SAN FRANCISCO, CA – SEPTEMBER 20: Coursera Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Board Andrew Ng (L) and … [+]
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In 2011, Stanford professor Andrew Ng—along with the help of Daphne Koller—posted videos of his course on machine learning. Within weeks, there were over 100,000 learners who viewed it. To put things into perspective: Ng’s on-campus course would involve about 400 students per year. This meant that he would have to teach for 250 years to get the same levels achieved on Coursera.
Ng and Koller realized that using a MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) platform could be transformative for education. It would mean that many more people could benefit, regardless of geography or economic status.
While there have been many other…