Stanford Online is an educational initiative launched by Stanford University [1] which offers a variety of professional education opportunities. [2] As a part of Stanford Online, Stanford University created an open access OpenEdX platform which offered a variety of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in 2013, but that site is no longer accessible. [3] Online classes previously offered on that platform can now be accessed on an updated platform known as edx [4] that offers a wide range of online courses covering many topics. [5] Some of the online classes offered by Stanford Online on this platform are available free of charge. Classes can be accessed from anywhere around the world. [6]
Although Stanford Online was founded in 1995 through the Stanford Center for Professional Development, [7] it has a history that spans back to the late 1960s. [8] The start of the center began in part to the Engineering School within the University [8] which created the university's first TV network as a new digital medium for students to take professional online courses and earn academic certificates, undergraduate and graduate degrees. [9] Anoop Gupta [10] was a professor of Computer Science for 11 years at Stanford University and invented the program that became integral to the formation of Stanford Online in 1996 [8] and the first full-length online course available offered a masters a degree in Electrical Engineering. [8]
Students that complete programs engage in self-reflection throughout the process in many aspects to meet their personal goals. [11] At Stanford Online, students are able to engage with Stanford coursework at their own pace. [12] Students have the opportunity to enroll in complete degree programs or gain knowledge by paying to watch individual lectures. There are 12 graduate programs currently offered. [13] The traditional Stanford University Campus application requirements and classes are consistent with the Stanford Online model. Regardless of location, any student is able to apply to Stanford Online. [14] Stanford Online reaches students across the world. [1] Enrolled students are able to receive academic support through Stanford Online in real-time from Stanford Faculty. Students are able to navigate the course sequentially with all of the necessary materials included in each module. [15] There are classes available from various colleges and departments within the University available online. [16] Stanford Online has several learning collaborations with third-party organizations to offer material tailored to students' needs. [17]
The availability of this learning format affects the financial state of Stanford in many ways. [15] Students not yet enrolled, can participate in free courses in preparation for college at their own will. [18] Students can also opt-in to receive premium services that in turn fund the University at large. [15] These free courses are taught by Stanford Faculty and allow faculty to educate the broader public in this non-traditional format. [18] The free courses offered have reached millions of people across the globe to date. [18] [19] Stanford was the first to introduce learning programs offered virtually. The introduction of Stanford Online provides financial stability to the University. [15] Prices vary between degree programs. Some programs offered within Stanford Online charge reduced tuition rates if enrolled in as a group. [20] The difficulty of the various programs progressively increases depending on the category that the course falls within in accordance with Stanford's requirements. [9] Some of the degree programs offered online follow the same timeline as the degree program offered on the traditional campus. [14]
Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually involved correspondence courses wherein the student corresponded with the school via mail. Distance education is a technology-mediated modality and has evolved with the evolution of technologies such as video conferencing, TV, and the Internet. Today, it usually involves online education and the learning is usually mediated by some form of technology. A distance learning program can either be completely a remote learning, or a combination of both online learning and traditional offline classroom instruction. Other modalities include distance learning with complementary virtual environment or teaching in virtual environment (e-learning).
The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) is a public university in Adelphi, Maryland. It is the largest institution in the University System of Maryland. Established in 1947 as the College of Special and Continuation Studies of the University of Maryland, College Park for mid-career working professionals and non-traditional students, UMGC offers online, hybrid and face-to-face instruction at education centers across the Washington–Baltimore metropolitan area, throughout Maryland, and across the world.
A Master of Engineering is a professional master's degree in the field of engineering.
The New York University Tisch School of the Arts is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University.
Harvard Extension School (HES) is the continuing education School of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1910, it is one of the oldest liberal arts and continuing education schools in the United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, HES offers both part-time, open-enrollment courses, as well as selective undergraduate (ALB) and graduate (ALM) degrees primarily for nontraditional students. Academic certificates and a post-baccalaureate pre-medical certificate are also offered.
In the United States, dual enrollment (DE), also called concurrent enrollment, programs allow students to be enrolled in two separate, academically related institutions. Generally, it refers to high school students taking college or university courses. Less commonly, it may refer to any individual who is participating in two related programs.
The American University of Paris (AUP) is a private university in Paris, France. Founded in 1962, the university is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education in Europe, and the first to be established in France. The university campus consists of seven buildings, centrally located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the Left Bank near the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, and the Seine.
Laramie County Community College (LCCC) is a public community college in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in Laramie County, Wyoming, with an additional outreach campus in Laramie, in Albany County. The college also houses an outreach center in Pine Bluffs. In fall 2022, it enrolled 5,389 students, including 1,373 full-time students.
OpenCourseWare (OCW) are course lessons created at universities and published for free via the Internet. OCW projects first appeared in the late 1990s, and after gaining traction in Europe and then the United States have become a worldwide means of delivering educational content.
Remedial education is assigned to assist students in order to achieve expected competencies in core academic skills such as literacy and numeracy.
In the United States, community colleges are primarily two-year public institutions of tertiary education. Community colleges offer undergraduate education in the form of an associate degree. In addition community colleges also offer remedial education, GEDs, high school diplomas, technical diplomas and tech certificates, and occasionally at some colleges, a limited number of 4-year bachelor's degrees. After graduating from a community college, some students transfer to a four-year college or university to continue their studies leading to a bachelor's degree. Community college is tuition-free for selected students in 47 states, often under the name College Promise. Most community college instructors have advanced degrees but serve as part-time low wage employees.
Stanford Online High School, also known as Stanford OHS, SOHS, or OHS and formerly known as EPGY Online High School, is an online independent school located within Stanford University for academically talented students worldwide. It operates as a six-year school, serving students in grades 7–12. The current Head of School is Tomohiro Hoshi.
Andrew Yan-Tak Ng is a British-American computer scientist and technology entrepreneur focusing on machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Ng was a cofounder and head of Google Brain and was the former Chief Scientist at Baidu, building the company's Artificial Intelligence Group into a team of several thousand people.
Mt. San Jacinto College (MSJC) is a public community college in Riverside County, California. It is part of the California Community College system and consists of four locations: San Jacinto, Menifee, Banning and Temecula. Classes are also held at numerous satellite locations such as local high schools and online.
The UNC School of Information and Library Science(SILS) ( University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) offers a bachelor's degree in information science, a master's degrees in library science and information science, a master's degree in digital curation, and a doctoral degree in information and library science as well as an undergraduate minor, graduate certificate programs, and a post-masters certificate.
A massive open online course or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive courses with user forums or social media discussions to support community interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs), as well as immediate feedback to quick quizzes and assignments. MOOCs are a widely researched development in distance education, first introduced in 2008, that emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012, a year called the "Year of the MOOC".
Udacity, Inc. is an American for-profit educational organization founded by Sebastian Thrun, David Stavens, and Mike Sokolsky offering massive open online courses.
Coursera Inc. is an American global massive open online course provider. It was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a variety of subjects.
edX is a US for-profit online education platform owned by 2U since 2021. The platform's main focus is to manage a variety of offerings, including elite brand bootcamps.
Online learning involves courses offered by primary institutions that are 100% virtual. Online learning, or virtual classes offered over the internet, is contrasted with traditional courses taken in a brick-and-mortar school building. It is a development in distance education that expanded in the 1990s with the spread of the commercial Internet and the World Wide Web. The learner experience is typically asynchronous but may also incorporate synchronous elements. The vast majority of institutions utilize a learning management system for the administration of online courses. As theories of distance education evolve, digital technologies to support learning and pedagogy continue to transform as well.