[Faculty] Stanford offers free online course to 60, 000 students worldwide

[Andrew Szeto]

Dear Colleagues:

FYI.  Is this the beginning of the end of brick and motar 
universities, e.g., SDSU?


Almost 60,000 Students Want To Take Free Online Course At Stanford On 
Artificial Intelligence.

The 
<http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2011081701asee&r=2862921-73f3&l=002-c0e&t=c>New 
York Times (8/16, A11, Markoff, Subscription Publication) reports 
that a free "course at Stanford University on artificial 
intelligence, to be taught this fall by two leading experts from 
Silicon Valley, has attracted more than 58,000 students around the 
globe - a class nearly four times the size of Stanford's entire 
student body." The online "course is one of three being offered 
experimentally by the Stanford computer science department to extend 
technology knowledge and skills beyond this elite campus to the 
entire world, the university" announced. "The instructors are 
Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig, two of the world's best-known 
artificial intelligence experts." For the AI "course, students may 
need some higher math, like linear algebra and probability theory, 
but there are no restrictions to online participation. So far, the 
age range is from high school to retirees, and the course has 
attracted interest from more than 175 countries."

The 
<http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2011081701asee&r=2862921-73f3&l=003-674&t=c>CNN 
(8/16, Simon) "This Just In" blog reported, "While online courses are 
nothing knew, throwing the power of arguably two of the smartest men 
in a field that attracts mass attention, could mean a shift in how we 
educate. In this case, participants won't be able to get credit for 
the class at Stanford but will receive 'a statement of 
accomplishment' when the course is completed."

The 
<http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2011081701asee&r=2862921-73f3&l=004-408&t=c>San 
Francisco Business Times (8/17, Brown, Subscription Publication) 
reports, "Professors will use short video clips as lectures for the 
three classes -- Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial 
Intelligence and Introduction to Databases -- and will give feedback 
from 'live quizzes' as well as testing new ways of interacting with 
students." Classes begin October 10.

Also covering the story were 
<http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2011081701asee&r=2862921-73f3&l=005-8e0&t=c>The 
Atlantic (8/16, Estes), 
<http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2011081701asee&r=2862921-73f3&l=006-0ef&t=c>Slate 
(8/16, Fullham) and the 
<http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2011081701asee&r=2862921-73f3&l=007-ac3&t=c>Silicon 
Valley/San Jose Business Journal (8/17, Subscription Publication).



Andrew Y. J. Szeto, Ph.D. & IEEE Fellow
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA.  92182-1309
619-594-5723 
-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://attila.sdsu.edu/pipermail/faculty/attachments/20110817/c26cb920/attachment.html