To me it has been surprising how big difference in experience the technical execution between classes made. Both Norvig and Thrun are clearly good teachers, but AI class failed because of the poor technical implementation.
I'm sure things will improve in the next iteration, though, and after all I'm very grateful that all these courses are publicly available for free.
The video editing is also fine. If such minor issues break your rhythm, you might need to rethink your approach to the lessons.
Given that there are still thousands of students in the class and enjoying it, it didn't "fail" at all.
On the other hand, the videos themselves are actually better (I love the pen-and-paper approach), and there's a lot more small questions within lectures, which helps keeping my ADD in check.
Video editing in AI class is against the knowledge that we have learned in 100+ years of movie editing. Cutting 1-2 seconds but keeping the same scene gives a jarring experience.
They cut out a few seconds so that you don't need to watch Norvig or Thrun to finish writing of a word or sentence, but that's saving time in the wrong place in my opinion. If you watch Khan Academy or ML class, those 1-2 seconds give a natural pause, that you can use to think about the subject.
I've nothing against the pen and paper approach, although occlusion is sometimes a problem. Based on my experience with Khan, AI and ML classes drawing by hand is the essential thing, is it less important if it's done electronically or by pen and paper.
Anyway, my main point is that execution of e.g. Khan Academy and ML class are better than AI class, and I'd personally prefer that inspiration for new online education courses is taken from them instead of AI class approach.
The AI class is like a beta test and there are plenty of bugs and problems. The content is still good, but the programming problems and automated grader that would be necessary for students to really absorb the advanced material doesn't seem to be on their radar. The result is a certain superficiality.
The ML class is much more developed. In the first few weeks the contrast of the finished, professional seeming ML class with the rough and hacky AI class was extreme but AI is catching up.
I'm looking forward to improvements in both platforms and new material in the spring. Other competitors like Kahnacademy are exciting, too.
I'd like to see more study groups around the world building this into a movement with broadening impact. Neither class had direct support for forming study groups. If you have to go on Reddit to get together with people, you're excluding 50-90% of the people who would use a simple no-friction geo-aware meetup-style tool if it were on the site's front page and main menu. Since study groups have a minimum size threshold to remain viable, that eliminates a magnified portion of potential participants.
So I'm pleased and still hope that this could be a mass-movement that leverages technology to change the way education is done around the world. Competing platforms is a better bet than one great platform for perfecting hard to build but needed features like labs, programming assignments, study group support, office hours and teachers' assistants, and homework help and hints.
The future, at least in our industry, is bright.
It was quite intensive thinking, though, really requiring concentration and effort; the courses themselves (ie just video) were maybe about 1 hour per unit, and there were two units per week.