Discussion Coursera, edX, Udacity...the Good, the Bad & the Ugly

[Nedzad]

@Sky thx. I'm really starting to be disappointment in which way are MOOC is going. But as I mention it's all about business so. Thye're just creating content to bust audience and after that, they have a solid "make money" platform.

 

[Susan]

I have been very disappointed with Alison courses as they seem to be thrown together from various seminars and video tutorials you can find elsewhere for free. The only difference is you don't get an assessment or certificate. I have also noticed quite a lot of typos on the content Alison added which isn't very professional!

 

[brewbooks]

Has anyone signed up for any of Coursera's Specialization courses yet?

I am signed up for the Duke University Specialization Perception, Action and the Brain. There are four courses required.

I think that Duke University is one of the leaders in creating content and working to produce creative education experiences, along with Coursera. I have completed five classes on Coursera via Duke, all of them have been excellent.

 

[Carolyn]

Engrami: Community for MOOCs
By Engrami, LLC
View More by This Developer
Open iTunes to buy and download apps.

Description
Engrami is a free app to make the most of your online learning experience.

Search and follow courses:
- Following courses on Engrami helps you discover classmates and join in community conversations.
- You can follow courses on platforms including Coursera, edX, FutureLearn and more.
- You can also enroll in the courses from the in-app browser.

Discover classmates:
- With a single tap, you can start discovering others taking the same course.
- Swipe left and right to browse through profiles.
- Swipe up to see what courses others are taking.
- Follow interesting classmates and build your network.
- Chat with them directly from the app.

Take notes:
- You can take private or public notes for the courses you are taking and always have them available for you in the app.

Learn from the larger community:
- In the Board tab of the app, you can see what others in your course are discussing, what kind of courses your network is taking, and more.

All of your learning activity in one place:
- Have all of your courses, connections with people and notes in one place.
- Build your learning portfolio.

Have any questions? Suggestions for new features? Not seeing your course in the app? Write to us anytime on support@engrami.com or tweet @EngramiApp

Please note that if you are using iPhone 4 or 4s, all features of the app may not be available.

...More
Engrami, LLC Web SiteEngrami: Community for MOOCs Support
iPhone Screenshot

Customer Reviews
Finishing a mooc was hard until this awesome app came along
by Giordano_NYC
I love moocs but there were at least a dozen times I've been so frustrated with the lack of a classroom interaction that I'd thought about giving it all up. I'd enrolled in an app development class and tried using Engrami instead.

The difference is night & day! I've met a couple of super-motivated folks and I think I'm going to finally finish this one course love how simple and focused this app is.

...More
Excellent App
by SamTheJam
A much needed and well designed app! Well done!

 

[Nedzad]

I'm doing some courses on this platform. I really can say that this platform is great. Courses are about 4 hours in long.
Usually course is divided in 4 modules, and each modules have 10 topics and 10 quizzes. Also every module is having a assessment.
It's based in Australia.
For me Open2Study is on good path to be one of best MooC platform.

 

[Nedzad]

Coursera for me is the best MooC platform. But while saying that, I'm really disappointed in their new way approach. I know it's all about businesses, and you can't put quality content if you don't have investors, money. But they, really should keep free certificate for free courses. And I'm not big fan of self-paced courses, and they're constant in putting them.

 

[Nedzad]

Coursera is going to continue to lose it audience.

 

[BMint]

Hi. I agree. I like the feel and structure of Open2Study. It's good to see some non-US platforms taking off. I also like FutureLearn.

 

[BMint]

I think the growing competition is a good thing - it improves overall quality.

 

[BMint]

Yes, platforms like Coursera need a business model to remain sustainable, but introducing paid certificates of completion for free courses in my opinion goes against the MOOC concept - free education for the masses. There are other ways to generate income within the corporate sector, for example, offering paid courses for companies to buy into which would still be cheaper than traditional training.

 

[Nedzad]

Yes, platforms like Coursera need a business model to remain sustainable, but introducing paid certificates of completion for free courses in my opinion goes against the MOOC concept - free education for the masses. There are other ways to generate income within the corporate sector, for example, offering paid courses for companies to buy into which would still be cheaper than traditional training.

I like your way of thinking
And your example of group corporate way of education is point on!

 

[Nedzad]

I think the growing competition is a good thing - it improves overall quality.

Agree on this. The more competition the more choice we have, we as (audience, clients) have more power. Still Coursera is having a slight advantage, but other MooC platforms are running up. Should try Future Learn

 

[Carolyn]

The following list of resources are tools that can help manage, track and share your learning and interests online:

1. Trello
Trello helps you manage all your ideas and due dates and keeps track of what you're in the process of completing. Plus, it looks nice—it's like the Pinterest of to-do lists.

2. Hackpad
Think Google Docs—only better for collaboration. Invite as many people as you want to contribute to your docs, or set them to private so they're just yours.

3. RescueTime
RescueTime lets you monitor how you spend your time on your computer and mobile devices. (The truth is sometimes ugly, but necessary.)

4. Unroll.me
You know all those email newsletters that you accidentally opted into, but don't really read? Use this site to clear out your inbox.

5. Remember the Milk
A to-do list manager with several key bonuses: You can sync it with your all your devices, share tasks with others, and get email or text reminders of things you need to get done.

6. Springpad
Springpad lets you organize all of your notes, favorite websites, and online inspiration into different folders. It gets bonus points for looking nice, too.

7. HabitForge
Forming a new habit isn't easy, so HabitForge keeps track of how well you're doing with simple reminders and check-ins.

8. Evernote
Evernote helps you remember everything using text, photo or audio notes, and clippings of websites.

9. Hemingway
How does that email (or any of your writing!) come off to readers? Plug it into this ingenious app to get the breakdown.

This list of resources is taken from the article "99 Sites That Every Professional Should Know About and Use" published in The Daily Muse Editor.

 

[brewbooks]

Coursera for me is the best MooC platform. But while saying that, I'm really disappointed in their new way approach. I know it's all about businesses, and you can't put quality content if you don't have investors, money. But they, really should keep free certificate for free courses. And I'm not big fan of self-paced courses, and they're constant in putting them.

Nedzad - I would like to see Coursera retain the free certificates but I think the decision is driven part by Coursera and part by the university that is producing the course. I am also not a fan of self-paced courses, I just need the external deadline to get me past my inevitable procrastination.

 

[Nedzad]

Nedzad - I would like to see Coursera retain the free certificates but I think the decision is driven part by Coursera and part by the university that is producing the course. I am also not a fan of self-paced courses, I just need the external deadline to get me past my inevitable procrastination.

About Coursera, I really don't know. But for me they're going downhill. We already discussed about free courses and certification, they have decided to go with that business model, I can't judge them. But they need to know, that Coursera popularity raised with free certificates. As @Carolyn posted, they're losing market share on MooC, and they will going to lose if they don't come up with some new kind of approach. Coursera is having best community so far.

 

[Nedzad]

These are great, I would add:

Realtime board, https://realtimeboard.com/
Great way to online interact with your colleges on a virtual blackboard

Conceptboard, http://conceptboard.com/
More or less, same the realtimeboard.

and Prezi, http://prezi.com/
Online based presentation software, similar to power point.

 

[Carolyn]

Thanks for adding to the list @Nedzad . I hope others will do the same

 

[Nedzad]

Thanks for adding to the list @Nedzad . I hope others will do the same

I have forgotten to add,

Dropbox, http://www.dropbox.com/
Your personal space on web, everything is stored on cloud.

Screenshot program, PokIt http://pokit.org/

 

[Sky]

Some very useful resources - thanks for the info

 

[Sky]

I'm not certain that Coursera has suffered since introducing paid certificates. Statistics have shown that the majority of people who sign up for their courses are already in employment and have a degree, and these people can generally afford to buy a certificate. Having said that, these types of MOOC certificates aren't really recognised as a true credential, so is it really worth spending money on them?