[fc417fc802]

I never liked MOOCs because I didn't see the value add over youtube. At the end of the day I just want free and unfettered access the full list of video lectures. Accounts, course enrollment, fixed sequences, it's all just friction that gets in the way of actual learning.

They also (at least in my experience) try to force you to watch via the browser. It's far more ergonomic for me to yt-dlp a full playlist and watch it locally.

Luckily MIT OCW exists and an almost unimaginably wide variety of educational material is constantly being dumped on youtube.

[__rito__]

YouTube + a maintained webpage with slides, assignments, problem sets, midterm and final papers etc. is a fine combination.

MIT OCW is great in this regard.

But can't say that I didn't appreciate the interactive quizzes in MOOC platforms. They are really effective for me.

Fill-in-the-blanks type programming assignments are useless. But the written code can teach you.

In-video quizzes in Coursera is also good for learning, since they ask you something that you should be able to solve with video content up to time t, but they explain it later at t+1. I think the co-founder also mentions this in her TED talk. This is good. I apply it when I am teaching someone in-person.

I also did a lot of online group-studies. These are really really great. All you need is a Discord server or email group, and Google Meet. This approach is better than the usual MOOC setup.

I also deeply value cohort-based MOOCs with video meetings (like Neuromatch Academy) or without (like Complexity Explorer).

And I agree with your sentiment against 2-4 minute videos; slow web design, sometimes requiring interventions with mouse is not something I cherish in some MOOCs.

[kijin]

I could tolerate the accounts, sequences, and restricted environments if they were required for an actual diploma that is widely recognized in society. But they're not. The MOOCs are just following somebody's playbook for maximizing engagement or whatever.