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user-inactivated  ·  4250 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Computers Will Now Grade Your College-Level Essays - NYTimes.com

I've taken quite a few Coursera courses. The higher-level CS and otherwise technical courses are mostly great, introductory courses are awful, and the humanities courses can be fun but aren't really a replacement for actual classes. It's a fine way to learn new topics in a field you're already pretty familiar with, but I don't think it could replace undergraduate programs for getting people to that point. That might sound more negative than I mean it to; I love Coursera, I think it's a great project, I just think it really only shines in the graduate-level classes for students that have already been through a traditional university, as an alternative to just diving into an unfamiliar corner of the literature.