I keep wondering how different education will be supplied and consumed in a couple of decades when digitization will be more mature. My wondering was in part reflected in this blog post in which I linked to an article about the MIT having introduced an e-learning course for which certification would be provided to participants. To my mind, the MIT may have been experimenting with a system which would then be varied and then used to inform the methods for delivering university-level education in the future. And the provision of certificates was the institution's way of ensuring that it has sufficient takers to allow for the experiment to yield meaningful results while assessing demand.
Sebastian Thrun, a professor from MIT learned from the huge demand for the free course on artificial intelligence and opted to convert that into a business opportunity. As MSNBC reports, the business will provide online education through video instruction with the teacher's time used in helping students to solve problems. This model is not a radical invention as the Khan Academy has a comparable model except that the latter is provided for open participation and with points accumulation as the evidence of accomplishment.
I am quite surprised that Sebastian Thrun resigned from MIT and is becoming a competitor in the provision of education services. It is difficult to assess the prospects of the new business but my view is that the demand that was expressed could follow the new business and this experiment means that soon, the top schools may have to consider taking the competition to their former employees. The MIT should consider taking over Udacity. One cannot say anymore that technology is not changing education.
Sebastian Thrun, a professor from MIT learned from the huge demand for the free course on artificial intelligence and opted to convert that into a business opportunity. As MSNBC reports, the business will provide online education through video instruction with the teacher's time used in helping students to solve problems. This model is not a radical invention as the Khan Academy has a comparable model except that the latter is provided for open participation and with points accumulation as the evidence of accomplishment.
I am quite surprised that Sebastian Thrun resigned from MIT and is becoming a competitor in the provision of education services. It is difficult to assess the prospects of the new business but my view is that the demand that was expressed could follow the new business and this experiment means that soon, the top schools may have to consider taking the competition to their former employees. The MIT should consider taking over Udacity. One cannot say anymore that technology is not changing education.
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