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Free Online Education is Now Illegal in Minnesota

Kandahar

Kandahar

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The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the state has decided to crack down on free education, notifying California-based startup Coursera that it is not allowed to offer its online courses to the state’s residents. Coursera, founded by Stanford computer science professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, partners with top-tier universities around the world to offer certain classes online for free to anyone who wants to take them. You know, unless they happen to be from Minnesota.

A policy analyst for the state’s Office of Higher Education told The Chronicle that Minnesota is simply enforcing a longstanding state law requiring colleges to get the government’s permission to offer instruction within its borders. She couldn’t say whether other online education startups like edX and Udacity were also told to stay out.



Minnesota bans Coursera: State takes bold stand against free education.
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According to Minnesota's Office of Higher Education, it isn't the fact that it's free and online that Minnesota finds problematic...it's the fact that the universities who offer these free courses through Coursera haven't obtained permission or paid the $1,200 application fee. Nevertheless, if free online education providers have to pay a shakedown fee to every local, state, or national government that wants to shake them down, it will be very financially difficult for them to operate.

Seems like Minnesota needs to update its laws for the 21st century.
 
Wow! Minnesota has just given itself an awesome black eye... :roll:
 
I think this is excessive, especially if a given group does not proclaim to be offering "diplomas" or whatever other equivalent.
 
Good Luck enforcing that law.
 
For ****'s sake. I bet the same douchebags going after this will try to use the increasing costs of education for their political campaigns too. ****ing assholes.
 
This makes an argument to get education out of the hands of government.
 
This, I think, is going to be the next revolution in education. Even some as simple as youtube is invaluable whenever I need to do some light plumbing or need to learn how to do something ASAP.

With websites such as this: Learn to code | Codecademy popping up everywhere.

Just popping up everywhere, I am hoping the next evolution is the growth of certification vs degrees in employer acceptance. Who cares how I learned something if I am verified to know it.

Education would be so much cheaper and darn near free if it wasn't for employers getting in the way.
 
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The authorities in Minnesota cannot possibly enforce this ban. The Coursera courses offer no certification, hence there can be no fraud or damage. Saying people cannot watch an online lecture, or write a passage or essay cannot possibly be prevented. They clearly don't understand what the sire is offering.

Btw, just signed up for a Coursera history course. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
 
megaprogman said:
This, I think, is going to be the next revolution in education. Even some as simple as youtube is invaluable whenever I need to do some light plumbing or need to learn how to do something ASAP.

With websites such as this: Learn to code | Codecademy popping up everywhere.

Just popping up everywhere, I am hoping the next evolution is the growth of certification vs degrees in employer acceptance. Who cares how I learned something if I am verified to know it.

Education would be so much cheaper and darn near free if it wasn't for employers getting in the way.
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I agree with one caveat. Some of those online degrees cost as much as a bricks and mortar degree so I am still a little skeptical of those. For an older person who just wants the degree, sure. But if an 18 year old asked me, I'd say "Don't do it."

Andalublue said:
The authorities in Minnesota cannot possibly enforce this ban. The Coursera courses offer no certification, hence there can be no fraud or damage. Saying people cannot watch an online lecture, or write a passage or essay cannot possibly be prevented. They clearly don't understand what the sire is offering.

Btw, just signed up for a Coursera history course. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
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UVA is supposed to be offering a handful of free non-credit online courses next year. I think one is a World History class in case that interests you.
 
Fisher said:
UVA is supposed to be offering a handful of free non-credit online courses next year. I think one is a World History class in case that interests you.
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Thanks, I'll take a look. UVA being the University of Virginia, right?
 
Yeah. It was something I read about the other day.
 
Kandahar said:
According to Minnesota's Office of Higher Education, it isn't the fact that it's free and online that Minnesota finds problematic...it's the fact that the universities who offer these free courses through Coursera haven't obtained permission or paid the $1,200 application fee. Nevertheless, if free online education providers have to pay a shakedown fee to every local, state, or national government that wants to shake them down, it will be very financially difficult for them to operate.

Seems like Minnesota needs to update its laws for the 21st century.
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Just another example of the government thinking they need to regulate the internet. I could MAYBE understand if this was a tuition based college, but it's a non-prof. I despise absolutely anyone who prevents the free flow of knowledge.
 
Fisher said:
I agree with one caveat. Some of those online degrees cost as much as a bricks and mortar degree so I am still a little skeptical of those. For an older person who just wants the degree, sure. But if an 18 year old asked me, I'd say "Don't do it."
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Reread my post, it was about the rise of free education websites.

Stuff like this

Free Online Course Materials | MIT OpenCourseWare

LearningSpace - The Open University

Khan Academy

The wealth of free educational stuff on the itunes store is another.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
Just another example of the government thinking they need to regulate the internet. I could MAYBE understand if this was a tuition based college, but it's a non-prof. I despise absolutely anyone who prevents the free flow of knowledge.
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Apparently, Minnesota's silly reasoning is that even though Minnesotans don't have to give Coursera any money to take the classes, they still have to invest their time...and therefore the government of Minnesota has the responsibility to make sure they're getting a quality product. Sounds pretty ridiculous to me.
 
Kandahar said:
Apparently, Minnesota's silly reasoning is that even though Minnesotans don't have to give Coursera any money to take the classes, they still have to invest their time...and therefore the government of Minnesota has the responsibility to make sure they're getting a quality product. Sounds pretty ridiculous to me.
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So perhaps Minnesota should be campaigning to have Jersey Shore and Pro-Wrestling banned from the state's cable TV operators.
 
Andalublue said:
The authorities in Minnesota cannot possibly enforce this ban. The Coursera courses offer no certification, hence there can be no fraud or damage. Saying people cannot watch an online lecture, or write a passage or essay cannot possibly be prevented. They clearly don't understand what the sire is offering.

Btw, just signed up for a Coursera history course. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
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If you're interested in World History, IMO the best (and most entertaining) free online course is John Green's Crash Course. I highly recommend it. :)

 
Andalublue said:
The authorities in Minnesota cannot possibly enforce this ban. The Coursera courses offer no certification, hence there can be no fraud or damage. Saying people cannot watch an online lecture, or write a passage or essay cannot possibly be prevented. They clearly don't understand what the sire is offering.

Btw, just signed up for a Coursera history course. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
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They're having server problems.
 
Kandahar said:
According to Minnesota's Office of Higher Education, it isn't the fact that it's free and online that Minnesota finds problematic...it's the fact that the universities who offer these free courses through Coursera haven't obtained permission or paid the $1,200 application fee. Nevertheless, if free online education providers have to pay a shakedown fee to every local, state, or national government that wants to shake them down, it will be very financially difficult for them to operate.

Seems like Minnesota needs to update its laws for the 21st century.
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Seems like a good idea to me. Education involves interactions and discussions. Online education is rote learning and how many companies accept degrees from there?
 
Muddy Creek said:
Seems like a good idea to me. Education involves interactions and discussions. Online education is rote learning and how many companies accept degrees from there?
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Coursera doesn't even offer degrees; it's just a collaboration of several prestigious universities to put their classes online for free. It's essentially the same type of work that you'd be doing if you actually took the class at Stanford or Columbia or wherever. The most you can get is a "certificate of completion" for the class, which may or may not mean anything to companies, but that should be up to the individual who is taking the class.
 
Kandahar said:
Coursera doesn't even offer degrees; it's just a collaboration of several prestigious universities to put their classes online for free. It's essentially the same type of work that you'd be doing if you actually took the class at Stanford or Columbia or wherever. The most you can get is a "certificate of completion" for the class, which may or may not mean anything to companies, but that should be up to the individual who is taking the class.
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Well, if it won't help in finding a job, then the government needs to kick this useless corporate involvement in education off the internet, IMHO.
 
Muddy Creek said:
Well, if it won't help in finding a job, then the government needs to kick this useless corporate involvement in education off the internet, IMHO.
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Why? It costs the person nothing. Learning stuff on Wikipedia probably won't get you a degree or job either...does that mean governments should ban Wikipedia?
 
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