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

[MDH]

I don't have a problem with them charging for things. Where I do have a problem is the way they are trying to force people into paying by making it more difficyult to select the free options.

 

[Ahmed Fouad]

Hi all i am new to MOOC and i use courses for a couple of courses
I don't find there payed courses are that important "not yet at least" however they are affordable for those who would have an interest in such a topic

@MDH i am not sure i did understand you it seems like you say that they do have much more free course than those i see on site or that they have a free option for each course they provide (please clarify more)!!!!

 

[MDH]

Hi @Ahmed Fouad . You can actually access the content of all courses on Coursera for free if you don't opt for a certificate or specialisation.
The problem with Coursera is they make it look like you have to pay even though you don't. To access the courses for free, click on an individual course then on enroll and then select the option without the certificate.
You should also take a look at edX courses which are also free if you don't opt for a certificate and they don't try to trick you into paying!

 

[Carolyn]

A letter from Sebastian Thrun, Co-Founder & CEO of Udacity
02/12/2015

Hi Carolyn,

Last week was a truly special week for some of our top Udacity students. They went to see Google!

As we announced a while back, Google created the joint Google Career Summit to bring the very best Android Developer Nanodegree program graduates to their campus. From a large pool of applicants, 50 students were chosen for this all-expense-paid trip to Google's headquarters in Mountain View.

In addition to a tour of campus, the students engaged in a hackathon. Ten teams of five students each developed Android apps, with the theme being "do something good for people." I eagerly served as a judge for the final competition, and I have to admit I was blown away. In only three days, the student teams developed some unbelievably awesome Android apps. There was one for photographing what you eat, and having your friends judge whether your food is healthy or not. Another helped blind people navigate and find obstacles in their way using the Android camera. Yet another focused on chain-letter-like initiatives to give money to good causes. The students integrated phones, tablets, and even watches. All in just three days!

I am absolutely amazed by the talent we are finding and the skills that these students exhibited. Everyone in the room—including the Google judges—was blown away by the results. Every one of the participants was as good as top Google/Udacity engineers; I hear that specific individuals are now being quietly recruited by Google and other partner companies in Silicon Valley.

In January, we will invite another group of 75 students to Intersect, an event in which attendees will get to engage with many leading Silicon Valley companies. I can't wait to meet this new group of Udacity students! There is so much opportunity here in Silicon Valley and so much talent in the world. For me, bringing our students together with top companies is very, very special.

Every time a Udacity student finds a new job is a very happy day in my life. This is why I do what I do!

Sincerely,

Sebastian Thrun
Co-Founder & CEO of Udacity

 

[Shan]

Just discovered a free language learning app called Mondly Languages.
Looks like fun. Follow the link to check it out http://mondlylanguages.com/

View attachment 347

 

[Jenn]

Does anyone think Coursera has really gone down hill? When I started doing them last year I thought they were brilliant, it was the best thing I had experienced in years - free education. But now, the quality of the courses seemed to have declined, and they're more orientated towards business and not much else (I'm keen on sciences, in particular biology). However Edx has improved and offer some excellent and high quality courses, at a higher level too not just introductory.

 

[Jocelyn Marielin]

I am in secondary school and can likely extra 10 hours every week generally weeks. I am considering doing the udacity introduction to programming nano degree program. In any case, I was pondering regardless of whether I could discover comparable instruction opportunities online for nothing. Additionally, would the nano degree look great to schools? I am certain it would look sort of good, yet does udacity have enough esteem to truly make that nano degree sparkle?

 

[pilar]

All of the courses are free (at least the ones I've tried so far in Coursera, Futurelearn, edX, Canvas, Iversity, Nodoed). But if you want a certificate, you have to pay for it.

 

[pilar]

Does anyone think Coursera has really gone down hill? When I started doing them last year I thought they were brilliant, it was the best thing I had experienced in years - free education. But now, the quality of the courses seemed to have declined, and they're more orientated towards business and not much else (I'm keen on sciences, in particular biology). However Edx has improved and offer some excellent and high quality courses, at a higher level too not just introductory.

Well, I hadn't not heard about that. The ones I've taken are good quality in my opinion (writing essays, qualitative and quantitative research, understanding research, and seeking information). I hope that statement is true only for some courses.

 

[Carolyn]

Coursera announced yesterday that they have introduced a more efficient search mechanism on their platform where learners are now able to type a specific skill into the search box and get a more specific list of relevant courses that include the teaching of that skill.

They have achieved this by tagging every course with the skills that are taught by asking students who complete a course to answer a short “skills you learned” questionnaire at the end.

Previously, search results for a specific skill rendered a list of courses which wasn't always directly relevant to the skill. This is the example given in Coursera's blog post:

Search results for ‘P-value’, an important concept used in statistical hypothesis testing:

With the new tagging system, these are the results you'll now get for the same search:

 

[longnq]

All of the courses are free (at least the ones I've tried so far in Coursera, Futurelearn, edX, Canvas, Iversity, Nodoed). But if you want a certificate, you have to pay for it.

In my opinion, it's free, we easily have a choice, after the experience, if we need a certificate, we pay the cost to be trained properly. Giá thi công nhà khung thép Sua nha gia re