<p>Hey everyone! Recently I have stumbled across websites such as Coursera and EdX, and I have a couple questions I'd like answered. </p>
<p>-Would taking one of these classes be beneficial for college? Of course, I would be learning something, but do colleges care if you've taken any courses like these?</p>
<p>-How time consuming are the courses?</p>
<p>-If you've taken a course, what was your experience like?</p>
<p>Thanks! (:</p>
<p>I think this is going to become a future FAQ ;).</p>
<p>The main problem I see is that although one can get a certificate, and maybe even a grade (?), at this point there doesn’t seem to be any way to verify that the person signing up for the class actually did the work. I don’t have extensive knowledge of these courses, so if anyone else knows otherwise, please post.</p>
<p>Of course it never hurts to say you’ve done something like this, but at this point I don’t see it playing a substantial part in college admissions.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the input! I sure hope it becomes an FAQ soon! Anyone else?</p>
<p>I am way past college age and have “completed” over a dozen Coursera classes. By “complete,” I mean all video lectures, much of the reading, none of the tests. Most of the time, the classes were “live” (new modules released weekly); recently I started classes that had been archived.</p>
<p>I can say that if you want to learn for learning sake, it’s fabulous. (If you want to use these to buff your app. I have no clue how colleges view certificates earned.) </p>
<p>Since many of the classes are taught by professors at their respective universities, I think you can really get a feel for what is a good lecturer or a poor one. Good lecturers make every topic come alive and can explain the topic; poor ones can kill a great area. The ability to find these (good) types of teachers at college really can be to your advantage.</p>
<p>My completed classes have ranged from Chemistry (Rice), Archeology (Brown), neuroscience (Hebrew U), history (Princeton), drug development (UCSD), biology (Duke), astrobiology (Edinburgh), health care (Penn), and more. As a side bonus, I dropped several classes where the lecturer was what I felt below par (from some of the same schools listed above).</p>
<p>The price is right (free). The professors most of the time are good, sometimes fabulous, and once in a while even better then that. The structure of each class allows you to learn at whatever depth you want. The message boards work in much the same way CC boards’ work (ask a question, pose a topic, etc., and a conversation ensues). The professors even join these conversations! The students in these classes are literally from the entire planet and inject their cultural views in the conversations.</p>
<p>I think that this model has potential to revolutionize college - through improved learning opportunities and reduced cost. We are in the pre-game mode for these types of college courses. I can’t wait for the first inning!</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the input! Are there any course you would recommend taking for my first time?</p>
<p>It depends upon your area of interest, but I thought the best lecturer (and my college bound D agrees) was from Hebrew University Neuroscience.</p>
<p>I took a handful of courses through coursera and had a great experience. But I would do it just because I was interested in the topic (a topic I didn’t have the chance to take in college, something I want to learn more about, etc), not because I was trying to beef up a r</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! Yea, that’s why I’m considering taking a course. The enrichment would be great!
Does anyone else have any advice, opinions, experiences, etc. to share?</p>
<p>My D took statistics through Udacity last summer (before her senior year of HS). She knew she couldn’t fit stats into her senior schedule, and wanted to get some exposure to it before college. There is no actual credit, but she got the certificate and the highest ranking on it. There was no place to actually put the course on the Common App (or wasn’t last year, the Common App is revisted this year) – it didn’t fit with the high school or college course section. She put a comment in the “additional info” section about taking the course, why she took it, and what level “grade” she got.</p>
<p>Ok! Was it helpful for her? Was the class easy to understand?</p>
<p>TO be honest, I’m taking AP Economics in VHS (i do get college credit and my guidance counselor signed me up for it) and there is virtually no way my professor can know if its me taking the course or if its someone else. Everything is passed in online, homework, book notes, tests are also online, everything. One could literally have someone else take the tests, or pass in another student’s work and the teacher wouldn’t even suspect anything. Same for these EDx courses, and their “certificate”. I don’t see any difference from a certificate from VHS (they give a bunch of high school classes and middle school too) and EDx. However, i think that EDx is a great way to show initiative to colleges, nothing in this world exists unless its documented. EX. You could learn programming by yourself, but unless you pass a standardized test or the AP Test for programming, no one will give you credit for it. </p>