University education goes online with virtual courses

[Jazzy]

As Stanford University offers a complete course online and fees in Britain are set to hit £9,000 a year, Emma Barnett asks whether virtual degrees are the future of university education.



As British students face the daunting prospect of paying up to £9,000 a year for higher education, there are increasing opportunities to learn online for much less, and in many cases free.



Earlier this month, Stanford University opened registration to its artificial intelligence course which is being offered free online to all.



Previously, the university had offered only introductory notes to its Computer Science course free online. However, this pioneering move sees the university, which students from all over the world pay thousands to attend, sees offer a complete course free of charge.



So far 53,000 people have signed up, including many from Britain, for the artificial intelligence course. The course is taught by Sebastian Thrun, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford, and Peter Norvig, a visiting professor and director of research at Google. Norvig is probably best known as the lead developer of Google's self-driving car.



The online course consists of two online lectures a week, digital discussions and a weekly piece of homework that must be completed in order for all online students to pass.



Rest of article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/educatio...ucation-goes-online-with-virtual-courses.html



Would you do this? Why or why not?

 

[Evil Eye]

If it's free, legit and interesting?

Sure, why not?

 

[Cranos]

No, I prefer not going to class and not having weekly homework, so I much rather have my current university.

 

[The Dragon Master]

So that's where all the new students are going. I'm all alone in my accomodation. Although this is a good idea it's personally not for me.