Day 319 of 1000
Update: See clarification from Saylor Foundation here on how they provide certification of course completion.
I just read an article about a company named Udacity that provides free, college level education on line. It does not have a lot of content yet, but, if I get the concept, it sounds better than some other on line educational systems. The idea is this:
- Anyone can take any class they want any time they want for free.
- After the course is completed, the student can go to a walk-in Udacity testing center to take a test to show they actual get the material and it was not someone else who took the course for them.
If you are into education solely for the sake of learning stuff, then their are probably better sites around. Andrew pointed us to the Saylor Foundation website. It has full blown college classes by great universities, but no way for a student to unequivocally demonstrate they took the course and understand the material. If the Saylor Foundation added some say to do that, they would be way ahead of Udacity and have a way to make more money. They same is true for Khan Academy. Stanford and MIT also have classes on line. It seems like they would benefit greatly by following this model, too.
I think this is the future. The whole issue with on line education is that it is difficult to prove you were the one who actually took the class.I think these are tremendous ideas to which there will be additonal innovation both in terms of content delivery and confirmation that the student has actually learned the material and been certified in a manner that is appreciated by industry and even academia.