Online Education Pioneer Boots Up a Jobs Program for the Tech Industry

Sebastian Thrun smiles a little awkwardly as he explains why he no longer believes in the educational revolution he sold to the world just a few years ago. The lean, balding robotics pioneer has been instrumental in convincing investors, governments, and colleges to splurge millions on the online college education platforms dubbed MOOCs, or massive online open courses, billed as opening up quality education to anyone on Earth (see "The Crisis in Higher Education"). Thrun, a Stanford professor, helped birth the frenzy when he put his introductory artificial intelligence course online in 2011, accidentally attracting 160,000 students. Amazed by the response, he took time out from Stanford and also from a side job working on autonomous cars and other research at Google to found Udacity, a company offering MOOCs in computing, math, and physics. It attracted $160 million in venture capital investment and teamed up with San Jose State University to offer courses valid for college credit. But within two years of Udacity's launch, Thrun began to question whether MOOCs could make much of a mark on the world in their current form.