[canistr]

As a current Georgia Tech student doing the Online Master's in CS, I wonder this too because it's the primary method of delivery for lectures.

For the most part, I'm not crazy about the Udacity platform and the lectures (they're too short, the mini-quizzes aren't always that great, and the platform doesn't feel like it has been improving in the past 2 years). However, all the value and learning is coming from the interactions with other students/TAs/professors on Piazza as well as the assignments/projects we do.

If you were to ask me how I would rate each component independently, I would say that Udacity is the weakest part of the experience.

[jonkiddy]

I'm also a Georgia Tech OMSCS student. I'm really enjoying the program.

I found Udacity/Piazza to be adequate as a student while using my laptop. However, my wish is for the OMSCS program to embrace mobile as a viable method of consuming course content. Which isn't the case currently and rather disappointing as I travel quite a bit.

[amttc]

Also an OMSCS student. Funny. On my iPad, it's less than straightforward to use Udacity on the website, and I've never been able to get the mobile app for the GT login. I have my IOS course bookmarked so I can watch the lectures on my tablet.

[aashu_dwivedi]

Another omscs student here. I feel that the udacity has played a big role in keeping the quality of omscs high.

Yes it's the professors who create great courses but the post production part of udacity is also a big factor in keeping the quality high on the courses.

[dikaiosune]

How would you rate the rest of the experience?

[nkozyra]

Not the addressee but it's spectacular all around. There are a few classes that have a reputation for being poorly designed/maintained and a few with somewhat "unreasonable" time requirements (ie 50 hours a week for a single class). There are classes where you only interact with TAs/students (which is fine) and some where the professor is seemingly on a 24-hour modafinil drip, there to answer any question posed at any time.

For the most part it's intensive and immersive with enough learn-at-your-own-pace aspects to accommodate full-time jobs, families, hobbies, etc. I feel like I come away from every class like I've actually learned something that's embedded in me.

Udacity is what it is: a platform for watching videos with some minor ability to interact with coding examples / quizzes throughout. I have no issue with it, but agree that most of the meat of the courses come from other parts of the classes.

My hunch here, through Thrun's quotes and some in this, is that there were some aspects of CEO at this level that really didn't appeal to him. How many CEOs truly get to be personally creative in their position?

[CardenB]

"There are a few classes that have a reputation for being poorly designed/maintained and a few with somewhat "unreasonable" time requirements (ie 50 hours a week for a single class)."

As a current Georgia Tech student, I welcome you.

[nkozyra]

Thanks, I'm more than halfway finished :)

I've often wondered what on-campus students think of the program given there are a lot of competing elements to having both at an esteemed CS school. I've tried thinking about my undergrad days and how I'd feel if there were an equivalent program.

[kageneko]

I was accepted to the program the year that the online masters was announced. At first, I was not amused.

However, I really really enjoyed my time actually being on campus. There were a few classes I took that would have been very difficult to do online, such as mobile & ubiq computing, where I got to spend quite a bit of time in the prototyping lab. I also had the chance to socialize a bit with professors and do some research with them. And personally, I don't do as well with online classes. I think it's really useful to have both kinds of programs. They're different experiences and they appeal to different people. Having both campus and online programs gives more opportunities to innovate in education.

[nkozyra]

Thanks for the insight. I would definitely prefer being on campus but don't think it would gel with a family + full-time job.

[canistr]

Interestingly enough, I recall Thrun mentioning some failures with a university partnership on This Week in Startups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHkbKXhihLk

[amttc]

I'm an OMSCS student. Udacity is fine. It serves its purpose. Sometimes it looks like the poor instructors are getting a double whammy of Georgia heat and hot spotlights, but the lectures are pretty high quality.

I'm not too far into the program, but the courses I've seen are built around readings, projects, and Piazza (a student forum for us to talk to each other in). Piazza is where most of the interesting stuff happens. For my class, there's the professor but also 5-10 TAs who are swarming Piazza at most hours of the day responding to questions. Once a week, there are office hours for a couple hours hosted on Hangouts. There's your normal midterm and final exam, but the courses seem very much structured around deadlines rather than mandatory participation week to week.

It's been good thusfar.

[orsenthil]

Here! Another OMSCS Student. I think, many of us associate ourselves with Georgia Tech than Udacity, even though we have some excellent staff who are full time employed by Udacity for our courses.

The technical infrastructure from Udacity is a low key here. But the partnership, enablement and opportunity in providing 1000s of qualified students to pursue masters is a phenomenal achievement.

Forever grateful to Udacity and Sebastian Thrun for this program.

[qntmfred]

this was the primary failure they're referring to

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/18/citing-disapp...

[mathattack]

Interesting. I would have thought the paid experience would be beyond the technical glitches of the free experience.