Stanford University introduced vice-rector for online education at Stanford University

Changes in the structure of the top management of such an authoritative university as Stanford are quite rare. Over the past twenty years, only two new vice rectors have appeared there. This school year, computer science professor John Mitchell was the third . This is a strong confirmation that leading US universities perceive online learning seriously.

This year, Stanford offers 16 online training courses hosted on three sites - Coursera, Class2go and Venture Lab. In addition, a joint online learning platform , EdX , launched by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology jointly with Harvard University, was launched in spring . In summer, University of California at Berkeley joined EdX. While leading universities do not allow their students to receive distance education, but some less eminent institutions may already officially count the grade received online.

Most distance courses are free or very cheap, despite the fact that they are conducted by world-class specialists. At the same time, the total debt on educational loans reached one trillion dollars in the United States - almost 7% of US GDP. There is something to think about!