Open Online Courses

choi

Holly Finn, Watching the Ivory Tower Topple; New online courses open to all constitute a thrilling collegiate coup. Wall Street Journal, Mar 24, 2012.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 93430981335366.html

Note:
(a) The first sentence: "Turn down the Rihanna."

It means turn down the volume of the song by an American vocalist Rihanna.
(b) Sebiatian Thrun
http://robots.stanford.edu/
("You can take my latest class online and for free at UDACITY. Udacity stands for 'we are audacious, for you, the student'")
(c)
(i) celluloid (n or adj; from Celluloid, a trademark; First Known Use 1870):
"1: a tough flammable thermoplastic composed essentially of cellulose nitrate and camphor
2: a motion-picture film"
www.m-w.com
(ii) celluloid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celluloid
(Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1862[1] and as Xylonite in 1869, before being registered as Celluloid in 1870; section 2 Photography)

(d) I can not find any information about "Piazza, Blackboard and Quizlet."
(e) For Ted-Ed, see
http://www.ted.com(About TED: "It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design")
(f) The article mentions "YouTube's EDU Portal."

www.youtube.com/education
(g) Khan Academy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy
(a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by American educator Salman Khan [born in 1976 in New Orleans], a graduate of MIT)
(h) For Napoleon's Peninsular Campaigns, see Peninsular War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peninsular_War
("a military conflict between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its ally, Spain. The war lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814"--resulting his abdication and exile to Elba)

Contrast
Peninsula Campaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peninsula_Campaign
(The Peninsula Campaign (also known as the Peninsular Campaign) of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862; emergence of the aggressive General Robert E Lee turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a humiliating Union defeat)

(i) Python Lists. Google Code University, undated
http://code.google.com/edu/langu ... on-class/lists.html
("Python has a great built-in list type named 'list'")

Python is a programming language.

(j) tutorial
(adj): "of, relating to, or involving a tutor or a tutorial"
(n): "a class conducted by a tutor for one student or a small number of students"

(k) Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE)
http://see.stanford.edu/

Click FAQ" at 5the top horizontal bar of the home page, and you will reach:

Frequently Asked Questions
http://see.stanford.edu/see/faq.aspx
(Q: "6. Can my institution repurpose SEE content into full courses and offer Stanford accreditation?

[A] SEE content may be repurposed by other educational institutions; however, Stanford will not accredit any programs that repurpose SEE content into their academic programs")

In other words, one can not get credit from Stanford's open online course--let aone a degree--from Stanford University.