Schools to Offer Free Classes Online by STEPHANIE BANCHERO

"Twelve top universities Tuesday joined a venture that offers free Internet courses world-wide, in a bet by some of the most prestigious institutions globally on online education." summarizes STEPHANIE BANCHERO.

Photo: Wall Street Journal

The schools agreed to join four others already working with Coursera, a for-profit company founded by two Stanford University computer-science professors. The schools will offer 111 mainly introductory courses this school year, including Galaxies and Cosmology, Equine Nutrition and Contraception: Choice, Cultures and Consequences.

Photo: Daphne Koller

Photo: Andrew Ng

"It gets us one step closer to where anyone in the world can have connection to the best universities and access to the best professors," said Andrew Ng, who co-founded Coursera with fellow professor Daphne Koller.

Initially, the Coursera classes won't be offered for credit, though some schools might choose to award certificates for completion. Anyone with Internet access can register for a class.

In most cases, the courses consist of video recordings of lectures, which are paused about every 10 minutes for a quiz to measure understanding. Students have homework as well as midyear and final assessments, graded by their peers based on a rubric created by the professor. The courses also have online forums where students can chat.
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Related links
Andrew Ng (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Daphne Koller (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Source:  Wall Street Journal