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Udacity: Sebastian Thrun on Ed Tech Panel at DisruptSF with Sal Khan and Joel Klein
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Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Udacity was a guest speaker at this year's TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco, a four day event that brings together the world's leaders in innovation. TechCrunch's Disrupt events are hosted in both San Francisco and New York City -- they are the most anticipated technology conferences of the year. As part of this year's lectures, Thrun spoke today about the future of education, alongside Joel Klein, CEO of the Education Division for News Corporation, and Sal Khan, Founder and Executive Director of Khan Academy.The panel focused on engaging students and empowering teachers. Sebastian spoke about careers being the ultimate outcome in higher ed, citing our Career Team's work, as well as our new courses -- particularly How to Build a Startup: The Lean LaunchPad taught by Steve Blank, starting this Friday -- as means of addressing this outcome.Check out some photos from the event on our Flickr Set.Watch the video below to learn more about this great event!
Udacity: What do you want to know about Udacity? #MeetUdacity
With less than a week until Udacity's first Global Meetup event, we want to know: what do you want to know about Udacity?As part of our live broadcast through USTREAM, Sebastian Thrun, Udacity CEO and founder, will be answering YOUR questions. Whether you will be tuning into the live broadcast or re-viewing it on our USTREAM channel, we want to hear your questions.To submit a question, please tweet it and include #MeetUdacity. We will be collecting all of the question submissions and picking a handful to answer during the broadcast.In addition to answering your questions, there is a bunch of Udacity team members and instructors who will be joining in to say "hello."From our Palo Alto location, you can expect to hear from: Sebastian Thrun, Udacity CEO and instructor for Intro to Statistics, Peter Norvig, instructor for Design of Computer Programs, Steve Blank, instructor for How to Build a Startup, Dave Evans, instructor for Intro to Computer Science, and Andy Brown, instructor for Intr…
Udacity: Secondary School Challenge winners announced; More than 14,000 units completed
Over the summer months, students around the world have been taking Udacity classes for a chance to win an all expenses-paid trip to Silicon Valley, sponsored by Battelle. On their trip, Sebastian Thrun, Udacity CEO, will take the winners on a tour through the Udacity offices and the Stanford Intelligence Labs.Since June, 408 teams competed with over 2,591 students participating in the challenge, and seven team shave been named the winners:The Top Teams are: Team Renaissance from Bergen Country Academies, NJ Team NYC from The Dalton School, NY Team Freehold from Freehold High School, NJ Gerard's Team from San Francisco de Asis, Dominican Republic Team Daphne and Aaron from Needham High School, MA Team FlyingNinjas from Texas Academy of Math and Sciences, TX Team DEE35 from Calday Grammar School, UK The rules were simple: two team captains, who must be attending secondary school, can form a team. From there, captains recruit teammates, who do not have to be attending secondary school, a…
Udacity: Colo. State University Global Campus offers credit for Udacity class
Colorado State University-Global Campus, the nation's first 100% online, independently accredited public university, has announced that they will be offering full transfer course credit (three credits) for Udacity's Introduction to Computer Science. This is the first U.S. institution to formally accept a Udacity course for credit. International institutions such as University of Freiburg in Germany, and the University of Salzburg in Austria, had previously announced acceptance of Udacity's computer science courses for credit.After extensive review by CSU-Global's faculty, it has been determined that the course -- taught by Professor Dave Evans from the University of Virginia -- adequately covers the content in any typical three credit-hour introduction to computer programming course. Students coming out of Udacity's course acquire basic knowledge of Python and basic computer programming skills, as well as computer science theory."As a university, CSU-Global supports accessible and flex…
Udacity: Where are the top 10 international Meetup communities
With just two weeks left before Udacity's first ever Global Meetup Event, over 400 Meetup communities have already organized, many of which are communities outside of the United States! Due to the fact that our international communities may not be able to tune into our live broadcast because of event timing, Udacity will be calling the top ten largest communities outside of the United States to say "hello" and answer your questions.So far the largest international communities that are in the running to receive a phone call are: Koyampattur, India Bangalore, India London, England Delhi, India Hyderabad, India Barcelona, Spain Pune, India Mumbai, India Beijing, China Singapore, Singapore Want to hear from the Udacity team? Grow your Meetup event with our downloadable organizer packet, which includes flyers to help you spread the word. On Monday, September 10, we will be announcing the communities that will be receiving a call here on the blog! Join a Meetup communi…
Coursera: "I had begun worrying about how I could bring the New Jersey campus experience to them; I ended by..."
“I had begun worrying about how I could bring the New Jersey campus experience to them; I ended by thinking about how to bring the world back to the classroom in Princeton.” - In yesterday’s Chronicle of Higher Education, Professor Mich Duneier of Princeton University reflects on teaching sociology to 40,000 students from around the world. This was one of the first non-technical courses that we’ve offered. For us at Coursera, seeing the forums explode with discussion and debate, and watching as a global community emerged was nothing short of inspiring. You can read Prof. Duneier’s complete reflection here.
Udacity: Picture of the Day: Udacity students in West Africa
Everyday Udacity hears from enthusiastic students who are taking our classes. Last week, we received this beautiful picture of students at the Open University of West Africa, some of whom are taking Udacity's Web Development: How to Build a Blog. Submit your student photos to social@udacity.com and we will share them with the world on The Udacity Blog.
Coursera: The Coursera Community, Now With Profiles!
We have many challenges here at Coursera, and one of the ones we think about daily is this: How can we offer a high-quality university-level class to thousands of students, without losing the benefits of a physical classroom, where you can actually see your classmates and know that you’re a part of a community with a common goal? One of the ways we do that is with our class discussion forums, where you guys discuss everything from where you’re from, what you thought of the assignment, and your thoughts on the future of the world. We love seeing the feeling of community growing in those forums, and now, we want to make that community more concrete by letting you share more details about yourself in the brand new Coursera profile settings. Here’s what my profile looks like after filling it out: After you fill out your profile and opt to share it with the rest of the Coursera community, we’ll add a link and avatar to your forum posts, so that classmates can…
Coursera: The Coursera Community, Now With Profiles
We have many challenges here at Coursera, and one of the ones we think about daily is this: How can we offer a high-quality university-level class to thousands of students, without losing the benefits of a physical classroom, where you can actually see your classmates and know that you’re a part of a community with a common goal? One of the ways we do that is with our class discussion forums, where you guys discuss everything from where you’re from, what you thought of the assignment, and your thoughts on the future of the world. We love seeing the feeling of community growing in those forums, and now, we want to make that community more concrete by letting you share more details about yourself in the brand new Coursera profile settings. Here’s what my profile looks like after filling it out: After you fill out your profile and opt to share it with the rest of the Coursera community, we’ll add a link and avatar to your forum posts, so that classmates can…
Udacity: Automate Boring Tasks in Andreas Zeller's Software Debugging course
In addition to Loviscach's course, Making Math Matter, Udacity is also excited to release Andreas Zeller's Software Debugging: Automating Boring Tasks. Why learn to debug with Udacity? Zeller says, "Far too many people waste far too much time on debugging. Yet, debugging is hardly ever taught at school. With Udacity, I can help every developer learn to debug more systematically, more effectively -- and sometimes even automatically."Zeller is a computer science professor at Saarland University in Germany. His work on debugging has had an impact on all types of programmers. Among Linux and Unix programmers, Zeller is best know for GNU DDD, a debugger front-end with built-in data visualization. Among academics and advanced professionals, he is best known for Delta Debugging, a technique that automatically isolates failure causes for computer programs.By teaching with Udacity, Zeller states, "Through Udacity, I can reach more people than I could have in my classroom throughout my career. A…
Coursera: Princeton Professor Mung Chiang hooks Coursera students up with opportunities
“Networks: Friends, Money, and Bytes” offered by Princeton’s Mung Chiang has enlisted a group of major companies and venture capital firms in the networking industry to launch a pilot program for enrolled students. These companies will screen the student finalists of ten project-like challenges (in social and technological network engineering) and explore opportunities to turn their ideas and prototypes into new products and companies. Pour your creativity and energy in this course, and “Networks: Friends, Money, and Bytes” may help create career-changing opportunities for you and your classmates. You can sign-up here here for the September 17th course.
Udacity: Solve Real World Problems with Joern Loviscach
On September 3, 2012 Udacity is proud to release Joern Laviscach's new course Making Math Matter: Differential Equations in Action, as well as Andreas Zeller's Software Debugging: Automating Boring Tasks (more information on this class to come). In Making Math Matter, you will examine real world problems, like how to rescue the Apollo 13 astronauts, stop the spread of epidemics and fight forest fires using differential equations.Loviscach, as both a researcher and a professor, is interested in applying digital media to education -- he has published 1,800 video lectures on mathematics and computer science on his YouTube channel, and he is known as the Salman Khan of Germany.When asked why he wanted to teach a course at Udacity, Joern answered, "Given that German students love my style of diagramatical, common-sense reasoning, rather than strict proofs, I'd love to hear what international students think about it." He also hopes to share with the world what it means to…
Udacity: Peter Norvig and Udacity host 13-year-old student
The future of education means creating a new generation of lifelong, self-learners. Last week Udacity hosted Danny, a 13-year-old Udacity student who has completed six Udacity courses, including Peter Norvig's Design of Computer Programs. He completed three of these courses with highest distinction, receiving a 100% on both the Intro to Statistics and Intro to Physics course exams. His parents and his younger brother accompanied Danny to meet the Udacity team and talk about the future of education. Danny meets the Udacity team (from left: David Stavens, Danny, Dave Evans, Peter Norvig & Andy Brown) Dave Evans, course instructor for Intro to Computer Science and Applied Cryptography, spoke with Danny, noting, "It's amazing what Danny has been able to accomplish! Young people like Danny give a great sense of optimism about the future. He's been able to learn so much, mostly on his own. He's gone well beyond what most people learn in college, and has visions for using…
Udacity: Proctored exam for Intro to Computer Science now available
At Udacity, we know that our students work exceptionally hard to complete the challenging courses we have to offer. As the online education lanscape continues to take shape, we know that many institutions are not yet ready to accept Udacity's certificate on its own. While we stand behind our certificates, we want to offer a pathway for students who need to take proctored exams to receive credit from employers, universities, and schools.Starting today, as one certification option for our Udacity classes, we are happy to offer our first secure, proctored exam in partnership with Pearson VUE. The exam will cover basic knowledge of Python and Computer Science as taught in our CS101: Intro to Computer Science class. It will cost $89 and students should allow for two hours at the testing center, although the actual exam is timed at 75 minutes. Click here to sign up and find a testing center location near you.Our goal is to offer several certification options for our students. For now, our&nb…
Udacity: Udacity August Newsletter: All the latest updates straight to your inbox!
Want to get updates on the latest Udacity news? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and receive the latest announcements from Udacity. This month's newsletter updates include: Four new courses are open for enrollment. Yes, one more added since our last announcement! We are excited to add Steve Blank's EP245: Entrepreneurship, the Lean LaunchPad -- How to Build a Startup course. Based on Steve's famous Customer Development process, you will learn the key steps to build a successful startup (or at least reduce the risk of failure) by "getting out of the building" to iterate and build a viable product. And remember, all of our courses are always open for enrollment at any time so that you can take them at your own pace. Check out our course catalog for one that matches your interests. Udacity's first in-person proctored example through Pearson VUE will go live on August 24, 2012. For more information, check in with us tomorrow! With 11 more placements and more than…
Udacity: One more week left of the Secondary School Challenge; 10,000 units already completed
There's just one more week left for students completing the Secondary School Challenge! It's been incredibly competitive with over 2,500 students participating on more than 400 teams around the world. As of last week, 10,000 Udacity class units had been completed and progress continues to mount in these final days of the challenge. The highest scoring team so far, Team Renaissance, has completed over 800 units since the start of the challenge on June 25.Kenny Song, one of the team leaders for Team Renaissance, has recruited about 147 students to join the team. Song has been ambitious this summer -- he has already completed four Udacity courses with highest distinction, and is currently working on two more."Udacity classes are a way to learn things I wouldn't be learning in school. Also, I have a summer internship that involved a lot of data analysis, statistics, and programming. I was actually using what I learned from Sebastian in Intro to Statistics in my work! I can't tell you how a…
Udacity: 3 ways to make your Global Meetup Day event amazing!
Kevin English is the Executive Director of Da Vinci's Lab, a non-profit start-up that provides unique education opportunities in math and science for high school students through public-private partnerships. Kevin is currently facilitating a seven-week Physics 100 Meetup called PubLearn. He is also organizing a New Frontiers in Online Learning symposium, to be held in early August for educators and key community leaders. He can be reached at KevinBEnglish at gmail dot com.September 15 is Udacity's first Global Meetup Day! Before your event there are three key things to do to make sure your Meetup is an amazing success.Step 1: PurposeFirst and most importantly, determine the purpose of your meetup. This may seem obvious (an maybe a little boring), but once you have clear statement of what you are trying to accomplish, the probability that you accomplish it will be much, much higher.There are two types of meetups: A one-time gathering of Udacians A recurring gat…
Udacity: 3 new classes open for enrollment
The tweets are true! Udacity is announcing three new classes, check them out below and enroll today!Classes starting September 3, 2012 Making Math Matter: Differential Equations in Action (CS222)In this course you will examine real world problems -- rescue the Apollo 13 astronauts, stop the spread of epidemics, and fight forest fires -- involving differential equations and figure out how to solve them using numerical methods. Enroll Now! Software Debugging: Automating the Boring Tasks (CS259)In this class you will learn how to debug programs systematically, how to automate the debugging process, and build several automated debugging tools in Python. Enroll Now!Class starting October 1, 2012 Intro to Theoretical Computer Science: Dealing with Challenging Problems (CS313)This class teaches you basic concepts of theoretical computer science -- such as NP-completeness -- and what they imply for solving tough algorithmic problems. Enroll Now!Note that all of our classes are open enroll…
Udacity: Download your organizer packet for Udacity's Global Meetup Day
Already, over 270 communities have been created on Udacity Meetup Everywhere! The largest Udacity community, Koyampattur, India, has held two study groups already, and their goal is to get 200 Udacians for Udacity's first Global Meetup Day!Live Broadcast on USTREAMOn September 15, Udacity students and friends around the world will meetup to celebrate in the spirit of "back to school" for Udacity's first Global Meetup Day. Since such a high volume of meetup communities have formed, we have decided to switch our dial-in platform from Skype to a brodcast format using USTREAM. Everyone can tune in to our broadcast LIVE at 1pm PST via USTREAM, as well as submit questions and comments via chat and Twitter. More details about our broadcast channel to come!Udacity will be the official organizers for Meetup sites in Palo Alto, CA, where the lovely folks at TrialPay have generously invited us to use their space, as well as in San Francisco, CA and New York City, NY. There may be a few more locat…
Coursera: Coursera hits 1 million students across 196 countries
It’s been nearly four months since we officially launched with our founding cohort of four universities, and only a few weeks since we announced the addition of 12 new universities, bringing our total up to 16 participating schools. Since we started Coursera in January, we’ve seen tremendous growth—from student enrollments to the range of courses we are able to offer these students (now at 116, across the range of disciplines). We feel incredibly humbled by all of the support we’ve gotten. Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve hit 1 million enrolled students on Coursera across 196 countries. In light of this milestone, we thought we’d share some interesting statistics about our students: Here’s our students broken down by country: Our social media demographics also show some interesting trends: On Facebook, 42% of our fans are female, 57% are male. After the U.S., our most socially engaged students are coming from Brazil, Ind…