I am one of 71,000+ in my very first Coursera class.
Holy internet Batman.... 71 thousand?!? That's the size of a 100% completely packed Georgia Dome.
If you haven't heard of Coursera... you will. Educators are both exited by, and fear it. Some just roll their eyes. But not the smarties. And it doesn't really matter whether this becomes the platform that wins in the end. The point is, they are getting it right, and people are noticing. In huge numbers. Undeniable numbers.
The classes they run are nicknamed "MOOCs" (Massive Open Online Courses) by industry terms. This one on Gamification is taught by Kevin Werbach, Associate Professor of Legal Studies at Wharton. He's pretty damn good. Sometimes I have to speed him up to 1.5x (the platform thankfully lets you do this) but its clear he's as excited about the subject as I am, and quite qualified.
Folks, the days of the average student paying $88,000 - $130,000 (ignoring the top-tier which is closer to $200k - $225k) for a 4 year college education (all in) are fortunately going to fade. Its only a matter of when, the timeline depending on who puts up the best fight to maintain status quo. With amazing learning platforms like Coursera, Code Academy, Khan Academy, and the like, we can learn from some of the best teachers and systems in the world. For free. Why on earth would everyone pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for what we can access for free?
We know why. The same reason its been slow to change our eating habits, our spending and investing habits, our emotional health habits....
We trust those who came before us to show us the way. To know the path forward. To have our best interests at heart, at least most of the time. Its an easy, lazy shortcut to truth. The reality? Our parents, teachers, brokers, advisors, psychiatrists... were also doing the best they could with the information they had handed down to them. Figuring it out along the way. Are there evil empires running in the shadows that have been feeding bad information through the generations? Ryan Holiday says yes, in his exposé on modern media. I don't deny it, myself. But we live in a different world, where ignorance may still be bliss, but is becoming impossible to maintain.
I'm not so naive to think Professor Werbach won't potentially sell thousands of his books as a result of his course (to be clear, they are not required for the course in any way, only part of the recommended reading list for further education). But it is promising to see top institutions and professors playing a role in the education transformation, to the point of readily giving away lectures. Perhaps the model will require those to want an official certification to pay. I'm ok with that. Its clearing a path for a new education framework - effective, efficient, and affordable.
Holy internet Batman.... 71 thousand?!? That's the size of a 100% completely packed Georgia Dome.
If you haven't heard of Coursera... you will. Educators are both exited by, and fear it. Some just roll their eyes. But not the smarties. And it doesn't really matter whether this becomes the platform that wins in the end. The point is, they are getting it right, and people are noticing. In huge numbers. Undeniable numbers.
The classes they run are nicknamed "MOOCs" (Massive Open Online Courses) by industry terms. This one on Gamification is taught by Kevin Werbach, Associate Professor of Legal Studies at Wharton. He's pretty damn good. Sometimes I have to speed him up to 1.5x (the platform thankfully lets you do this) but its clear he's as excited about the subject as I am, and quite qualified.
Folks, the days of the average student paying $88,000 - $130,000 (ignoring the top-tier which is closer to $200k - $225k) for a 4 year college education (all in) are fortunately going to fade. Its only a matter of when, the timeline depending on who puts up the best fight to maintain status quo. With amazing learning platforms like Coursera, Code Academy, Khan Academy, and the like, we can learn from some of the best teachers and systems in the world. For free. Why on earth would everyone pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for what we can access for free?
We know why. The same reason its been slow to change our eating habits, our spending and investing habits, our emotional health habits....
We trust those who came before us to show us the way. To know the path forward. To have our best interests at heart, at least most of the time. Its an easy, lazy shortcut to truth. The reality? Our parents, teachers, brokers, advisors, psychiatrists... were also doing the best they could with the information they had handed down to them. Figuring it out along the way. Are there evil empires running in the shadows that have been feeding bad information through the generations? Ryan Holiday says yes, in his exposé on modern media. I don't deny it, myself. But we live in a different world, where ignorance may still be bliss, but is becoming impossible to maintain.
I'm not so naive to think Professor Werbach won't potentially sell thousands of his books as a result of his course (to be clear, they are not required for the course in any way, only part of the recommended reading list for further education). But it is promising to see top institutions and professors playing a role in the education transformation, to the point of readily giving away lectures. Perhaps the model will require those to want an official certification to pay. I'm ok with that. Its clearing a path for a new education framework - effective, efficient, and affordable.
RSS Feed