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Lessons and Legacies from Stanford’s Free Online Classes

January 30, 2012 | 7:00 AM | By

Stanford Artificial Intelligence Class

By Steve Henn

Last year, Stanford University computer science professor Sebastian Thrun — also known as the fellow who helped build Google’s self-driving car — got together with a small group of Stanford colleagues and they impulsively decided to open their classes to the world.

They would allow anyone, anywhere to attend online, take quizzes, ask questions and even get grades for free. They made the announcement with almost no fanfare by sending out a single email to a professional group.

“Within hours, we had 5,000 students signed up,” Thrun says. “That was on a Saturday morning. On Sunday night, we had 10,000 students. And Monday morning, Stanford — who we didn’t really inform — learned about this and we had a number of meetings.”

You can only imagine what those meetings must have been like, with professors telling the school they wanted to teach free, graded online classes for which students could receive a certificate of completion. And, oh by the way, tens of thousands have already signed up to participate.

“I think the impact will be large and it will be widespread.”

For decades, technology has promised to remake education — and it may finally be about to deliver. Apple’s moving into the textbook market, startups and nonprofits are re-imaging what K-12 education could look like, and now some in Silicon Valley are eager for technology and the Internet to transform education’s more elite institutions.

Thrun’s colleague Andrew Ng taught a free, online machine learning class that ultimately attracted more than 100,000 students. When I ask Ng how Stanford’s administration reacted to their Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Digital Tools, Teaching Strategies, online learning, Stanford

Can 35,000 People Learn Anything from an Online Class?

November 11, 2011 | 10:22 AM | By

Stanford

Thousands of people have enrolled for Stanford's online science and robotics classes.

This summer, Stanford University announced its plans to make three of its introductory computer science classes available for free to the general public. The classes — Machine Learning, Introduction to Databases, and Introduction to Artificial Intelligence — were to be taught by Stanford faculty and held online in conjunction with the regular on campus courses held during this October to December term.

Those participating in the online versions were able to take (almost) that same class as the enrolled Stanford students, and the online students were given the option to take an easier version too, one that didn’t require completing the homework or taking the quizzes. Those who successfully completed the courses won’t receive grades or credit but will receive a signed “statement of accomplishment” from the professors.

The news of Stanford’s online experiment generated an immense amount of interest, with more than 130,000 signing up for the A.I. class and roughly 50,000 registering for the Machine Learning and Databases classes. Now that the term is in full swing, those numbers have dropped off substantially. Even so, some 35,000 students have turned in the first three weeks of homework assignments, reports EdSurge in its latest newsletter, joining the 175 Stanford students taking the class on campus.

Managing a class of that size is almost unimaginable. Even so, Professors Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun held office hours last week via a Google Hangout. That too was a bit Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching Strategies, Stanford

Getting Students of Color Hooked on Math and Science

October 5, 2011 | 12:20 PM | By

[Video co-produced with Matthew Williams.]

Juan Hernandez has had a life-changing summer. The 14-year-old math and science whiz got to geek out with like-minded kids for five weeks on the lush Stanford campus, learning about everything from computer programming to the infection rate of HIV.

Juan was among the 80 low-income, high-achieving students of color who are psyched about STEM and were chosen to participate in the SMASH program. SMASH stands for Summer Math and Science Honors Academy, and it’s part of the Level Playing Field Institute, a San Francisco-based nonprofit founded 10 years ago by Freada Kapor Klein. The enrichment program is held on the campuses of U.C. Berkeley and Stanford, where SMASH scholars, as they’re called, come back every summer during their high school years for an immersive college experience. And during the school year, they get SAT prep support, college counseling and financial aid workshops to make sure they stay on course.

TB

Juan Hernandez is hopeful he'll get into Stanford.

If Juan and his peers are already high-achieving, ambitious students, one might wonder why they need an extra boost with this kind of program. They’re not exactly at-risk kids. Juan has a 4.0 GPA, takes A.P. classes, and has set lofty goals for himself. He wants to be a surgeon or a physicist.

But as driven as Juan is, his future is far from guaranteed. He must be admitted to a good college (his top choices are Stanford and Berkeley). He must secure financial aid or scholarships. And those are just the initial steps. Once he’s in, the level of rigor in math and science classes at top-tier universities can destabilize even the most determined superstar.

At LPS, the college prep charter high school he attends in Richmond, California, Juan does take A.P. classes in whatever classes are offered — but math and science are not. So the lack of exposure to college-level academics could be an obstacle. Add to that the fact that for students of color, only 10% of those interested pursue a STEM career after their first two years of college. And for low-income, first-generation students of color, that number is significantly lower, according to Jarvis Sulcer, director of education programs Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Digital Tools, Level Playing Institute, SMASH, Stanford, STEM, U.C. Berkeley

Stanford for Everyone: More Than 120,000 Enroll in Free Classes

August 23, 2011 | 8:00 AM | By

Stanford Artificial Intelligence class

By Anne Raith

Professor Sebastian Thrun has given his lecture on artificial intelligence at Stanford University more than once. He knows that a lot of students are interested in his introductory course – almost 200 students have showed up in past years. But this fall, it will be different, even for him. There will be more than 100,000 students from all around the world who will listen to him – online.

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence is one of three classes that the Stanford computer science department will offer as a free online course this fall. As of yesterday, more than 124,000 people had enrolled: high school students, professionals and retirees from North and South America, Europe and Africa.

“We want to open our lectures and bring education to places that can’t be reached today, to people that haven’t had access to higher education.”

“We want to open our lectures and bring education to places that can’t be reached today, to people that haven’t had access to higher education,” says Thrun, a Google Fellow and one of the world’s best-known artificial intelligence experts.

Professor Andrew Ng, whose course Machine Learning will be also be online, adds that the proliferation of Web access is democratizing education in ways it couldn’t have been done before. “In the last ten years, information technology has disrupted many different industries. Somehow the Internet hasn’t quite made it into the classrooms,” he says. “But with online education we can provide education to the world much more cheaply and change the horribly inefficient way we have delivered education till now, just lecturing to our students.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching Strategies, online learning, Stanford

New Stanford Program for Innovators

September 9, 2010 | 2:51 PM | By

Flickr: Jeff Pearce

Last year, after attending Stanford University’s Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship, one of the students came away with a pending iPhone app for an educational math game called Motion Math.

Though he’d conceived of the idea before starting the program, he was able to connect with collaborators from Stanford’s School of Education, as well as computer scientists from Silicon Valley who helped him bring the product to fruition, according to Peter Reiss. Reiss is the faculty director of a new, broader program similar to SIE called the Program in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (PRIE).

And that’s the whole idea behind PRIE — to “draw on the expertise both within and outside the university who can bring in technical knowledge that helps those in the program develop apps, or software, or a biotech start-up.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Higher Education, Stanford