These additional courses were not the only changes Udacity and San Jose State made to the pilot, Thrun said.
Using data gleaned from the spring, they worked on improving the course content. Hints were added to difficult problems and the number of support staff was increased for helping out with online discussions.
There were differences in demographics, too. While about half of the students who took the spring courses were high school students, they only accounted for 15 percent of users this time around.
Still, Thrun said, SJSU and Udacity remain focused on helping these kinds of students learn and get a leg up.
“[A] way to achieve high pass rates is to be highly selective in the student admissions process,” Thrun said. “Elite private institutions are masters at picking the very best students, and consequently their graduation rates are amazing. We wanted this program to be the opposite.”
- What does higher-ed look like in 2023? - January 5, 2015
- Are ed-tech startups a bubble that’s ready to burst? - January 1, 2015
- Are MOOCs really dead? - August 28, 2014