| [moved from top post to reply here] I have not seen the Harvard lectures yet, but if you want some specifics, here are some areas where Stanford is doing a fantastic job: * HD resolution, with SD as well for those who want that. * Excellent picture (good lighting, etc.) * Tight editing * Tracks between instructor, board, and slides very well. You don't get those moments where you wonder why they won't show you the presentation. * Very high quality audio. Good mic placement and use. Cannot emphasize this enough. * Courses are being refined in successive semesters, using what they've learned. They don't just put out one semester and then consider their job done. * Closed captioning. * Instructor repeats every question. * Great, useful topics of wide current interest. * Great web sites to go along with the course, with links to videos and course materials as PDFs and zip files. * Instruction quality (of course this is a given at most good schools; professors don't get where they are by being bad. No problems with this at Stanford). * Really the key thing you can see with Stanford videos is that someone is actively thinking about the quality and doing everything they can think of to make the entire experience great. My guess is it's because they see a future looming where online is more and more important, and they want to continue to be a leader in that new world, not just in the current one, and they realize that the quality of the whole package matters. |