lol, I wrote a little Javascript thingy to do that for me, but I'll try this for sure. I hate that they don't keep the course materials open indefinitely... and I don't get it either.
(I used to work at Coursera) It's actually up to the professors to decide - some of them leave them up, some close the classes. Sometimes they'll close because they want to improve the videos for next time or prevent super simple cheating in the next session, for example. We came up with proposals for how we could leave all classes open while also alleviating professor concerns, but I don't know how far those are along. There's a lot on their plate, as you can imagine!
Is there any way to determine which ones are going to be left up and which ones are going to be put down (and for that matter, whether or not a certain course will be re-run on Coursera the next time around)? I'm curious to know if the ongoing 'Startup Engineering' course ( https://www.coursera.org/course/startup ) will be put down or not.
Instructor here. We'll be doing a v2 of the course after a few months and will repost the materials at that time (we've learned a ton from the first MOOC run).
Awesome, thank you very much. I'm very happy with how the course has been going so far, and will have my siblings and friends take it when it runs again the next time around.
As a former employee, do you have any insight into how Coursera views tools like this? As I wrote in a different comment, this appears to violate their TOS.
Their only current source of revenue is through a signature track tier where you get a certificate that is verifiable with your identity. I doubt it will stay that way indefinitely, but for now the course material is provided without charge.
I definitely foresee a subscription-type model or a la carte via the signature track model. Either way, I think anyone would be happy to pay for this awesome education.
I think you'd be surprised. If you look at the stats, there's a lot of professional-level (BS/Masters/PhD degree holders) as well as a lot of students from (broadly) the developing world. I'd submit that both those groups are probably pretty price sensitive--especially the latter, many of which don't even have credit cards in many cases.
Would "adult ed" students be willing to pay some nominal amount--say $25-$50 for a course? Probably yes in some cases but remember the pricing discussions that take place here all the time. Getting from free to paid (in any amount) is a big barrier to get people over.
Arguably the case would be different in certifications actually meant something. After all, people and their companies spend lots of $$ on various software certifications. But that's a whole other topic.
It isn't a huge barrier if the courses are as legitimate as actual university courses.
As for the pricing question, the price of a can of coca-cola isn't the same in the U.S. as it is in Sudan. Once these MOOCS establish a brand, it will be easy for them to adjusts their prices to maximize profits.
Another example, I live in the East European xUSSR country, where average School teacher's monthly wage is $200 (not a typo). But the prices of milk, meat, bread, MacDonald's, coca/pepsi, ... are the same or more, compared to e.g. Switzerland.
Last time I checked, the meat was more expensive here than in San Diego.
So not everything is adjusted by income (in case of my country, housing and renting can be stated as significantly cheaper than in Switzerland).