California Gov. Jerry Brown wants to expand the educational system of its state universities into the uncharted waters of online education. So, it contacted the private educational organization co-founded by Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford research professor and founder of Google X. Udacity, which creates online college degrees, will soon announce a deal with the San Jose State University for a series of remedial and introductory courses.
If successful, this will open the door to low-cost education for thousands of California students. This is also marks as the first time for a MOOC (massive open online course) provider to team up with actual professors from a university. Udacity’s pilot program will include web courses in remedial algebra, college-level algebra, and introductory statistics. Around 300 students are participating in the pilot program this month, and the cost for the three-unit court will be around $150, which is lesser than the university’s regular tuition.
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