Coursera Jumps the Shark

If they keep sharing great content via courses, and make traditional education better (by replacing Blackboard), more power to them. I would have loved to have a tool like this when I was in school. My grades would have been better if I had access to old lectures to prepare for exams (though, I'm not sure how quickly instructors would be willing to post lectures). When I last used it 5+ years ago, Blackboard sucked... I'm assuming that hasn't changed. Anyone have more recent thoughts on that front?

This rather feels to be the right step to me as explained below.

Before MOOCs, knowledge went from the creators (original researchers) to the students via a chain of steps -- academic papers, advanced topic-specific books, curriculum books, local university professors, finally to the students. MOOCs have shown a way where most of these steps can be bypassed, with top-notch creators directly delivering education to the students. It's like Feynman delivering the lectures to a much wider audience than he actually did.

One problem remains partly unsolved - how to ensure students actually grasp all the concepts, stay motivated to complete the courses, get personalized career guidance, and also are unable to cheat in the exams. This requires a local system of teachers and teaching assistants, which already exists.

Why not combine both systems, even though now it is just blended learning per the OP. Cannot say about others, I have certainly encountered teachers who were not up to the mark. Future will being students lectures directly from the Feynmans of today with the local system just aiding the delivery. This is no different than cutting the middle men out [1] that can both improve education and make it cheaper in the long term.

Coursera and others has started by making the courses free which, while not sustainable by itself [2], has enabled countless poor students to take the courses. The future just holds the prices of this education tailored to the local markets (differential pricing) which can still be better than education today on the quality/price figure-of-merit.

[1] This allows the professors to spend more time on their research work.

[2] OK, I am not in the favor of advertising within the course content.

Feisty little guy. Apparently a company can either work on courses or on course management software, but not both.

> And so the revolution ends with a whimper, not with a roar.

Is he criticizing Coursera for changing strategies in a changing market? It seems premature to declare it all over.

Any reason to think they are not going to do both? Before coursera exploded I had thought of doing something similar, and the eventual plan had been to provide the software to universities (for pay), but that was mainly to support the idea of great education for all.

Over-hauling higher ed is a long term goal that may pitch well in board rooms but is too slow for VC money in the long run. Seeing as they are fairly restricted by VC influence now I think Blackboard is a soft target they could K.O. Fairly easily and start seeing some real money. Blackboard has only survived until this point because it buys up the rest of the market.

Author seems to be drinking the higher-ed koolaide. He clearly doesn't understand Coursera or their mission.

> University of West Virginia

West Virginia University

(Go Mountaineers!)

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