The end is near
Yes, like the title, the mooc era’s end in near. Much closer that you think.
A brief recap
Since 2014 coursera, one of the most famous platforms for moocs (along with edx and imo udacity, expecially for cs stuff) has changed his way of thinking. In early 2015, coursera stopped to delever free statements of accomplishment/honor codes (as, sadly, is doing edx now). Not that bad, all the courses are still open and free to watch and complete, only no one will ever know about it (that’s the pourpose of this blog, btw).
In the late 2015, however, coursera stopped also to set free the graded items (like quizzes, programming assignments, ecc…). You can still audit the course for free and watch all the lectures. You can still watch what’s the quiz is like, as for the programming assignments, but you will never know if your work is right or not , so it’s often useless. I know, it’s still huge, but in many subjects (as cs) the graded items are literally essential for the lecturer.
Ok. I get it. Luckily not all courses have switched to this model, so you can still enroll and complete many old courses. For free!
Now, in june 2016, coursera adds a new post in his blog, which tells that the old platform ( this one and not this one ) will be shutted down the 30th of june. This means that all the courses in the old platform will be deleted. Period.
Le mine reaction after reading the post
Many courses offered by University of Washington (as programming languages, data mining, and other), near all the courses from Princeton university (the algorithm part I and II, analysis of algorithms, computer architecture and many other), and some courses from Stanford (for example, the Jeff Ulman’s automata and mining massive databases) will probably be no longer available (plus obviously many other courses, like coding the matrix, which i’m doing right now).
Coursera, in another post, updates the situation saying that near all the courses will be restored in the new platform, but not i’m really sure about that. In fact, i’m scared.
I don’t blame coursera. Really. Keeping up the entire site (which i think is costfull) for free is really something outstanding, but probably the era of free and online education for everyone is near the end, or, at least, on the edge.
As usual, stay tuned for more updates on the coursera situation, exams and more! 😊
A brief recap
Since 2014 coursera, one of the most famous platforms for moocs (along with edx and imo udacity, expecially for cs stuff) has changed his way of thinking. In early 2015, coursera stopped to delever free statements of accomplishment/honor codes (as, sadly, is doing edx now). Not that bad, all the courses are still open and free to watch and complete, only no one will ever know about it (that’s the pourpose of this blog, btw).
In the late 2015, however, coursera stopped also to set free the graded items (like quizzes, programming assignments, ecc…). You can still audit the course for free and watch all the lectures. You can still watch what’s the quiz is like, as for the programming assignments, but you will never know if your work is right or not , so it’s often useless. I know, it’s still huge, but in many subjects (as cs) the graded items are literally essential for the lecturer.
Ok. I get it. Luckily not all courses have switched to this model, so you can still enroll and complete many old courses. For free!
Now, in june 2016, coursera adds a new post in his blog, which tells that the old platform ( this one and not this one ) will be shutted down the 30th of june. This means that all the courses in the old platform will be deleted. Period.
Le mine reaction after reading the post
Many courses offered by University of Washington (as programming languages, data mining, and other), near all the courses from Princeton university (the algorithm part I and II, analysis of algorithms, computer architecture and many other), and some courses from Stanford (for example, the Jeff Ulman’s automata and mining massive databases) will probably be no longer available (plus obviously many other courses, like coding the matrix, which i’m doing right now).
Coursera, in another post, updates the situation saying that near all the courses will be restored in the new platform, but not i’m really sure about that. In fact, i’m scared.
I don’t blame coursera. Really. Keeping up the entire site (which i think is costfull) for free is really something outstanding, but probably the era of free and online education for everyone is near the end, or, at least, on the edge.
As usual, stay tuned for more updates on the coursera situation, exams and more! 😊
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