I totally disagree. What this gives students is a choice.
> 1) Until now, the majority of University-affiliated MOOCs have been free. This just changed.
You can take a free MOOC or a paid one.
> 2) I find it immensely frustrating that as CS people, we are lowering the bar for what it means to have a Masters degree in our field.
This provides the opportunity for thousands of people to obtain there master's degree without wasting large sums of money on tuition and upending their life for a couple years. If helping thousands of people means "lowering the bar," then so be it. Learning isn't a competition.
> 3) MOOCs will kill CS research.
I think the real reason CS research is dying is because the business model of academia is outdated (which, incidentally, is what Udacity et al are trying to fix). If I could have gotten my BS online for $5000, there is no way I would have gone to a physical institution.
> Undergrad teaching used to be the way academics supported themselves.
Right, and now I'm happy I can actually pay for my education directly without paying ridiculous amounts of money just to subsidize an outdated system. To call this a "dark day" is a slap in the face to those who are trying to make education available to everyone.
> 1) Until now, the majority of University-affiliated MOOCs have been free. This just changed.
You can take a free MOOC or a paid one.
> 2) I find it immensely frustrating that as CS people, we are lowering the bar for what it means to have a Masters degree in our field.
This provides the opportunity for thousands of people to obtain there master's degree without wasting large sums of money on tuition and upending their life for a couple years. If helping thousands of people means "lowering the bar," then so be it. Learning isn't a competition.
> 3) MOOCs will kill CS research.
I think the real reason CS research is dying is because the business model of academia is outdated (which, incidentally, is what Udacity et al are trying to fix). If I could have gotten my BS online for $5000, there is no way I would have gone to a physical institution.
> Undergrad teaching used to be the way academics supported themselves.
Right, and now I'm happy I can actually pay for my education directly without paying ridiculous amounts of money just to subsidize an outdated system. To call this a "dark day" is a slap in the face to those who are trying to make education available to everyone.