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computer science courses for free online this fall, and at the same time launching
an experiment that could transform the way online education is delivered.
The professors are taking technologies designed to enhance learning for Stanford
students and extending them to a broad online audience. They are delivering lectures
as short, interactive video clips that allow students to progress at their own pace
through course materials. They are offering live quizzes with instant feedback.
And they are testing new technologies that allow students to rank questions that
should be posed to the instructors.
The professors also hope to extend the benefits of Stanford-style education to those
who lack access.
“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,”
said Andrew Ng, an associate professor of computer science who is teaching a new online
machine learning course.
The three courses – Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and
Introduction to Databases – cover material that forms the basis of some of the most
prevalent technologies today, from online shopping to web search and robotics.
“By opening up education, we hope to give more learning, job and advancement
opportunities to anyone who wants them,” said Computer Science Department Chair
Jennifer Widom, who is teaching the database course.
Demand has been enormous. Already more than 58,000 people have expressed interest
in the artificial intelligence course taught by Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford research
professor of computer science and a Google Fellow, and Google Director of Research
Peter Norvig.
“The time is right for this – technology has progressed, connectivity has progressed
and video has progressed,” Thrun said. “It’s thrilling to be able to take Stanford
education out into the world to people who can’t afford it or wouldn’t have access.”
Formal registration for the classes is expected to begin next month; classes start on Oct.
10 and extend through December. All three are being offered in partnership with the
Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD), which brings more than 40 years
of distance-learning expertise to the table. Both SCPD students and regular Stanford
students, as well as the general public, will have access to the new online learning
tools.
Students in the free courses are expected to read course materials, complete assignments
and take quizzes and an exam. Thrun said online students should expect to devote at
least 12 hours a week to the artificial intelligence course, just as Stanford students do.
What online students won’t receive, however, is one-on-one interaction with professors,
the full content of lectures – or a
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The online courses build on recent innovations by Stanford professors to increase
interaction with students. These include ClassX, a video processing platform that facilitates
lecture recording;CourseWare, an online course hosting site with social networking features; and
OpenClassroom, a web platform designed to share Stanford lectures freely with the world.
In January 2010, computer science Professor Daphne Koller piloted the idea of shifting
classroom time from lectures – which are largely passive activities for students – to
more engaging activities. She recorded lectures as short videos for students to watch
online and used class time to solve problems, host guest lecturers from the technology
industry and review material students found difficult.
“The idea was to improve both the classroom experience and the online experience,”
she said.
She incorporated questions and quizzes into the videos to keep students thinking
about the material and help them learn more effectively.
“One of the disadvantages of traditional instruction is how long it takes to get
feedback on your work,” said Ng. “If you submit homework and get a graded version back
a week later, you may already have forgotten much of what you did. With technologies
that give you immediate feedback, a student can immediately determine what they do and
don’t understand, and more efficiently focus their efforts.”
The new courses are only the latest effort by Stanford to share information and ideas
with the public online. Stanford helped pioneer the use of Apple’s iTunes service by
academic institutions in 2005. Three years later, the university launched Stanford
Engineering Everywhere, the university’s first free site to offer complete video-based courses
and materials that are available anywhere, anytime and on-demand.
It offered 10 free computer science and electrical engineering courses
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