Fortnightly Mailing

Why give a course away online for free?

Rhodri Marsden asks in the 12/9/2011 Independent why Stanford University is "giving away a course online at no cost".

Marsden's piece is wide-ranging, and it draws on the knowhow of several people in UK HE, including Nial Sclater and Susanah Quinsee.

But it was filed some time ago¹: if Rhodri had done a bit more digging at the time, the possibility that Stanford or an associated business might be looking to pilot a delivery method for future commercial or revenue-generating use might not have escaped him.

Some quick observations:

The Norvig/Thrun/Stanford free online AI course: more transparency needed concerning the relationship between Stanford University and KnowLabs

(Other posts tagged ai-course.)

Peter E. Murray pulls together several related comments and questions about the relationship between Stanford University and KnowLabs, the "angel-funded" start-up that is closely associated with the free online course that has attracted mass-attention (and mass enrolments) in recent weeks.

Know Labs - looking to "change the future of education by making it more accessible and less expensive"

(Other posts tagged ai-course.)

Know Labs is the Silicon Valley start-up behind the Thrun/Norvig/Stanford artificial intelligence course:

"We're a Silicon Valley-based startup looking to change the future of education by making it more accessible and less expensive. We provide a high-quality online learning experience using interactive videos, intelligent software, mobile apps, and the social web.  Our initial launch is online this fall: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, taught by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig in partnership with the Stanford University School of Engineering. The class is open to everyone at ai-class.com and is run by the technology we are developing for a larger site: know it."

What interests me is whether Know Labs was already involved (or even there?) when the AI course was originally advertised, or whether the scale of the response either led to the formation of the start-up, or brought it into involvement with Stanford.

See also:

• Over 200,000 people have signed up for the three free Stanford University online courses
• Questions about the AI course

Thrun/Norvig/Stanford introduction to artificial intelligence - just short of 90,000 enrolments in 2 weeks

(Other posts tagged ai-course.)

Note - 20/8/2011. In the small font below I am unsystematically tracking the growth in sign-ups for the three Stanford course.

Two weeks ago I wrote something about (and signed up for) the Stanford University online introduction to artificial intelligence, to be taught by Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun. (Stanford's Introduction to Databases [201108200619 - 23,671. 201108242232 - 35,321. 201108261846 - 37,419.] and Introduction to Machine Learning [201108200619 - 25,935. 201108242233 - 35,685. 201108261846 - 37,636.] are also available online this autumn.

Within 2 weeks - after extensive press coverage - just short of 90,000 people worldwide had enrolled on the course. [24 hours later the number enrolled topped 100,000. 201108190712 - 103,290. 201108200619 - 110,775. 201108242227 - 128,477. 201108261846 - 132,469.]

A free online version of Stanford University's introduction to artificial intelligence

(Other posts tagged ai-course.)

Between 26 September and 16 December, with 10 hours study needed per week, Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig will teach a wholly online version of the "standard" Stanford University "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence".

The course - CS221 syllabus - will be taught "concurrently around the web", with short videos, on-line marked quizzes, a mid- and end-term exams, and eight automatically graded homework assignments. Students taking the online version will therefore be graded according to the same grading criteria as students taking CS221 at Stanford.

I am tempted, partly because I am particularly interested in whether mathematics-based courses, where the medium is not the message, can be successfully delivered on line. But the question is: will what I can remember of A and S level mathematics from 1970, and from the first year of the physics part of a natural sciences degree in 1972 (I then switched to economics....) suffice for the stated prerequisite that "a solid understanding of probability and linear algebra will be required"?

I shall find out soon enough.