

The motivation to really learn, that some get from deadlines, is learned and
it's less direct than an actual want to understand a topic. In that sense,
while a job doesn't need to become a passion, the drive to really dive deep
into a topic comes as part of a hobby and so the tax payer would probably not
want to afford that. But that is a different topic and I'm biased against
taxes.

In any case, costs could probably be reduced so much per student, that it
needn't be the driving factor, far from the tuition that is payed now.

------
znpy
In case you want to download as may courses as possible before they fade away,
here are some notes.

Please forgive me some mistakes, I wrote this a bit in a hurry.

===========================

1) Spawn a virtual server on DigitalOcean.

I am using the 40$/month in order to have 40GB of space, but my plan is to
shut it down in a day or two.

The advantage is to have storage space AND super-fast connection.

If you don't want to spend money, here is my referral code:

[https://m.do.co/c/867be540644c](https://m.do.co/c/867be540644c)

This will give you 10$ credit for free.

2) Install screen, python-virtualenv, python3, python3-pip

3) edit ~/.bash_aliases:

    
    
        #!/usr/bin/env bash
        
        alias download="./coursera-dl -u <<username>> -p <<password>>"
        alias download_preview="./coursera-dl -b -u <<username>> -p <<password>>"
    

4) Install coursera-dl: see [https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera-
dl#alternative-insta...](https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera-
dl#alternative-installation-method-for-unix-systems)

name the virtualenv "coursera", and place it in the root home directory

5) patch to use python3:

* pip3 install -r requirements.txt * patch coursera/coursera.dl:
    
    
        #!/usr/bin/env python
        # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
    
    

Becomes:

    
    
        #!/usr/bin/env python3
        # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
    

6) Edit ~/.bashrc

Add this lines at the end of the file:

    
    
        cd coursera
        source bin/activate
        cd coursera
    

=======================

The setup process is done. Here is how to use it:

1) Start a screen session: `screen -S coursera`

download_preview compilers-004

you can download more courses in parallel by creating another window (C-a c)
and typing donwload_preview $coursename.

~~~
znpy
Tested and successfully downloaded (about 30GB):

\- recsys-001

\- hwswinterface-002

\- eefun-001

\- experiments-001

\- gametheory-003

\- crypto-010

\- pgm

\- cariesmanagement-003

\- algo2-003

\- analyze-003

\- audio-002

\- ml-005

\- sna-2012-001-staging

\- spatialcomputing-001

\- organalysis-003

\- compilers-004

\- modelthinking-006

\- ggp-003

\- algo-009

\- intrologic-005

\- automata

\- linearopt-002

\- matrix-002

Please add below this comment other coursed that can be downloaded.

~~~
dhawalhs
Made a list of 220 courses that are still open for enrollment:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kaWxZG3krI83WfdzlExW...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kaWxZG3krI83WfdzlExWL-
_S5UBai-CYuofGR5DZcd0/edit?usp=sharing)

I will work on figuring out the slugs next. For you now, you will need to
signup for the course and figure it out. You can also find the same the list
on Class Central where you can filter by subjects or sort by rating:
[https://www.class-central.com/collection/coursera-old-
stack](https://www.class-central.com/collection/coursera-old-stack)

~~~
raybb
Here's a list of slugs for almost all of the courses!
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W1PZEQbb1jnNh-
EeFUoB...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W1PZEQbb1jnNh-
EeFUoBUOhv0VwLQF7x-XZ2uxn80gM/edit#gid=0)

~~~
glogla
Some I managed to download are missing:

audio-002 eefun-001 experiments-001 hci model-thinking-006 recsys-001

~~~
dhawalhs
I only listed courses that haven't been moved to the new platform yet. So
courses like Model Thinking and Recommender Systems have been ported over. I
suspect its the same for other courses that you listed.

------
haches
Worthwhile to point out that edX is a non-profit [1] unlike Coursera [2] and
Udacity [3].

[1] [https://www.edx.org/about-us](https://www.edx.org/about-us)

[2]
[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/coursera](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/coursera)

[3]
[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/udacity](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/udacity)

~~~
cpkpad
Kinda. They act more like a for-profit than like a non-profit.

~~~
misingnoglic
How so? All of their classes are available for free, the only thing you have
to pay for is the certificate. Non profit =/= no profit.

------
lovelearning
I feel Coursera's pricing strategy is located at two opposite extremes and
misses out an entire range of options in the middle. They either make an
entire course completely free with no option to pay even if the student wants
to, or they put it behind a paywall where one can't even start without paying.

They along with their institutional partners are missing out revenue from
people like me who'd like to pay some amount, but not the amount they fix. I'm
happy to pay some amount without a certificate. They should consider giving a
pay-what-you-like option for all their courses.

~~~
akg_67
Are there any successful ventures with such "pay-what-you-like" pricing
strategy?

Having unsuccessfully tried such a pricing model myself, I have serious doubt
about it's viability. Majority will not pay anything, very few will pay
reasonable amount, and some will pay very little but will be very high
maintenance.

Payer: God dammit, I paid for your service and I want one hour of your support
time. Company: How much did this payer paid? 50 cents! We need to hire someone
who will take 30 cents to support this payer for an hour.

This is one of those pricing strategy that sounds good and people will claim
to support but in reality wouldn't.

~~~
lovelearning
It probably depends on what the product or service is, and how it's sold.
Coursera already provides some courses for free, and even those attract some
high maintenance types from what I've seen in the forums. Does providing a
pay-what-you-want option _increase_ the number of nasties or the degree of
nastiness, for example, inviting legal risks? I don't really know. But I feel
Coursera should atleast experiment and gather the data before deciding,
instead of missing out on all that data.

Leanpub and Gumroad are two services that follow this strategy. I don't know
if they are successful ventures, but I notice they have maintained this
pricing strategy since their inception and never changed or stopped it.

Leanpub says "...the pattern we have seen with multiple books, about a third
of people will pay the suggested price, a third will pay the minimum price and
a third will pay somewhere in between. Finally, the odd person will pay more
than the suggested price" [1]. Some anecdotal experiences of individual
authors [2],[3],[4] support it.

[1]:
[https://leanpub.com/help/author_faq](https://leanpub.com/help/author_faq)
[2]:
[http://blather.michaelwlucas.com/archives/1626](http://blather.michaelwlucas.com/archives/1626)
[3]: [http://blog.ppenev.com/2013/07/16/what-i-have-learned-
from-l...](http://blog.ppenev.com/2013/07/16/what-i-have-learned-from-
leanpub.html) [4]: [http://blog.gumroad.com/post/75707736685/is-pay-what-you-
wan...](http://blog.gumroad.com/post/75707736685/is-pay-what-you-want-pricing-
for-you)

~~~
peterarmstrong
Leanpub co-founder here. We're really happy with our minimum price + suggested
price strategy, and have no plans to change it.

When coupled with our sliders which clearly show the (very high, 90% minus 50
cents) royalties that are earned by the author(s), and with our free update
distribution, we get a lot of benefits for our authors, including:

1\. When there is a low or a free minimum price, readers who otherwise could
not afford a book can get it legitimately. This can help build a community
around the book. For example,
[https://leanpub.com/rprogramming](https://leanpub.com/rprogramming) has over
80,000 readers (free + paid), and while it has a free minimum price, it is
also our top book by lifetime revenue.

2\. Quite often, there is so much extra income earned by readers paying above
the minimum price that it entirely offsets refunds. (We have a 45-day 100%
refund policy.)

3\. Because of the royalty transparency, variable pricing, 45-day refunds and
the fact that readers are supporting authors by buying in-progress books,
there's a very, very low amount of nastiness. I really like seeing author and
reader email; quite often "I love Leanpub" is part of the sentiment,
regardless of whatever issue is occurring. (We also sell completed books, but
much of what Leanpub is based on is our writing workflow and our focus on
selling in-progress books...)

~~~
keithpeter
Encouraging.

Your page for Roger Peng's _R Programming_ book also contains a link to Lulu
for those who prefer print.

Does following that link bypass your system or are you collecting some kind of
fee for that? I'm assuming Dr Peng gets a reasonable chunk of coffee money
from Lulu directly as usual.

Cheers

~~~
peterarmstrong
It completely bypasses our system: we earn $0 from Lulu sales. (It was added
by Dr. Peng. Leanpub authors own the copyright to their work, and can sell it
wherever they want.)

That said, having used Lulu myself in the past (back in 2006), Lulu pays good
royalty rates on print books and ebooks, and we recommend that all our authors
consider using Lulu or Amazon CreateSpace to produce a print book once their
book is done. If you search "Leanpub" on Lulu, you'll see a handful of Leanpub
books there.

To help our authors produce print books, we have two features:

1\. Print-ready PDF export. Click a button, get a PDF with proper page
numbering (alternating sides), chapters always starting on the right page, no
cover image (since Lulu and CreateSpace have wraparound cover upload
features), etc. I think that most of our authors who have print books,
including Dr. Peng, went this route since it's a lot easier than the second
choice.

2\. InDesign export. Click a different button, get InCopy (ICML) files. These
can be given to a designer who is good at InDesign, and he or she can make a
beautiful custom-designed book. Our InDesign export is pretty basic compared
to the print-ready PDF export, but our hope is that it's a better starting
point for a designer than a Word document with a bunch of formatting that they
need to throw out.

For us, making the print book production process as easy as possible just adds
to the value created by using Leanpub. We want to create more value than we
capture, and this helps with that...

Cheers

------
wibr
[https://class.coursera.org/ml-005/lecture](https://class.coursera.org/ml-005/lecture)
Machine Learning, Andrew Ng

[https://class.coursera.org/algo-003/lecture](https://class.coursera.org/algo-003/lecture)
Algorithms 1, Tim Roughgarden

[https://class.coursera.org/algo2-003/lecture](https://class.coursera.org/algo2-003/lecture)
Algorithms 2, Tim Roughgarden

Edit:
[https://class.coursera.org/compilers/lecture/preview](https://class.coursera.org/compilers/lecture/preview)
Compilers, Alex Aiken

What else?

~~~
unimpressive
Is anybody else able to download the compilers course? I'm having trouble.

~~~
LionessLover
I don't have any problems. I used the standard options with `coursera-dl`.
It's all been downloaded without a hitch now.

    
    
        cd /D/Videos/Courses/
        ./coursera-dl/coursera-dl -u <<email>> -p <<password>> compilers-004

~~~
agumonkey
With 'compilers' only there's an issue in the video URLs, thanks for the
suffix tip.

ps: 004 didn't work, only 003

pps:

tested these: \- progfun1 \- proglang-002 almost worked.

~~~
znpy
progfun1 failed for me.

proglang-002 didn't even begin downloading.

------
tgokh
Coursera actually converted a course I was enrolled in to paid-quizzes-only,
while I was actively enrolled in the course and on the second to last week of
eight. They finally converted it back after 2 days of many of us contacting
support but never gave me a straight answer as to whether it was accidentally
or intentional :-/ Definitely lost my faith in Coursera as a platform over
these recent changes.

~~~
sotojuan
I never liked Coursera because they offered classes only sometimes... I know a
"real classroom" experience is what they were going after but it sucks finding
a great looking course that will be offered a year later or worse, no upcoming
dates.

Sad to see they're going to downhill though.

~~~
zhte415
Indeed. I feel a gamefication theme to some of it. Think of the opposite:

Socrates had his teachings and live lectures online, with recorded classroom,
and feedback, for all to comment on, with his replies. It may have only been
'live' for 20/40 years of his life/teaching life/sharing life, but it would be
amazing today.

MOOCs offer this opportunity for humanity, to record teachings in increasingly
diverse formats that are free for others to use and experiment with.

~~~
visarga
What MOOCs need is deep understanding of human learning, as it relates to
specific fields. In other words they need to keep track on a per-user-basis of
the level of mastery they have on all the relevant concepts. They need to map
out how relevant concepts rely on each other, and be able to make
recommendations.

It often feels like an avalanche of books, courses, materials - we need simple
paths through this mess. We need to keep people right in the sweetspot - not
giving them too difficult material, but also not too easy, just right enough
to maximize learning. And this perfect gradation of difficulty can be reverse
engineered through machine learning over student activity logs.

Another area they need to invest in is the practical side. Course takers need
more examples, tests, problems and projects. Only by applying the concepts in
reality will students gain firm confidence in their abilities.

I don't think the "short course" format is the best. It might be better to
have a graph of concept nodes, each equipped with its own instructional
materials, problems and tests. The graph can be expanded gradually to include
more concepts and to reduce the gradient of difficulty for the more
problematic ones.

People who bang their heads against difficult material and don't grock it
might feel discouraged and give up. But if they can build confidence that
everything is taught gradually and without too violent jumps in difficulty,
they might improve the dropout rate.

------
LouisSayers
If anyone else is wondering, MOOC is Massive Open Online Courses.

It really gets on my nerves when people don't expand their acronyms when
introducing a topic. Of course there are exceptions, but is MOOC really that
common an acronym?! I just find it a bit inconsiderate.</rant>

~~~
danso
It's a pretty common acronym for those of us in education, of course. But it
is also known among the startup/hacker crowd because of the well-funded
startups in the space.

Also, it's beginning to be big in public policy. A couple of years ago, the
California state senate was debating a bill to allow students to use MOOC
courses for actual state college credit. That bill has since been shelved:
[https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/01/controversial...](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/01/controversial-
california-bill-outsource-student-learning-dead-until-2014-or-later)

In defense of the submitter, expanding the acronym may have pushed the title
over the character limit.

------
avodonosov
Script to save course materials: [https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera-
dl](https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera-dl)

I haven't tried it yet. Just was asking around how to save course materials
(videos, slides, notes, etc) of an old platform course I want to return to
sometimes. Got this advice:

    
    
        > app which can help you download all the
        > materials at one go.
        > https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera-dl
        > Doesn't work all the time, but for old
        > courses should work.

~~~
bad_user
Thanks for the hint. I've downloaded about 4 courses. Time to put that 1 TB of
online storage to good use :-)

~~~
avodonosov
don't forget to share the links

------
jsturner
A good friend of mine who works at Coursera attributes their descent to the
brain drain they've had over the past year.

Apparently, management is sweeping the problem under the rug, and forcing a
false rhetoric that the departures were good. Even their Glassdoor page[1]
seems doctored now. Sad times.

[1] [https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Coursera-
Reviews-E654749.h...](https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Coursera-
Reviews-E654749.htm)

------
mohsinr
Disappointed by Coursera and Udacity (they positioned for free MOOCs and now
they are taking everything back they offered).

More power to KhanAcademy and MIT Open Courseware! For staying true to their
mission of providing Free Courses...

~~~
markdown
> Disappointed by Udacity (they positioned for free MOOCs and now they are
> taking everything back they offered).

Nonsense. Udacity now have paid "Nanodegree" courses alongside their free
ones. They haven't removed their free courses, and in fact continue to release
new free ones.

Also, their paid courses come with grading and code feedback from humans, so
it's not like it was scalable as a free option.

Further, they guarantee you'll get a job based on the Nanodegree courses or
you get your money back.

~~~
mohsinr
Thank you for the correction. I edit my comment about Udacity. Sorry looks
like It cannot bed edited anymore. But thanks to your comment, users will not
be mislead by comment about udacity. I was browsing from my mobile and could
not find free courses easily like it used to be so thought it was gone, but
now I see we can still access we just have to look further. Thank you!

------
osivertsson
I agree that removing/limiting access is lousy by Coursera and Udacity, for
courses that used to be free and contain valuable fundamentals.

I don't agree that the golden age is necessarily over though. The MOOC space
is getting crowded, just look at all the offerings at [https://www.class-
central.com](https://www.class-central.com)

MOOCs by government-backed traditional universities from Europe / Asia is
taking over a large chunk of the "market" meaning that Coursera, Udacity, etc.
is finding it difficult to get any returns.

~~~
gnodar
> The MOOC space is getting crowded, just look at all the offerings at
> [https://www.class-central.com](https://www.class-central.com)

Never heard of that site, but I browsed through the first page of CS
videos[0], and all but two courses were just links to Coursera courses. The
other two were links to edX.

[0] [https://www.class-central.com/subject/cs](https://www.class-
central.com/subject/cs)

~~~
dhawalhs
Founder of Class Central here. Our default sorting order is by start dates and
Coursera courses now have new sessions starting monthly or bi-monthly here. We
will be updating our algorithm soon to rank the courses based on our data.

You can see all the providers we aggregate here: [https://www.class-
central.com/providers](https://www.class-central.com/providers)

And universities here: [https://www.class-
central.com/universities](https://www.class-central.com/universities)

------
brhsiao
I'll probably get shot down for being that typical negative HN comment, but do
MOOCs like Coursera actually do much in the way of making education more
accessible or society fairer? All the content offered on Coursera already
exists on the internet. Really motivated people will aggressively look for
study materials, and they generally don't have a problem finding it.

It seems to me that it's actually the _internet_ that improves accessibility
and fairness, through which curated collections of study materials are then
delivered as MOOCs. Which is terrific, but then it's hardly shocking that
they'd eventually have to monetize themselves. We've seen worse attempts to
crack down on the internet.

~~~
pedalpete
Some people learn by being taught, some people learn by doing. MOOCs cater to
the first.

I know this, because I am in the second (you may be too). I'll dig around
looking for the information because I am using it right at that moment and
NEED to understand it.

I did a Coursera Machine Learning course, my first University level class
after being out of school since the early 90s. I learned how about matrices
(had very little math experience before), I learned about transforms, I tried
to figure out what all the cryptic symbols meant, but MOSTLY, I learned how to
answer the test questions.

I don't feel I really have any more understanding of machine learning today
than I did before the course. Different strokes...

~~~
justinhj
Personally I think both needs are met by moocs. If you want to be taught watch
the lectures. If you want a more practical self directed approach do the
exercises. Most people will do both

------
raldu
I have been feeling more and more disappointed with their step-by-step
implementation of paywalling learners, and a general decline in community
engagement. This decision to cut access to the old material is very short-
sighted, and it would do more harm than good to their "business".

The old content would have been perceived as having a historical value, as
being among the first courses published in the first actual MOOC platform, not
to mention the tremendous value those courses contributed by successfully
reaching wide audiences around the world, changing many lives. Now they are
making a bad image out of themselves.

Coursera has been getting progressively worse. There is no community
engagement. I cannot be surprised or engaged by non-discussion going on, which
is also the case with edX, by the way. I have done mentorship in one of the
paid courses at Coursera and all I could do was to mechanically answer
technical questions. Nobody cared about the critical aspects, nobody cared
about generating interesting and thought-provoking discussions, even when some
mentors have encouraged it. As mentors, what we were doing was just free
technical support for the course providers.

Further, the recent content is at best feels like "best seller" stuff for
whatever trending industry anyway. Even the UI has been getting slower.

This example provides the meaning of backing up (and further sharing) data
stored in the cloud. Mostly we do not think it would be necessary to backup
since the data is going to stay there "forever", right?

As a final note, I was surprised that nobody mentioned FutureLearn
([https://www.futurelearn.com](https://www.futurelearn.com)). It is a new MOOC
platform with somewhat "European" feeling to it. I have surprisingly had the
best community experience with quality discussions in one of the courses
provided there. The overall content is very diverse and interesting. And yes,
the UI is faster!

------
bradleyjg
I just got a somewhat confusing email canceling my enrollment in the ever
elusive Cryptography II course. I guess this is what that's about. If so, it's
too bad, I had a great experience in the Crypto I but it wouldn't have been
nearly as good without the quizzes and assignments.

~~~
kodfodrasz
I have also received such an email, yet reading it states that in the fall the
course will be started (finally) on a new backend.

 _We are really excited to have you in the course Cryptography II! We’re
reaching out because this course is being moved to our new platform which is
why your enrollment in the June 13th session of this course has been
cancelled. That said, you’ll be able to take the course soon on our new
platform in Fall 2016. Our entire team is working hard to create the best
learning experience possible for you and we really appreciate your patience
with this small delay._

------
WalterBright
If I was a prof, I'd have every one of my lectures recorded and put online for
free. I wish I had recorded the lectures I attended in college. Not recalling
the lectures means the notes I took in class don't make much sense.

Heck, I record all of the presentations I do, and they get posted for free on
the intarnets. I put a fair amount of work into them - why hide them?

~~~
copperx
A bit tangential, but do you mind to share what equipment do you use to record
your presentations?

~~~
WalterBright
I don't do the recording, whoever sets up the conference does it. Sometimes
it's just a consumer video camera. The quality varies a lot :-) but for a
lecture, the quality is not that important.

You will want to use a lapel microphone with a wireless transmitter/receiver,
though.

------
linux_devil
There is no point of calling them MOOC , if they are not 'O'pen anymore.

~~~
haakon
And since it's not 'O'pen, it's most likely much less 'M'assive. Now it's more
like a traditional distance learning offering. Nothing wrong with being that,
but I wish we could also have MOOCs.

~~~
mohsinr
Great point! So MOOCs have become now OCs (Online Courses), Massive & Open
stays honor badge of Open Source Software :)

Educators tried to use "OPEN" word from OPEN Source World, but could not keep
it that way... Coursera and Udacity guys should stop using OPEN word please...

------
nickpsecurity
This sort of thing would obviously happen as Coursera is a high-value, VC-
backed firm. This sort of thing is best done open and nonprofit. One I know
like that is EDX: non-profit with open source software with courses from MIT,
Harvard, etc. Check it out people.

[https://www.edx.org/about-us](https://www.edx.org/about-us)

------
ZenoArrow
Thanks to the author for the heads up, would be real shame if these courses
are removed without someone downloading all the material first (I don't care
if it's against the ToS, I still think a torrent is the way to go, free
education has a greater value than copyright protection).

I'm a bit confused about which courses will be removed and which ones will
stay. Is there a list of courses that are present on the old platform but not
on the new platform? Also, I don't know where I'd access the old platform and
where I'd access the new platform. Am I right in thinking this is a course on
the new platform?

[https://www.coursera.org/learn/build-a-
computer](https://www.coursera.org/learn/build-a-computer)

If so, where do I go to see the old platform?

------
Myrmornis
This seems very sad. I was just considering taking the neuralnets-2012-001
class from 2012 and so although I can download I won't have access to any of
the discussion forums etc. Is there an official position statement from
Coursera on this decision?

I'd be happy to pay a bit for it if that's what they want. Or is their view
that Geoffrey Hinton teaching neural networks in 2012 is just kind of cruft
cluttering up the internet?

------
Coursera
Hi everyone - I work at Coursera and wanted to share a blog post that should
help clear up some misunderstandings about where courses from our old platform
will go after June 30th:

[https://blog.coursera.org/post/145882467032](https://blog.coursera.org/post/145882467032)

The most important thing to know is that hundreds of courses will NOT
disappear from Coursera. The vast majority of courses have already or will be
updated and transitioned to our new platform in the coming months. Please read
the blog post for more detailed information.

I'd also like to address questions around the payment model on our new
platform. Coursera is 100% committed to our mission of providing universal
access to education, and the move to our new platform does not in any way
affect our mission. Anyone who demonstrates that they are unable to afford the
cost of a course or Specialization can apply for financial aid. You can learn
more about our financial aid program here:

[https://blog.coursera.org/post/131756940057](https://blog.coursera.org/post/131756940057)

~~~
javiermares
Thank you very much for the clarification. Would it be possible for you to
share with us the list of the few dozen courses that will not migrate to the
new platform?

------
bitL
They should implement per region pricing depending on GDP PPP or similar.
Paying for a course means commitment; while it's no big deal for me to shelve
$50-100 on their course, it's a big deal for Eastern Europe, Africa, majority
of Asia etc. If they adjusted prices to locally reasonable levels, they could
increase both profit and completion rate.

------
z3r0c00l
It would be great if you guys made a torrent out of the downloaded courses

------
master_yoda_1
Please teach a highly complex technical subject free for one month. Then write
these kind of blogs.

Otherwise keep calm and mind your own business ;)

------
plinkplonk
I always wanted to work through the algorithms MOOCs from Princeton but I kept
putting it off. Profs Sedgewick and Wayne are phenomenal teachers. Anyone know
if this course will be available in the future?

(probably not, since they had no certificates etc, and I don't see them going
along with paid-for-quizzes courses, but it doesn't hurt to ask)

~~~
HugoMelo
I'm in the same boat. Found [https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera-
dl](https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera-dl) and was able to download part
1 and 2.

~~~
saganus
What course names did you use? I could not find the ones from Prof. Sedgewick,
only the one from Prof. Roughgarden

~~~
mamon
try algs4partI-010 and algs4partII-007

~~~
saganus
Well... I guess it's too late... they probably noticed already because I can't
download any more courses :(

~~~
HugoMelo
you have to enroll in them and accept their honor rolls first. Does that work?

~~~
saganus
Not really. I was already enrolled and it didn't work, so not sure what
happened.

~~~
HugoMelo
odd, I shared the 2 courses on google drive

[https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_H50uBwsok6ZGxzbjU0cUU0OW...](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_H50uBwsok6ZGxzbjU0cUU0OWM)
[https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_H50uBwsok6d2w4YlVQcjNNSG...](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_H50uBwsok6d2w4YlVQcjNNSGc)

hope it works :)

~~~
HugoMelo
new folks: use
[https://drive.google.com/a/hugomelo.com/folderview?id=0B_H50...](https://drive.google.com/a/hugomelo.com/folderview?id=0B_H50uBwsok6ZGxzbjU0cUU0OWM&usp=sharing)
and
[https://drive.google.com/a/hugomelo.com/folderview?id=0B_H50...](https://drive.google.com/a/hugomelo.com/folderview?id=0B_H50uBwsok6d2w4YlVQcjNNSGc&usp=sharing)
so it doesn't ask me for permissions, did not anticipate how many folks would
ask :)

------
dimdimdim
Dear Coursera,

Thanks for all the free courses for the last couple of years. I understand the
need to be profitable and make this a real business so you don't have to fire
all your good employees who have helped provide free education for so long.

I for one welcome what you are doing - as I understand that's is impossible to
sustain a free model forever.

All the best!

------
veddox
Shame! I've done courses on both Udacity and Coursera in the past. Not very
many, but they did shape me and taught me stuff I either couldn't have learned
any other way or could not have learnt as well.

I understand that they are both businesses that need to take care of their
finances if they want to survive. Nonetheless, I am still disappointed - when
they started out some years back they were all full of vigour and idealism
about free education, and somewhere along the line they have been quietly
dropping that idealism. They didn't even try to explain why they were doing
what they were doing and why they were changing. In essence, they betrayed who
they were at the beginning, and that's what makes me sad.

So thank you, Udacity and Coursera, for who you were and what you gave me, but
I fear our roads shall part here...

------
sreeramvenkat
I hope edx does not follow coursera way.

~~~
riffraff
I believe they did in a way, certificates are now available only if you pay,
rather than for anyone taking the class. That doesn't bother me but it's the
first step coursera took before ending up where it is now.

~~~
alasano
I guess it makes the certificate itself seem more valuable as a means of
expressing that you accomplished something. My view of edX is biased though by
how awesome CS50 is, it feels more like a movement than a class.

~~~
riffraff
indeed, and I am sure there is a percentage of people that will likely pay for
a certificate that was not paying before.

It's not a bad move, and it's totally legit, _but_ it hints at a stronger
effort to get money.

Regarding the "movement" thing, I had the same feeling with my first 3 large
MOOC (AI which begat udacity, ML & DBs which begat coursera). But not anymore
:/

------
greenmoon55
Would anyone be kind enough to provide a script for downloading assignments
and quizzes?

~~~
zo1
It's been posted a few times in this thread:

[https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera-dl](https://github.com/coursera-
dl/coursera-dl)

~~~
LionessLover
He said "assignments and quizzes", not "videos and slides".

[https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera-
dl/issues/490](https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera-dl/issues/490)

------
smith5555
I don't know about the old Udacity, but I love the new Udacity the way I use
it. I load up on topics that might interest me, and run thru them at top
speed. I get a quick (and very useful) overview by what appear to be very
skilled communicators. I don't think I'll ever go for the project based
learning model, too much potential for copy, paste, get reward like
Codeacademy. Re Coursera, I've never found a class that held my attention till
the end. I don't think they are challenging enough, but good information.

------
andretadeu
I confess I didn't get the point about shutting down the old platform. The new
platform still allows you to enroll to a course for free and the content of
several of them were updated. Some courses weren't offered a second time since
2012 or 2013 due to massive dropouts and very few students that finished the
courses. Nowadays I'm taking some courses for free at Coursera, such as 'More
Chinese for beginners'. I chose to pay for several and other ones I attend for
free.

------
wtf_is_frp
The only thing I hate about the new platform is that you can't access the info
until a week after you enrolled into self-paced courses. It is fucking stupid.
Beyond retarded.

------
etiam
Does anyone here know of an automated solution to get a faithful save of a
whole course? As I recall it coursera-dl doesn't capture quizzes and forum,
for instance.

------
mattfrommars
This is bad to hear. I never managed to do a single course in the past due to
other commitments. Only thing I did manage was to enroll with them. What can I
do now? I wanted to learn to code and become good at it and land a job or
atleast get involved in local software development companies. Is this still
possible with coursera shutting down? I'm getting a little stressed in being
'late to the party'.

------
piggybox
I thank Coursera for everything they've done to me. It's totally life
changing. Without it I wouldn't be at where I am, wouldn't have chance to
learn these great courses from top universities and as a result, got a dream
job.

I don't mind paying a small fee (still much cheaper than going to any other
school) seriously. I understand that's not the topic people are arguing about
here, but anyway.

------
agumonkey
I liked their first offerings a lot, very very well done too and very capable
platform compared to some others. It's sad that the model couldn't sustain.

ps: about downloading the courses pdf and videos... it's really the low
hanging part, in the sense that lots of universities have open pages with
lectures and sometimes videos too. What MOOCs brought were exercices + auto
graders (+ student group).

------
ajmurmann
I understand that they need to make money. However, something like this
provides so much value to society that we as a society have a large interest
in keeping it as available to everyone as possible. Therefore I think that we
need to have a publicly funded platform like this or one run by a non-profit
like Wikimedia Foundation. The lower the barrier for everyone to take classes
the better.

------
dhawalhs
I published a guide on which courses are part of the old platform and how to
batch download them before the June 30th Deadline. You can find it here:
[https://www.class-central.com/report/coursera-old-
platform-s...](https://www.class-central.com/report/coursera-old-platform-
shutdown-download-courses/)

------
znpy
I wonder what would have happened with a flat subscription model... Like "Pay
19.99 monthly and take whatever class you want".

------
znpy
See comments on reddit too:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/4njrt0/golden_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/4njrt0/golden_age_of_moocs_is_over_coursera_shuts_access/)

------
mattfrommars
I have to blame my procrastination and never having the habit to complete or
start any of the courses I had 'enrolled' in. Now coursera shutting down, I'm
leaving all my hopes to the knight of the internet to archive these. Will
download and hopefully get back.

------
Dowwie
The author of this blog post has taken to a soap box to shout out, "The Golden
Age of MOOCs is over" and that he _hates_ Coursera.

Wow. Really? Do I want to even read what this is about? Fine.

"Of late we have seen MOOC providers caring less about the students and more
about the $$$".

Oh boy, here comes the assault on reason.

"they should stop the game of telling people that they care for students and
are here to “provides universal access to the world’s best education”."

Yeah, that's enough for me. Tarun Vangani needs a reality check.

Coursera has brought much good to the world. It has to provide good to the
world in an economically sustainable way.

It would be great if the Macarthur Foundation gave its $100 Million grant to
Coursera so that it could continue to focus on its mission. Hopefully,
Coursera qualifies and applies for it.

~~~
voltagex_
Personally, I'd much rather see the money go to the Khan Academy.

------
hyperpallium
This is opportunity for free courses.

Freemium doesn't just entice customers; it also denies oxygen to competitors.

The specific difficulty for courses is reputation - but wikipedia has managed
it, so it's possible.

------
kercker
I can not see how Arab Spring made the society fairer. Internet helped the
Arab Spring develop, but the Arab Spring is not such a good thing, because
look what it left to middle east.

------
joeevans1000
Well, now, I guess we weren't paying attention to whether or not these courses
were under an open license or not. Maybe we should support or develop options
that are.

------
simunaga
why are disappointed? if everyone had certificates, how much valuable would
they be for employers? it's odd. just think about it for a minute.

------
smith5555
I think that companies can live off good publicity for a long time, even if
they change their business model.

------
znpy
So I spawned a virtual server and I am downloading some courses I wanted to
take.

What a shame. Farewell, free learning.

------
Rifu
To save people like me a trip to google, MOOC stands for Massive Open Online
Course. Today I learned!

------
the_wheel
You can't deliver on your mission of democratizing education or operate as a
VC backed business (which enables these attempts in the first place), if
you're not making moves toward profitability. These companies are pioneering a
space and searching for a viable business model in the process. They're
surviving.

------
fiatjaf
What is a MOOC? These people should use the <abbr> tag.

------
misterGautham
Will Andrew Ng's machine learning course be staying?

------
moizsajid
Lets hope for the best!

------
wonkaWonka
Learning is lovely, but without the advatage of being able to directly apply
what you've learned toward actually improving your life, it's all just so much
education porn.

~~~
klausa
Why does everything you do have to go `toward actually improving your life`?
Why can't we do stuff just for fun anymore?

~~~
sotojuan
Even worse, his comment assumes you can't improve your enjoyment of life just
by learning about things you like.

~~~
wonkaWonka
After a while, this never ending river of UTF-8 characters and RGB pixels gets
a little old.

You realize all the time you've spent whiling away so much time, imagining
that it's all building up to something even better than yesterday's tide of
serialized data streams, that your youth has faded, and you're still just
staring at a lightbulb masked behind a screen of wires, listening to air
disturbed by oscillating magnets, and nothing more.

But the worst part of this, is looking up, only to find a city full of similar
people all still hopelessly enthralled by the discharge of so many lithium-ion
batteries perturbed by some nearby electric coil.

~~~
CamperBob2
_I don 't know what you expect, staring into the Internet._ \- Nietzsche

