Professors at a leading US university are attempting to add a new level of interactivity to online education by offering three of the university’s most popular computer science classes for free from this autumn.

 

Engineering professors at Stanford University in California will be taking technologies designed to enhance learning for Stanford students and extending them to a broad online audience in ‘an experiment that could transform the way online education is delivered’, according to the university’s website.  

 

Lectures will be delivered as short, interactive video clips that allow students to progress at their own pace through course materials and there will also be live quizzes with instant feedback. In place of traditional office hours which permit students to broach issues and question with professors, the university will be utilising the Google moderator service which allows students to vote on the best questions for the professors to respond to in an online chat and possibly video format.

 

So far, the ‘Introduction to Artificial Intelligence’ course, which will be taught by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig, two of the world’s best-known artificial intelligence experts, has attracted more than 80,000 students from over 175 countries — a class nearly four times the size of Stanford’s entire student body. The other two courses available for free are ‘Machine Learning’ and ‘Introduction to Databases’, with all three courses covering material which forms the basis of some of the most prevalent technologies today, from online shopping to web search and robotics.

 

 

It is hoped that the move will ‘extend the benefits of Stanford-style education to those who lack access’. Andrew Ng, an Associate Professor of Computer Science who will be teaching the online Machine Learning course, says:

 

“Both in the United States and elsewhere, many people simply do not have access to a high-quality education.  By putting out this initial set of courses, we hope to teach some of the latest computing technologies to anyone who wants to learn it – for free.”

 

Computer Science Department Chair, Doctor Jennifer Widom, who will be teaching the Introduction to Databases course, envisages that alongside individuals studying the courses, smaller colleges that may not have the faculty members or resources to offer particular courses will be able to supplement their offerings with the Stanford lectures. She says:

 

“By opening up education, we hope to give more learning, job and advancement opportunities to anyone who wants them.”

 

Online students will not get Stanford grades or credit, but will instead be ranked in comparison to the work of other online students and will receive a ‘statement of accomplishment’ on completion of the course.

 

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