Can Anyone Catch Khan Academy?

waderoush writes "Even as name-brand universities like MIT and Harvard rush to put more courses on the Web, they're vying with an explosion of new online learning resources like Coursera, Udacity, Udemy, Dabble, Skillshare, and, of course, Khan Academy. With 3,200 videos on YouTube and 4 million unique visitors a month, Sal Khan's increasingly entertaining creation is the competitor that traditional universities need to beat if they want to have a role in inspiring the next generation of leaders and thinkers. Lately Khan's organization has been snapping up some of YouTube's most creative educational-video producers, including 'Doodling in Math Class' creator Vi Hart and Smarthistory founders Beth Harris and Steven Zucker. Universities are investing millions in software for 'massive online open courses' or MOOCs, but unless they can figure out how to make their material fun as well as instructive, Khan may have an insurmountable lead." The Chronicle of Higher Education has a related article about the above-mentioned Coursera, and how they plan to make money off of free courses. A contract the company signed with the University of Michigan suggests they aren't quite sure yet.

Comments

Re:Degree

[Hatta]

I fail to understand why so many MBAs hate unions when they refuse to hire someone without an MBA, thus creating their own union.

MBAs hate unions because unions have power that's not controlled by business. The de facto MBA union is controlled by business interests, so it's OK.

Don't think for a second that their opposition to unions is in any way principled. The goal of every MBA is to maximally exploit everyone and everything. Unions are an obstacle to that. That is all.