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Monday, March 5, 2012

Yet another acronym, MOOC, yet really cool.....

Via The New York Times (NYT):
"Massive Open Online Courses — known as MOOCs — a tool for democratizing higher education."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/education/moocs-large-courses-open-to-all-topple-campus-walls.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26
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Me:
Several major universities are forging into this amazing future of education.  While they are looking for ways to capitalize in it, the courses are free.  If you get a certification of completion, you may pay.  If a company is looking for certain skills in a certain area, they may need to pay the university for a list of potentials.  Great, make the capitalists pay for the availability of the skills they need.  Works for me.

I am eyeing the upcoming Computer Security course at Stanford.  Don't be looking for intro courses from these providers, but the practice should trickle down over time.
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Some of the major universities involved at this early stage:

Stanford:
http://www.cs101-class.org/hub.php

MIT info article:
http://www.wiredacademic.com/2011/12/mit-announces-mitx-expanding-its-opencourseware-project/

Georgia Institute of Technology:
http://gtmooc.com/

“What we found was that in a MOOC, instead of the classroom being the center, it becomes just one node of the network of social interactions.”

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