My First MOOC

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I'm getting a Stanford education for free! Well, to be honest, it's only a single six-week, non-credit course. But I'm getting the expertise of a 20+ educator from a top-notch university. The course is CS 101, Introduction to Computer Science, and is open to everyone, with no enrollment caps. A quick scan of the discussion forums shows participants from around the world including Ghana, India, Phillipines, China, Pakistan, Spain, Poland, New Zealand, Australia, and others.

The course is being taught by Nick Parlante, lecturer in the Stanford Computer Science department and teacher of programming best practices at Google. Nick is hosting the course in Coursera, a free online LMS. The interface is clean and easily navigable, with menu items for discussions, exercises, lectures and general assistance. Each week there are readings, video lectures, and graded assignments and quizzes. And all participants are required to abide by an honor code that ensures all coursework is the work of the student rather than a collaborative effort.

Honor code

But collaboration is what MOOCs are all about. Without the possibility of instructor interaction (too many students), the use of social media in the form of discussion boards, Twitter, and Facebook becomes the road to success.

I'll keep you posted on how this MOOC works out. And enrollment is always open so feel free to join in the fun by going to the Coursera CS101 home page.