Online Learning Update

By Alexandra Rice, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The three classes being offered—”Machine Learning,” “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence,” and “Introduction to Databases“—are among some of the university’s most popular computer-science courses, according to a blog post on the Open Culture Web site. Enrollment figures for the courses seemingly back up this claim: Andrew Ng, the professor for the machine-learning course, has approximately 94,000 students enrolled in his class alone, he told The Chronicle. These online courses are particularly noteworthy because they go beyond taped lectures, which the university offers through its iTunes U and YouTube services. Building off an idea developed by Stanford’s Daphne Koller, a computer-science professor, students in the courses, offered this fall, skip the traditional long lecture. Instead, they progress at their own pace using short, interactive video lectures that are punctuated every five to eight minutes with questions to make sure the student grasps the concept before continuing to the next idea.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/learn-about-robots-from-stanford-professors-free-of-charge/34402?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en