Coursera - One More Online Education Venture
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A short while ago I wrote an entry about Udacity - a free online education site on computer science. Udacity was founded by Dr. Thrun. He was a Stanford Professor and left his tenured position at Stanford and founded Udacity.
http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1417988
The following article is talking about one more online education venture, Coursera.
Online Education Venture Lures Cash Infusion and Deals With 5 Top Universities
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/technology/coursera-plans-to-announce-university-partners-for-online-classes.html
Coursera was founded by the scientists, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, also from Stanford. According to the article, Coursera has secured $16 million in venture capital and partnerships with five major universities - Stanford, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton. They are going to provide a broad array of interactive courses not only in computer science but also in the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences and engineering.
It seems that a big movement is emerging in the field of online education.
By the way I was surprised at the following sentence in the above article:
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The free course touched off an intense debate behind the scenes at Stanford, where annual tuition is $40,050.
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Is it true that the annual tuition of Stanford is $40,050? I heard that the tuitions in the US are very expensive but $40,050 is beyond my imagination. Probably Stanford is one of the most expensive universities. Even so, I can't believe this price. How can people afford it?
http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1417988
The following article is talking about one more online education venture, Coursera.
Online Education Venture Lures Cash Infusion and Deals With 5 Top Universities
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/technology/coursera-plans-to-announce-university-partners-for-online-classes.html
Coursera was founded by the scientists, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, also from Stanford. According to the article, Coursera has secured $16 million in venture capital and partnerships with five major universities - Stanford, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton. They are going to provide a broad array of interactive courses not only in computer science but also in the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences and engineering.
It seems that a big movement is emerging in the field of online education.
By the way I was surprised at the following sentence in the above article:
========
The free course touched off an intense debate behind the scenes at Stanford, where annual tuition is $40,050.
========
Is it true that the annual tuition of Stanford is $40,050? I heard that the tuitions in the US are very expensive but $40,050 is beyond my imagination. Probably Stanford is one of the most expensive universities. Even so, I can't believe this price. How can people afford it?
Some American schools are very expensive, so many people have to take out large loans. >_>
It should also be mentioned that colleges usually charge different amounts if the student is from the same state, or if they came from out of state. $40k/year is probably the out-of-state cost.
As for affording it, there are 2 kinds of people who go to the best colleges: Rich kids, and kids who have received financial aid.
Even lesser colleges are expensive, but with that college degree you can get a better job, so it pays for itself eventually.
Note that these say 'quarterly', but they only actually attend school 3 times a year, so 'semester' is a better word. Each of these values should be multiplied by 3 to find the yearly cost for that category of student.
People can not afford Stanford unless they are fortunate enough to win a scholarship or have very wealthy parents.
An average American can not afford to attend Stanford.
There are many stories of college graduates who owe many thousands of dollars because of their "elite" education, but can not get a job in order to pay their loans.
A short while ago I wrote an entry about Udacity - a free online education site about computer science.
The following article talks about one more online education venture, Coursera.
Coursera was founded by the scientists, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, who are also from Stanford.
If you say "... the scientists" then the names follow without a comma.
Another option for people who can't afford school is "student loans," which are loans from the government with a low interest rate that can be paid back over a long time. There are some people who finish school with hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans.
For most people it is much cheaper to go to a university close to where they live, because the universities often have different fee structures for "in state" and "out of state" students. A student from another state might pay several times what a local student pays to attend the same school.