Online students

So, KIPP schools (yesterday's post) take students who have not been very successful and help them become good students using intense engagement - with teachers, with administrators, with parents, with concepts.

"Udacity" is sort of the opposite.  When Sebastian Thrun started his online education company, where there's little interaction between teacher and student, tens of thousands signed up but only a fraction saw the courses through.  It is thought (by an angry-sounding teacher) that this demonstrates:  1) the need for teacher/student engagement to make learning happen, and 2) that only students who are extremely self-motivated and self-controlled can make online education work for themselves (the opposite of the KIPP student).

There's nothing wrong with providing types of education that help all sorts of different students.  That's what a free market does:  it supplies a product if someone wants it.  KIPP serves people, Udacity serves people.

Thrun explains what he wanted to accomplish with Udacity and how it is changing to meet the primarily STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) needs of business here.