Intro to Statistics - Sebastian Thrun - Help set new record
prof_braino
Posts: 4,313
Found this message:
Let's get to work!
I am writing you to ask a personal favor. I am trying to break the student record for the largest online class ever taught with my new class "Intro to Statistics", which will begin June 25th. Sign up, forward this e-mail to your friends and family and let's set a new record!
http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/st101/CourseRev/1
We've also launched a challenge for high school students. Winners will get a trip to Stanford University and I will be delighted to give a tour of my lab!
Thanks,
Sebastian Thrun, Professor
Let's get to work!
Comments
You make it sound petty.
In what way odd? Sounds consistent to me. I thought he set a record with the AI class, having more students in the one online session than all that have attended the physical AI class at Stanford. I had the impression that this was going to be the way of the future, and he wanted to demonstrate it again. This time with a subject that most people could really benefit from, (but are afraid of) making the world a little bit better place.
Do you think money is the main driver? Teaching free classes? I am naive, I think 25,000 students in one go is kind of a big deal.
'Publish or perish' is still the rule in academia. So that is an added fringe.
Reminds me of a guy that was an 'impoverished' student/faculty liaison when I was in university. He did very well in taking out student loans for tuition and expenses, then using the funds for down-payments on rentals and the rents paid the tuition and expenses while the deferred interest allowed him to build a tidy real estate portfolio.
I couldn't do the same as my dad was an M.D. and so I didn't qualify for interest deferred student loans. Beside, my dad would have never approved of it.
That artificial intelligence class had over 160,000 students and the text was over $100 USD.
This has the look and feel of the old chain letter plea with a new free class twist.
Izzit warming up down in Houston yet?
Even if Thrun is making a buck I don't see why we should hold it against him, its not like he's Bill Gates forcing everyone who buys a PC to buy into windows. I bought the AI book because I WANTED the AI book.
So far it looks like folks who take classes like this model, folks who already know everything suspect a scam. Either way, the more folks that take a statistics class, the better place the world becomes.
Frankly, the AI book did look good and the popularity of the course was quite natural as it is a topic that people have a keen interest in. But I have my doubts about registering for course in order to break records. Getting in the Guinness Book of World Records can be a rather absurd way to achieve greatness in life.
I am a bit jaded as I have worked at two universities in Taiwan and all the major book publishers have approached me with offers of under-the-table kickbacks if I could sway our department to use only their publications. And some of the greatest obstacles to offering good education have been the ambitious fast-track faculty that merely implement programs that seem to get good press or public relations coups. Why teach when you can administrate and delegate and get paid the same or more? At some point, one has serve the student's preparation for their future careers and not merely promote high revenues.
Nothing wrong with making a living at what one does well if it serves others in a good way too.
Before the days of the Internet, I would visit university book stores and just buy the text for a course that I was interested in. No real reason to attend lectures if the text was well written and one was willing to apply one's self. And often a used text is just as good as a new one.
Silly Rabbit! IT not about breaking a record to to get in a record book! It about breaking a record for most people educated in a useful course in one go SO FAR, so the trend can keep continuing, each new record making the old record seem trivial.
OK, now I understand. Good point. I have not experienced that kind of behavior, it usual has stiff penalties in my area. But having seen it its reasonable to be on the look out for it. Hopefully this will turn out to be an example where the "hype" results in education, and allows profit for those that earned it.
And of course, the book publisher would just love to have a periodic rerun of that Artificial Intelligence course. It would likely offer a nice donation to the university involved to do so. It is all perfectly legal. What I am saying is that the internet is primary an advertising media - not a public library.
Frankly, I cannot understand why he chose Statistics. I had a Statics course in university. I've even used it occasionally in real life. And with Python, it may even be possible to data mine. But it is still rather dry unless the teacher is absolutely brilliant. Applications for it are rather limited in terms of it being a key hiring issue.
I'd rather have Business Law, Economics, and Full Charge Bookkeeping. I would say Federal Income Tax too, but I had an Enrolled Agent's license for 10 years and know that it changes so much every year that it is nearly impossible for people to get started with it until they really need to learn it. Having a Payroll Tax and a Human Resource Compliance course would also empower a lot more unemployed to become small businessmen.
These days, everyone will high education has to compete for a small basket of jobs - multiple rounds of interview and hundreds if not thousands of applicants for a few positions.
I seem to have fallen into being the opposing view of late.
[url]Http://www.class-central.com[/url]
Simply put, it is a new entertainment industry. A book and a course are far more sustaining that a half-hour sit-com or the Cartoon Channel. As we all grow older, mental challenges take over when once physical recreation might have filled the gap.
For college bound, there is a real advantage to preview courses that are central to your future major. When you take them for a grade, it will be easy to ace them.