In this article by Mary Beth Marklein at USA Today the idea of an alternative way of gaining an education is reported. Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford research professor and a Google vice president, talks of his time as a teacher for a free, online course. After doing so, he explains that by teaching in a traditional classroom it is very, well, traditional. But by teaching in this new way, online to students who do not pay for their courses, it is like seeing "Wonderland."
Thrun created Udacity as a way to democratize education. Udacity offers several classes that, at completion, a student receives credit. The courses offered at Udacity are free of charge for instruction, and anyone can take them. One thing that I discovered from researching Udacity is that, or some schools, you can complete courses online through Udacity that will transfer to your University. If you take the course on Udacity, you can pay an exam fee, which is around $89.00, for the course. If you pass, it can be used as a transfer credit for your university, if they will accept it.
At first when I was reading the article I thought, "This can't be real? This seems like a fake education to me." After finishing the article and researching Udacity a little more I think it is a really neat idea. I discovered that there aren't an abundance of classes offered, but the classes that are offered are taught by university professors. At the end of your class you get a certificate saying that you completed the course (if you need it for your job.) You also can get a transfer credit for participating universities. I think that this is really awesome, especially for the state that our economy is in. If I could take a course online for free instruction and pay a small exam fee (compared to the university's tuition per course) I definitely would choose that option for as many courses that I could. Also, I could see why professors would like teaching this way better. If you teach students at a university that are required to take a course, you know that not everyone is enjoying themselves and that they really are only taking the course because they have to. If a professor teaches an online course with Udacity, or another site like it, they know that their students are taking the course because they want to, not because they are required. People who do not want to take the course won't, and those who do will, and those are the students who will get a lot out of the experience and will enjoy it. I think that when the students enjoy themselves in a course, the professors will too.
At first I was skeptical, but after further research, I think that it is a neat idea for those whom it can benefit.
No comments:
Post a Comment