5 top universities in the United States jointly open free online courses

5 top universities in the United States jointly open free online courses (Alberta Times) Several founders of the free online education platform Coursera announced on Wednesday that the United States...

Five top universities in the United States jointly offer free online courses (Alberta Times) Several founders of the free online education platform Coursera announced on Wednesday that five of the most prestigious universities in the United States will provide free online courses through a new interactive education platform. The two founders, both professors of computer science at Stanford University, also announced that they had received $16 million in funding from two Silicon Valley venture capital firms. Coursera will offer more than thirty college courses in the future through its website coursera.org, ranging from Greek mythology to neuropsychiatry, from calculus to modern American poetry. These courses are designed and taught by professors from Stanford University, Princeton University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Michigan. Coursera joins an ambitious online program dedicated to making higher education more accessible and affordable. Many of these participants just post the entire teaching video on the website without interactive content. Others are trying to build entirely new universities from scratch. Founders Kohler and Andrew Wu say Coursera will be different from other similar systems because professors from top universities will teach in their university's name and will tailor their most popular courses online, add assignments and exams to the teaching videos, answer student questions in online forums, and maybe even hold office hours via video conferencing. Multiple-choice and short-answer questions will be scored using a computer. Coursera will soon set up a peer-grading system to assess more complex assignments, such as essays and logic. Students will not receive college credit, the spokesman said. However, Coursera may provide a "certificate of completion" or issue transcripts for a fee. Companies may also benefit from hiring students who are talented in certain areas. Participating universities hope to increase their visibility overseas, build relationships with alumni and generate donations from grateful online students. "This will increase our impact on the world," said Gutman, president of the University of Pennsylvania. Some of the courses on Coursera are a bit rough. Peggy, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, videotaped a lecture he taught on "Thinking Models" while standing in front of an unpainted door of the house he was renovating. There are some scenes where he seems grumpy. His online quizzes also contained some errors. His slides are sometimes hard to read. His dog barks at the screen from time to time. But still, more than 30,000 people around the world come every week to attend lectures, do homework, watch lecture videos and chat with each other in live discussion forums. "This is great." Peggy calculated that it would take 150 years to teach so many people face-to-face. One of Professor Wu's courses on "Artificial Intelligence" is also very popular. Nearly 25,000 students complete most courses, and 13,000 students earn scores sufficient to earn Stanford's Statement of Accomplishment. Some even translated the lectures into their own language and added subtitles. These concepts also have some pitfalls. Professors have no way of knowing who has completed assignments and exams. Wenkler, a professor of mathematics at Heidelberg University, said that it is difficult to replicate the situation in a traditional classroom where students work together to learn and solve problems together. Still, Wenkler was surprised by the quality and rigor of the online courses, and he required his doctoral students to take some of them as a requirement to complete the program. DeMillo, director of the 21st Century Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said that with the maturity of online education, students can obtain free first-class university education through websites such as Coursera. This may make it difficult for some universities to survive. "They can't assume there will be a steady stream of students" willing to pay for a high-priced college education, DeMillo said. But Long Han, provost of the University of Michigan, said he is not worried that free courses will make his school less attractive. Instead, he said the technology will enhance the campus experience. Professors can instruct students to watch online lectures to learn specific topics, saving subject time for practical activities that cannot be replicated in the digital space.