{"id":2636,"date":"2013-01-15T14:44:45","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T19:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/?p=2636"},"modified":"2013-01-15T14:44:47","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T19:44:47","slug":"online-courses-dropout-rate-future-of-open-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2013\/01\/15\/online-courses-dropout-rate-future-of-open-education","title":{"rendered":"Online courses dropout rate & future of open education"},"content":{"rendered":"

via\u00a0California to Give Web Courses a Big Trial<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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The program is an attempt to overcome the biggest failure of open online courses today \u2013 their 90 percent dropout rate.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Wagyu<\/a>Wow. 90% as a dropout rate from online courses is insane.<\/p>\n

I’ve published<\/a> open content since 2004, and have always wondered about the idea of taking it further for online education. I remember back in 2004 or so, there was a company called Digital Distribution (founded by Justin Clift) that gave you online courses using Flash. The company is no more, but what did survive from yesteryear is Lynda<\/a> videos (from the mid-90s).<\/p>\n

Now you have Udacity<\/a>, Coursera<\/a>, edX<\/a>, Stanford online courses<\/a> for certain classes and probably more – all with the focus of not just open education content, but testing, assignments, and more. Marking\/grading assignments is probably the hardest. Let’s not forget niche based stuff like Codecademy<\/a> or 10gen’s online education for MongoDB<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Signing up is easy. It’s continuing on a week-by-week basis with a busy schedule called life that I reckon discourages most people.<\/p>\n

I wonder if the trick is as easy as calendaring time to study. After all from school to university, you live & breathe by a calendar (more affectionally known as a timetable). Self-study is probably harder for the masses (as it requires self-discipline), which explains why you don’t find as many part-time students until a little later in life.<\/p>\n

How will apps & video play a role? Are apps the new channels<\/a>?<\/p>\n

I’m willing to bet though that eventually we’ll see the education becoming free, you’ll only end up paying for the certification. More self-starters, less student debt, overall a more productive world in a quicker fashion. For those of us that live in Asia, parents aspire to send kids to the UK, USA, or Australia. A lot of that is going to change.<\/p>\n

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