Human Learning #41 – Of Language, Chatbots and Ethics
Disclosure: To support our site, Class Central may be compensated by some course providers. November 14, 2018 5 minute read Comments Welcome to issue #41, the two thrusts of which drill down on the tech of Edtech. The first part is my article on Duolingo, which argues MOOC platforms will find it difficult in some…
Coursera’s 2019: Year in Review
In 2019, Coursera achieved the coveted unicorn status — that is, it reached a valuation of over $1B after raising $103M in a Series E round. The total number of registered learners on the platform grew from 37 million to 45 million, allowing Coursera to remain the world’s largest MOOC provider by a significant margin.…
Google opens an intense learning program on Udacity
Google recently declared that it’s launching an intense learning program to particularly initiate online course provider Udacity (MOOC). Intense learning is a progressively more admired category of AI (artificial intelligence). Speaking, in general, it entails guiding artificial neural systems on heaps of data — for instance images — and acquiring them to create inferences regarding…
A New (co-)CEO for edX: Previous President and COO Adam Medros
EdX, the non-profit MOOC provider backed by MIT and Harvard, has announced the appointment of Adam Medros as co-CEO. He will lead the company alongside the founder and CEO Anant Agarwal. Adam joined edX back in October 2017 as the COO and President. He came from a 13-year stint at Tripadvisor (it’s like Class Central,…
What Kind Of Online Learner Are You?
The MOOC platform FutureLearn recently published a series of articles exploring who its learners are. Based on a survey of 7,000 learners, FutureLearn’s User Experience Researcher Tracey Walker identified seven archetypes, corresponding to seven patterns of behavior among users of FutureLearn. Walker grouped these archetypes into three types: Work and Study, Personal Life, and Leisure.…
MOOCWatch 19: Coursera’s Revenue, Udacity’s CEO, and edX’s Master’s Degrees.
The MOOC-based degrees trend continues, with edX announcing 7 new Master’s degrees, bringing the total on edX to 9. In a recent article, I explore five key ways MOOC-based degrees differ from traditional online degrees. Class Central contributor Manoel, who has done his entire higher education online, shares his thoughts on 10 characteristics that could…
January 2019’s Future of Learning Conference Focuses on Transformation of Higher Education
Disclosure: To support our site, Class Central may be compensated by some course providers. December 8, 2018 1 minute read Comments It can be easy to forget that there is something big going on in higher education. By now, many of us have become used to the fact that for nearly any subject, there are…
Udacity Increases Prices for Nanodegrees
Disclosure: To support our site, Class Central may be compensated by some course providers. November 20, 2018 1 minute read Comments Udacity is known to constantly tweak its model for Nanodegrees. Earlier this year Class Central wrote about how Udacity is switching to term-based scheduling. Last year we reported on Udacity shutting down its job…
European MOOC Platforms Plan New Generation of Microcredentials
Europe’s main MOOC providers have partnered to create new microcredentials that will allow learners to earn academic credit while gaining in-demand skills. The initiative, called Common Microcredentials Framework, is spearheaded by the European MOOC Consortium, which comprises Europe’s largest MOOC providers: FutureLearn, which is based in the UK and has 9 million learners. Miriada X,…
Purdue University Announces Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering on edX
Purdue University became the 7th edX partner to launch a MOOC-based Master’s degree with the company. The Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering costs $22.5k and consists of 30 credits ($750/credit). It can take anywhere from 1 – 4 years to finish. This degree competes head-on with a similar degree from the University of Colorado,…
