Comment by joshontheweb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by joshontheweb | Hacker News Reader

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You are definitely right about the different types of students. It isn't a black and white problem. It also feels to me like the problem is that they are obviously interested in making money. I think they believe that in order to make money you have to offer grades and certifications. In order to do that you have to control the experience. I hope they find ways to make money outside of this paradigm. Our businesses also need to adjust their ideas of what qualifies potential employees. It would be nice if you were qualified based on what you have done or built or figured out rather than on what you have been scored on. That is largely how it is in my field, software development. I am much more inclined to pay for an all-in-one lecture series than a scheduled and scored curriculum. Thats just me and I know I'm not representative of everyone.

The issue of certification and grades is a big one. Especially in terms of functionality of skills and hire-ability. Grades are what I lovingly refer to as "third-party perspective" on your knowledge. I can tell you whatever I want, but a grade or a certification or a degree, that's some measure of corroboration of your own self-perception. I totally agree that it would be great to be measured upon past achievement, but to play devil's advocate, think about trying to get your first job. Every application asks about your experience. Well, in order to get experience, you need a job, and in order to get a job, you need experience. In a way, an education and a degree, particularly from a renowned university, is a form of advanced recommendation, and at the very least, scholastic experience. But to the point of being measured upon accomplishment, this is, naturally, heavily biased against the less experienced, who may have much to offer, but not have yet had the opportunity to display and demonstrate their potential.

Maybe there should be two tracks for the MOOC -- degree/certification/program based and the casual/intense/driven supplemental learner… the latter of which gets his or her material and supplementary exercises and resources in lump sum. The alternative, of course, is to do like you do with Netflix - wait for the entire season of [insert addictive show] to become available and commit 24 hours to watching the entire thing with minimal bathroom breaks and pausing to get a bowl of soup - wait until the course is almost over, then sign up, and you can go through everything all at once…

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