Free online classes from UW, Princeton, Stanford; Dave’s signing up
Jul 17, 2012, 9:29 AM | Updated: 11:33 am
A new company is attempting to bring top-tier higher
education to the masses for free.
The University of Washington recently joined 11 other
colleges and universities in offering free online classes
through online site Coursera.
When Dave Ross heard of this he had to check it out.
After looking over the course offerings, he decided to
sign up for a class offered by the University of Michigan.
“This was a course in finance,” Ross tells co-host Luke
Burbank.
Students are not given credit for the courses they take
through Coursera, but it offers them access to high-level
professors with real course material from respected
universities.
Ross’ professor in his Introduction to Finance course is
Gautam Kaul, a professor of finance at the Ross School of
Business (RSB), University of Michigan.
“The professor had a very compelling opening lecture where
he said that he was there for me, that he thinks finance
is only second in importance to love in what humanity
needs to know about,” says Ross.
Meet Dave’s professor:
Kaul has prepared 10 video lectures for the course each
around 120 minutes. The course requirements include nine
assignments and a final exam. “Late papers will not be
accepted!” says the course syllabus.
The large number of students enrolled in the course means
direct access between students and professor will be non-
existent.
“The only thing he [Professor Gautam Kaul] asked is that
none of the 100,000 people taking this online course email
him personally,” says Ross.
“While we love all of you, responding to questions will be
virtually impossible,” says a message from Kaul and his
assistant to his online students.
Those who successfully pass the course with at least a 70
percent on all assignments, and over 70 percent on the
final, will be given a certificate, but no official
university credit.
Coursera currently offers 111 classes from Princeton,
Duke, Stanford, and John Hopkins, among others.
“We envision a future where the top universities are
educating not only thousands of students, but millions.
Our technology enables the best professors to teach tens
or hundreds of thousands of students,” says Coursera, at
their website. “Through this, we hope to give everyone
access to the world-class education that has so far been
available only to a select few.”
“It may be the wave of the future for how higher education
works,” says Burbank.
By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor
