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Udacity - free online education for real
kyrathaba:
I signed up for the "Design of Computer Programs" class - CS 2012. I should enjoy this, as the first example program has to do with Poker, and a year or so ago I came up with a C# class for a deck of cards, for the purpose of completing a Programming Assignment here at DC.
IainB:
On 2012-06-16, I made a post about Udacity Education - a $100 genuine Master's Degree?, and was seriously impressed with the real progress being made to offer cheap/free education in the US.
Imagine my surprise therefore on reading this:
(Copied sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)
Minnesota bans Coursera: State takes bold stand against free education.
By Will Oremus
Posted Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012, at 7:28 PM ET
Coursera banned in Minnesota
Want to take free courses? Not in Minnesota, you can't.
Honorable mentions go to New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission for driving out Uber’s online taxi-hailing service and to automobile dealers’ groups in four states for trying to have Tesla dealerships declared illegal. But the grand prize in this week’s unexpectedly heated competition for most creative use of government to stifle innovation has to go to Minnesota.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the state has decided to crack down on free education, notifying California-based startup Coursera that it is not allowed to offer its online courses to the state’s residents. Coursera, founded by Stanford computer science professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, partners with top-tier universities around the world to offer certain classes online for free to anyone who wants to take them. You know, unless they happen to be from Minnesota.
A policy analyst for the state’s Office of Higher Education told The Chronicle that Minnesota is simply enforcing a longstanding state law requiring colleges to get the government’s permission to offer instruction within its borders. She couldn’t say whether other online education startups like edX and Udacity were also told to stay out.
As the Chronicle notes, with admirable restraint, “It’s unclear how the law could be enforced when the content is freely available on the Web.” And keep in mind, Coursera isn't offering degrees—just free classes. Nevertheless, the startup appears to be playing along, posting on its terms of service a special notice to Minnesota users. It reads, in part:
If you are a resident of Minnesota, you agree that either (1) you will not take courses on Coursera, or (2) for each class that you take, the majority of work you do for the class will be done from outside the State of Minnesota.
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Hear that, kids? The Internet is no place for learning. You can Facebook and Twitter and play World of Warcraft all you want, but if you want to study Machine Learning, Principles of Macroeconomics, or Modern & Contemporary American Poetry, you’re going to have to take it elsewhere. Maybe you can hit a wifi hotspot in North Dakota on your way back from buying fireworks.
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Looks like another authoritarian clusterfark to me. It could only happen in the good ol' USA (I hope).
tomos:
Minnesota bans Coursera: State takes bold stand against free education.
[...]
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Looks like another authoritarian clusterfark to me. It could only happen in the good ol' USA (I hope).
-IainB (October 19, 2012, 06:39 AM)
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bizarre, an entertaining read though...
barney:
Looks like another authoritarian clusterfark to me. It could only happen in the good ol' USA (I hope).
-IainB (October 19, 2012, 06:39 AM)
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Makes ya wonder what kind of rake-off the state might be getting from its institution$ of higher learning, no?
mahesh2k:
If any one of you are into freelancing or wish to start a cloud startup, I suggest taking a look at Startup Class. :up:
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