I would be foolish to claim that Clockworks Academy is better than Coursera. The truth is, which is better depends on what you want from online courses. If what you want is what Coursera does best, then I encourage you to seek them out. But there are things Clockworks Academy can do for you that Coursera can’t, or won’t. Let me tell you about them.
Class sizes are smaller at Clockworks Academy
Small Classes
Coursera, like other similar online e-learning platforms, offers massive open online course (MOOC) format courses. That means that their business model and therefore their teaching philosophy depends on scale. What Coursera and other MOOCs want is huge class sizes (that’s the “massive” part of MOOC). The guiding theory behind Coursera and other MOOCs is that online classes have no theoretical size limit, and that massive courses mean each individual student can pay less. In practice this is sometimes good and sometimes … less good. As we’ll see soon, Coursera courses aren’t necessarily inexpensive, and the Massive part means that as a student you necessarily and by design get little if any direct interaction with your instructor.
At Clockworks Academy we’re not aiming for massive. Our courses are online, but they aren’t MOOCs. You’ll be in a small class with a handful of fellow students who will all have plenty of opportunity to directly interact with each other and with your instructor.
Enjoyment
Coursera partners with existing universities to offer degrees. Clockworks Academy is an independent online school that prioritizes your experience. That means that Clockworks Academy courses aren’t for everyone. We’re not a degree-granting institution, and we won’t pretend that taking a Clockworks Academy course will help your career. If you want education as a path towards increased income you are better off with Courseara or a similar institution. But if you want education as an experience, if you want to read for pleasure and think deeply for the joy of it, Clockworks Academy is for you. Our guiding philosophy is that education, knowledge, insight, wisdom, reflection, critical thinking, these are ends in themselves. The positive effects of thinking critically and carefully are likely to ripple through your life, but those ripples are side effects. The thinking is itself the goal. If that perspective appeals to you, Clockworks Academy is for you.
Cost
Clockworks Academy courses cost less
Of course, cost is a consideration. Coursera offers some courses for free, but many of their courses are far from inexpensive. You’ll find one-time application fees and processing fees, costs per credit hour. Since Coursera offers degrees they discourage students from taking single courses, and encourage students to work toward a degree. You should expect to pay almost $1000 for a course, and $15 000 for a full degree. That money may be worth it if what they offer is what you want, but it doesn’t exactly correspond to the stated mission of MOOCs as they were first envisioned. You pay almost as much as an on-campus course, but without a personal connection to your instructor.
By contrast, you can take a Clockworks Academy course for about the same cost as the accumulated application and processing fees at Coursera.