[mikle]

I remember a time where "donation" wasn't a synonym to "pay for a job I did for free". The teachers offer their valuable time and knowledge, they shouldn't ask for "donation", they should ask for rightful pay for their time and the amount of value they create their students.

[coopdog]

They do also get the recognition from teaching the class. Andrew Ng is now universally renowned as a machine learning expert (I imagine the consulting fees he could charge to businesses could be immense). Martin Odersky's excellent class on functional programming graduated 10,000 new Scala programmers, which can only help his company Typesafe.

Come to think of it though I actually would send a donation if a large portion of it went to the professor, although 'to advance the field' and 'because it's my passion' as reasons for teaching do make for better classes.

[mikle]

Your points are of course valid. I was just saying there are many things one can offer the teacher, and donations shouldn't be one of them.

[Mvandenbergh]

>Andrew Ng is now universally renowned as a machine learning expert

I don't doubt that this has helped his profile with non-ML people - who might be in business positions to hire him as a consultant - but he was renowned as a machine learning expert before this.

[halo]

But, as the article alludes to, a key part of the attraction of these courses is providing super low barriers to entry and access to those who couldn't otherwise pay.

Asking for donations solves this problem in a simple, frictionless way and may even be more effective than upfront payment. I think you're irrationally opposed on moral and ideological grounds rather than effectiveness, which is ultimately what matters.

[mikle]

You might be right about my moral and ideological grounds, but who are you to say effectiveness is what matters?

Effectiveness without morality and ideology is just Sociopathism. To quote an old saying "The trains always ran on time during the Nazi regime".