Jump Off the Coursera Bandwagon | Hacker News Reader

Jump Off the Coursera Bandwagon

chronicle.com

2 pointsjamesbritt3 comments

I agree.

Coursera and it's ilk are just making lecture halls bigger. That's fine for a Universities gradual evolution, but the fact is it's incredibly hard to make videos that allow a wide range of students to progress at their individual rates, and MOOCs don't solve this issue.

While there are advantages to both the Coursera format is asynchronous. This makes it fundamentally better able to accommodate different progress rates. Student can individually adjust course parameters to suit how they best learn.

(1) Adjustable lecture playback speed accomodates both slow and faster learners. (2) Stop and rewind buttons allow adhoc research of unclear points in the middle of lectures as well as easy review. (3) Short (usually 15min) lecture segments match actual attention spans. (4) Active message boards allow quick and easy help from both staff and other students. (5) Timing lectures and coursework is flexible. Learn better late at night - no problem.

None of these were apparent to me until I took a few Coursera classes. I suggest anyone interested in this issue take a class on Coursera (or EdX, Udacity or another platform) and see for themselves. You may learn something!

(1) Slow and fast learners don't necessarily refer to the speed of learning, but rather how much information must be digested and how it must be digested to achieve a level of competence. (2) True (3) Until you have to go through 5 of them to finish the content for a block and that content is stretched across arbitrary breaks. Not to mention "next week's" chapter which you have to now wait for and continue with the same content. (4) Class-specific message boards are a positive, but don't change much about the nature of the internet, which is already availible on sites like StackOverflow, Reddit and IRC. (5) The same kind of timing can be seen in on-campus courses. Coursework needs to not be on a time limit. At all.

(6) Please do take some courses. They are a net gain and should be given a fair shot. Personally I find them frustrating and lacking.

A course should be complete-able in a week or two for a reasonably prepared person.

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