
Increasing Popularity of MIT OpenCourseWare - audreyw
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/year-end_stats_from_mit_point_to_increasing_popula.php?sms_ss=hackernews&at_xt=4d23422ea755b53b%2C0
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Homunculiheaded
I currently work in Higher-ed and I'm really excited to see what the long term
effects of things like OCW and the Khan academy are going to have on
education. The simplest benefit is mediocre teachers will have a harder time
hiding their incompetency, and all students will have access to the best
teachers. When I took my algorithms class I followed along with the MIT
lectures. My prof was okay, but nowhere near the level of competency of the L
from CLRS and Erik Demaine.

More interesting is the challenge these things pose to the authority of the
entire system of higher education. What's going to happen when most top
student at non-top schools get most of their lecture materials from someplace
else? I can easily imagine a near future where most interested undergrad calc
students learn from Sal Khan and only show up to class for exams. What does a
degree mean when one student has done the exact same course work as another
only for free? Autodidacts previously had suffered somewhat from lacking
structured course work, but that problem is resolved. If you're motivated
enough you can design your own education path which will most likely be more
efficient than traditional ones.

The obvious answer for higher-ed is to capitalize on what OCW and Khan can't
offer: office hours, peer interaction, working on a research team, and lab
time. Unfortunately, universities are almost incapable of rapid adaptation to
change (we still put on silly medieval hats when we graduate).

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rauljara
I'm sure I'm not the only person on Hacker News to have taken advantage of
OpenCourseWare. If any of the MIT folks are reading this thread, I'd just like
to offer my sincere thanks for the good work you do.

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DevX101
There was a minor controversy on campus when OpenCourseWare was being rolled
out. Some students thought opening up the courses was unfair since they worked
hard to get in and paid $30k+ per year to attend MIT.

I'm glad these folks didn't win that debate ;)

I'm currently working on a startup to push what MIT has done even further. If
you're willing to provide some feedback, then drop me an email for a preview.

~~~
bakbak
can u tell us what exactly you're trying to do ... thx

~~~
DevX101
Sorry for the teaser! The site will be a one stop shop for online learning
from high school to college, to working professionals.

I've set up a live video platform to connect experts in specific subject areas
to interested students with an integrated payment system for teachers that
want to charge for their time.

We also plan to roll out a few exciting features for college students. We'd
like to connect students studying a specific subject to be able to easily
interact with other college students studying a similar subject. So if you
were studying 6.001 at MIT we could connect you either via live video or a
stackoverflow like Q&A site to other students at Stanford studying a similar
course.

I hope this conveys the essence of the site. I'm not yet ready for the full
launch, but stay tuned....As I mentioned before, drop me an email if you'd
like to preview and give some feedback.

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inovica
Wow, that sounds great. I'd be very interested in this. Do you think you may
have plans for taking the age range down also? I have two kids - 8 years old
and 3 years old and a great resource for all the basis, as well as some more
advanced topics would be really useful

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DevX101
I eventually want to focus on younger kids. But I want to be super careful
screening any teachers that would be allowed to teach young children over live
video, so this may take a while for me to find the right instructors.

Shoot me an email, and I'll let you know when I have something appropriate for
your children. You can also check out the site in the meantime.

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jkaufman
Between programs like OCW and Khan Academy, how long can education costs
continue to increase at their current rates?

I can't imagine students in the future accepting paying $50k? $60k? more? per
year when the opportunity exists for inexpensive and high quality programs
online. Maybe a lower cost hybrid program would work (to allow for better peer
and faculty interaction) or at least the acceptance of an online degree.
Probably not immediate future - but I imagine that changes to our higher
education system will come.

<http://www.collegescholarships.org/research/student-loans/>

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Umalu
Presumably at places like MIT the credential value of a degree is still worth
a lot, particularly for those looking for careers in credential-reliant
sectors such as academia, but one wonders for how long second- and third-tier
institutions with low or no credential value can continue when excellent and
free programs like this are so widely available.

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sudont
I asked this of a friend who went to SVA in New York for graphic design. He
said that the real benefit of an excellent, yet expensive, college, is in
learning from real people and having the course tailored to the current
situation. He said the students, while talented, weren't any different from
those at another college. Sure, you can learn how to design by yourself, and
many of the greats have, but it's much more efficient to learn from a master.

Feedback, really. A good college is partially about good company, and
partially about great professors.

Right now there's a ton of information, but it's tantamount to books, and PBS
videos. Once there's an online college, to help guide the student _through_
the material, there'll be a real revolution. Until then, OpenCourseware will
strictly be for those who know where they're going.

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ernestipark
I agree completely. I'm a CS student at MIT and I've used OCW here and there
to supplement courses or to fill in when I've missed a lecture, etc. It
definitely helps and it's nice to have all those resources. I think it's a
great service. But honestly, I think the value of my education comes from
being around tons of people who are really brilliant (and make me feel dumb
heheh). Seeing a problem set online and working on it by yourself is way
different than working with a group of people and seeing how they think and
gaining new perspectives. Also, of course, going to college is far more than
just the in-class education. There are research opportunities, competitions,
etc... and the social aspects obviously. I also have the option of going to
office hours, talking to TAs/professors, etc. Interaction is what's lacking in
OCW but maybe that's something that will happen in the future.

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jonhendry
The downside of OCW is that, as good as it is, I often find it frustrating
because of what's missing from the content for a course.

For instance, I don't find ppt slides very useful by themselves, without the
additional context that would be provided by the lecturer.

If you attended the lecture, the points in the slides could help you remember
the details. But if you never heard the details, it's often not clear what
you're supposed to make of the points in the slides.

For instance, a slide listing sort algorithms for large datasets might mention
bubble sort. If you know about bubble sort already, you might assume (probably
correctly) that it's there as a joke or as the "definitely wrong choice". If
you don't know anything about bubble sort, you might assume it's given as a
perfectly valid algorithm like the others listed.

Since it's free, my grumbling is limited. But it does frustrate me at times.

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whatusername
Aren't a lot of the OCW Lectures available as well? Doesn't that resolve the
issue.

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jonhendry
It's highly variable. Some classes have full video, which is great. Others,
perhaps the majority, have much less material. That's part of why it's
frustrating.

You see an interesting course listed. You go to the page for the course. Then
you click around and it turns out that there isn't much content posted.

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drblast
About a year ago there was a rash of pessimistic opinion articles on how
technology has done little to nothing to further education in the U.S., and
that attempts to modernize schools have mostly failed.

But a couple of months ago I came home from work early and my kids, 3 and 5,
who are home-schooling, were both sitting in front of computers learning the
alphabet and arithmetic, respectively, and having a blast. My wife was
monitoring them and preparing the 5 year old's language lesson from a
curriculum she found online.

The thought struck me that technology may have done very little for
traditional education, but it just may have completely revolutionized
education for my kids. I'm excited that they'll be able to explore any
interest they have in a depth that was unavailable to me as a child for lack
of resources.

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rubyrescue
Agreed. We're Americans living in Argentina (<http://homeschoolargentina.com>
though not frequently updated); we're homeschooling three kids, and one of the
programs we use (among many) is EPGY, a program through Stanford University
for kids as young as six. It brings together kids from all over the world for
incredibly hands-on teaching from world-class professors.

The resources that our kids have access to such as this make an education that
wasn't even possible a decade ago almost trivial.

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steauengeglase
While we are at it, don't forget about <http://academicearth.org/>. They've
done a great job of wrangling all of these sites together. Something nice
about being able to jump from circuit design at MIT to Civil War lectures at
Yale in just a couple clicks.

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highfreq
I like Gilbert Strang's math courses, and Robert Gallager's Digital
communications.

On the other coast, I like Stephen Boyd's Linear Dynamical Systems and Convext
Optimization courses quite well. I wish Stanford would do more like these.

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angdis
Yes, the Robert Gallager lectures on Digital Communications I. So nice to see
lectures from one of the key people that made the field what it is today.

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bakbak
i wish there was institutions who could start giving diplomas/degrees based on
exams passed from these course-wares ... though University Of People is doing
a fantastic job and we need few more of those so that education is FREE for
all no matter what socio-economic condition you come from as far as you have
passion for the subject you can earn a degree or even a masters (No GRE , No
GMAT or no other entrance exam BS)...

I salute to the people who conceive and implement this kind of ideas...

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inovica
I'd never heard of it, but I've just signed up for one via iTunes U. These
look awesome. It will be interesting to see where the world of education goes
in the next decade. Personally I'm looking for resources for younger children
(5-15) for my own children

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docgnome
This is one of the only things that really annoys me about these courses, is
that they are often only available via iTunes U. I don't have, nor do I want,
iTunes. I shouldn't have to fire up a VM to access "open" content. I deal with
it but it bugs the crap out of me.

~~~
highfreq
Actually, I believe all OCW courses are available via YouTube, or for download
at <http://ocw.mit.edu> as MP4.

Stanford's SEE course are available via YouTube, download, and bittorent.

I like watching them on my iPad off the grid. So having them in iTune-U is
nice.

~~~
docgnome
Cool. There are other Uni's that do not provide other options however.

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DanielRibeiro
Nice: lecture notes on computational complexity:
[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-405j-advanced-
comp...](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-405j-advanced-complexity-
theory-fall-2001/lecture-notes/)

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wildmXranat
>OpenCourseware might have been investigating a pay-wall ... So that would've
made it 'courseware'. Even though the material is worth a modest fee, I am
glad to find out that it will remain free. Not for my own pockets well being,
but for others who don't have even those few bucks to spare.

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huherto
I love the MIT OpenCourseware. But, Most courses don't have videos yet.

Also, I like Kahn,s approach more. You don't need to see the lecturer, but you
need to be able to clearly read the blackboard. Also, colors are nice.

