<story><title>MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U</title><url>https://news.mit.edu/2021/mit-harvard-transfer-edx-2u-0629</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wodenokoto</author><text>&amp;gt; Breaking courses into useless 2-minute chunks and constant unhelpful quizzes. I really just want to hear the lecturer speak for 20-30 minutes at a time uninterrupted, especially if I&amp;#x27;m listening while doing dishes etc.&lt;p&gt;I disagree. If you’re doing dishes you are not taking a college level course. One of the best things about digital courses is that you don’t have to spend an hour zoning out to a professor talking and then spend a day doing exercises, but the two can be intertwined and knowledge can be cemented.&lt;p&gt;Of course it can be done terribly. But the best online courses I’ve taken have split things up into small chunks with relevant exercises.</text></item><item><author>benrbray</author><text>I tried to use edX for the first time recently to take a &amp;quot;food science&amp;quot; course, but was disappointed to see that they&amp;#x27;ve resorted to the same dark patterns as Coursera and others, such as:&lt;p&gt;* Removing your access to course materials when the class is done, and disallowing access to past versions of the class.&lt;p&gt;* Pressuring you into joining as many courses as possible, due to fear of missing out.  When you visit the site, every course says &amp;quot;Course began ($TODAY-5)&amp;quot; to make you feel like &amp;quot;wow, I got here just in time!  I better sign up for everything!&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;* Breaking courses into useless 2-minute chunks and constant unhelpful quizzes.  I really just want to hear the lecturer speak for 20-30 minutes at a time uninterrupted, especially if I&amp;#x27;m listening while doing dishes etc.&lt;p&gt;* An unsettling UI that feels less like it&amp;#x27;s about presenting information in a compact and&amp;#x2F;or digestible way and more like it&amp;#x27;s tracking my every move and waiting for an opportunity to pounce.  Everything is a button or clickthrough menu that requires interaction.&lt;p&gt;Thankfully MIT OpenCourseWare still has plenty of lecture videos &amp;#x2F; course materials available.  But I&amp;#x27;m quite afraid for the future.</text></item><item><author>brutus1213</author><text>This seems like terrible news :( After the focus on monetization of platforms such as udemy and coursera, edx seemed to give me a sliver of hope that education will be open. Given the immense trust funds held by Harvard and MIT, I had hoped money would not be a factor and these institutions would be able to develop their platform in the open.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d like to add .. non-profit does not mean free to end users. There are many good non-profits and there are many terrible ones (highly paid execs, insane amount of money spent on marketing).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>benrbray</author><text>&amp;gt; I disagree.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s something we have in common :).  My disagreement spans a few dimensions:&lt;p&gt;* I&amp;#x27;ve already been through school.  An undergraduate and graduate degree already taught me how to learn.  I have good habits, and I know how to buckle down and study when needed.  For me, I find that having something to do with my hands while listening to a lecture actually helps me stay more focused on the topic.  Before and after watching, I like to review the slides, do some reading, and take notes.&lt;p&gt;* I already have degrees.  I&amp;#x27;m not looking for extra credential.  I&amp;#x27;m just looking to learn something new from someone qualified to teach me who can filter out what&amp;#x27;s important and what&amp;#x27;s not.  It would be nice to have the opportunity to listen without necessarily jumping through all the hoops of a normal college class.&lt;p&gt;* Sometimes I already have background knowledge that overlaps with the course content.  In these cases, it&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; frustrating when a course won&amp;#x27;t let me skip around and focus on the topics that I want to learn.  The quickest way to get me to drop an online course is to make me sit through lecture content that I&amp;#x27;ve already learned before somewhere else.&lt;p&gt;* Different students learn in different ways.  You might like that the frequent quiz interruptions hold you accountable.  That&amp;#x27;s great!  For me, I don&amp;#x27;t find it too helpful.  Usually the mid-lecture quizzes are simple &amp;quot;are you listening?&amp;quot; questions that don&amp;#x27;t really test your deep understanding.  I&amp;#x27;d rather go through a set of exercises all at once after listening to the lecture.&lt;p&gt;Basically, I see no reason online courses can&amp;#x27;t be structured to give us more choices about how we want to consume the content!</text></comment>
<story><title>MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U</title><url>https://news.mit.edu/2021/mit-harvard-transfer-edx-2u-0629</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wodenokoto</author><text>&amp;gt; Breaking courses into useless 2-minute chunks and constant unhelpful quizzes. I really just want to hear the lecturer speak for 20-30 minutes at a time uninterrupted, especially if I&amp;#x27;m listening while doing dishes etc.&lt;p&gt;I disagree. If you’re doing dishes you are not taking a college level course. One of the best things about digital courses is that you don’t have to spend an hour zoning out to a professor talking and then spend a day doing exercises, but the two can be intertwined and knowledge can be cemented.&lt;p&gt;Of course it can be done terribly. But the best online courses I’ve taken have split things up into small chunks with relevant exercises.</text></item><item><author>benrbray</author><text>I tried to use edX for the first time recently to take a &amp;quot;food science&amp;quot; course, but was disappointed to see that they&amp;#x27;ve resorted to the same dark patterns as Coursera and others, such as:&lt;p&gt;* Removing your access to course materials when the class is done, and disallowing access to past versions of the class.&lt;p&gt;* Pressuring you into joining as many courses as possible, due to fear of missing out.  When you visit the site, every course says &amp;quot;Course began ($TODAY-5)&amp;quot; to make you feel like &amp;quot;wow, I got here just in time!  I better sign up for everything!&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;* Breaking courses into useless 2-minute chunks and constant unhelpful quizzes.  I really just want to hear the lecturer speak for 20-30 minutes at a time uninterrupted, especially if I&amp;#x27;m listening while doing dishes etc.&lt;p&gt;* An unsettling UI that feels less like it&amp;#x27;s about presenting information in a compact and&amp;#x2F;or digestible way and more like it&amp;#x27;s tracking my every move and waiting for an opportunity to pounce.  Everything is a button or clickthrough menu that requires interaction.&lt;p&gt;Thankfully MIT OpenCourseWare still has plenty of lecture videos &amp;#x2F; course materials available.  But I&amp;#x27;m quite afraid for the future.</text></item><item><author>brutus1213</author><text>This seems like terrible news :( After the focus on monetization of platforms such as udemy and coursera, edx seemed to give me a sliver of hope that education will be open. Given the immense trust funds held by Harvard and MIT, I had hoped money would not be a factor and these institutions would be able to develop their platform in the open.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d like to add .. non-profit does not mean free to end users. There are many good non-profits and there are many terrible ones (highly paid execs, insane amount of money spent on marketing).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lmohseni</author><text>&amp;gt;  If you’re doing dishes you are not taking a college level course.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes I like to listen to a lecture 2 or 3 or even more times.  Sometimes I like to listen to a lecture when I&amp;#x27;m going for a run.  Sometimes I like to listen while I&amp;#x27;m doing chores.  Seems presumptuous to say I&amp;#x27;m &amp;quot;not taking the course&amp;quot; when we know that learning styles vary so much between individuals.</text></comment>