@andrewkng

smarterplanet:

Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng share a vision in which anyone, no matter how destitute, can expand their minds and prospects with lessons from the world’s top universities.
That dream was joined this week by a dozen vaunted academic institutions including Duke University, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The schools will add online versions of classes to Coursera.org, a website launched by Stanford University professors Koller and Ng early this year with debut offerings from Princeton, Stanford and two other US universities. “We have a vision where students everywhere around the world, regardless of country, family circumstances or financial circle have access to top quality education whether to expand their minds or learn valuable skills,” Koller said. “Where education becomes a right, not a privilege.” Academic institutions are increasingly turning to the Internet as an educational platform. A Khan Academy website created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate Salman Khan provides thousands of video lectures. The nonprofit behind prestigious TED gatherings recently launched a TED-Ed channel at YouTube that teams accomplished teachers with talented animators to make videos that captivate while they educate. In May, Harvard University and MIT announced that they were teaming up to expand their online education programs — and invited other institutions to jump on board. Called edX, the $60 million joint venture builds on MIT’s existing MITx platform that enables video lesson segments, embedded quizzes, immediate feedback, online laboratories and student-paced learning.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-07-coursera-college-courses-free-online.html#jCp