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destination-unknown

In my two previous posts, I offered reviews of my experiences with a couple of Udacity MOOCs: CS101 (Intro to Computer Science) and CS253 (Web development). My experience with the former was really good, and the latter, not so much (despite having a like-able instructor and some good content). Based on my two data points, and having spent the last year following the MOOC and online education movements (Twitter streams, higher-ed analysis, research findings, hand-wringing pleas that MOOCs just go away, Thrun-loving hagiography), I’m now going to making sweeping and completely unverifiable pronouncements about the future of MOOCs. And they will be as accurate as any others you read, because everyone is guessing…Read More →

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In a previous post, I laid out what I think are eight ingredients for a great massively open online course (MOOC). My ingredient list grew out of my experience taking two computer science courses through Udacity: CS101 (Intro to Computer Science) and CS253 (Web development). Here’s my more detailed take on the first of these two courses (CS101), using my eight ingredients as a framework.

A swimmingly good experience (Grade = A-)

My overall experience with this course was very positive, and I accomplished my goal (to learn Python). In general, I think it would be a great course for someone looking to learn a bit about programming. For me, it was also terrific as my first MOOC, and set a pretty high bar against which other MOOCs must compete.Read More →