Stanford Expands Free Online Education Experiment

What’s the Latest Development?

Stanford University will make more of its classes available for free through online lessons and lectures. The college will expand its educational experiment, which has already seen interest from hundreds of thousands of individuals, to include information technology and business lectures. “The new courses are Software as a Service, Computer Science 101, Machine Learning, Cryptography, Natural Language Processing, Human Computer Interaction, Design and Analysis of Algorithms I, and Probabilistic Graphic Models.”

What’s the Big Idea?

Technology has long made information increasingly accessible, from the printing press to Wikipedia, and now to universities themselves. Some professors are increasingly interested in making their courses available to the masses, who would not otherwise have access. It could be an economic boon: “Stanford will also be offering two online courses in Technology Entrepreneurship (how to launch a successful startup) and The Lean Launchpad (how to turn ‘a great idea into a great company’).”

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