TGIF – Get MOOCs For Your Education

As the week winds down, we wind down with some tidbits for your information, education, health, and enjoyment.

Quote of the Week:  “I want to live in a world where everyone has access to a great education.  I want to live in a world where people don’t have to choose between paying for tuition or paying for groceries.” Andrew Ng (co-founder of Coursera)

Humor Break:

Bev: Did you hear what happened to Andy, the little rich kid down the street?

Al: No, what happened

Bev: Well he is trying to get into Stanford next year and I was told he needed at least an 85 on his advanced math test to meet the requirements.  So what does he do?   He hands in his test with a $100 bill attached and a note that says “One dollar a point.”  Yesterday he gets his test back with his score and $57 in change.

Stat of the Week: 1 of 100.  Today I am offering you an update on one of my favorite topics, Coursera (surprise, surprise).  They continue to be in the news.  There is good news: Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, founders of Coursera have been named 1 of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine (2013 list).  There is bad news as grumpy old professors and time-warped administrators have begun large scale Spins on the changes and challenges MOOCs portend.  But mostly the news is about changes that are snowballing downhill or spiraling upward (pick your metaphor).

Action Tip: If you have an interest in the future of university education, I urge you to look at one or more of these recent articles:

“Coursera Announces Professional Development Courses to Facilitate Lifelong Learning for Teachers”  (W)e are extremely pleased to announce the launch of a teacher professional development category on Coursera. We believe that helping teachers improve their skills is an important contribution that we can make to the education of students everywhere. We are truly excited about the possibilities that having these courses available for free online, to be used independently or in a blended learning capacity, will open up for teachers, schools, and districts.”  For Pete’s sake, who could be against free courses to enhance teachers’ skills?

“Coursera looks to 2nd year of MOOCs”  “(H)undreds of educators from those schools gathered at the University of Pennsylvania to take stock of a movement that is transforming higher education.”  The educators came from around the world and their take on the big picture is enlightening … not everyone is thinking altruistically, there is a lot of thinking of how to combine great education with cost cutting and profit-making.

“Online education for the pros: Udemy launches corporate training tools”  “Online course providers have typically target students, but Udemy is going after an underserved group: professionals.  The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company launched “Udemy for Organizations” today to help companies train their employees. The available courses include soft skills, like people management and public speaking, as well as training in common programs, like Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Excel.”  One MOOC seems to have found a viable profit model.  They may or may not continue to offer some free courses – if they are free to the student, a user organization may pay the costs.

“Reporter tries a MOOC”  “I signed up for this free class, from University of Virginia Professor Philip Zelikow, to help my reporting for a story on how Zelikow is using online lectures not only to teach masses of adult learners from around the world but also to improve how he teaches U-Va. students in person.”  This reporter, Nick Anderson, was a classmate of mine.  We didn’t meet.  Quite possibly it was because there were tens of thousands students taking the course.  His description is quite accurate.  We both found the course to be extremely rewarding.

And finally, here is a really good and balanced  summary of cost, access and learning from Forbes Magazine: To Harness MOOCs, Focus on the Outcomes.

Self-Development Corner: If you are interested in summer school here are two free on-line courses from Coursera beginning next week: Sustainability of Food Systems: A Global Life Cycle Perspective (June 14, 8 weeks, University of Minnesota) and Startup Engineering (June 14, 10 weeks, Stanford).

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.