Stanford professor hosts open online course
An article by NPR reports that, last year, a Stanford University computer science professor named Sebastian Thrun and several colleagues decided to teach a class open to anyone with a computer and Internet access. Anyone around the world could attend, ask questions and even receive a grade, all for free. Stanford administrators however, would not allow credit or any certificates bearing the Stanford name to be given out.

Regardless, this is just part of a small revolution taking place in the education world. As Steve Henn states in the NPR article, nonprofits and start-ups are springing up, especially in Silicon Valley, in an attempt to transform the way knowledge and education are delivered to students. Thrun’s free, online course was a huge success. The course ultimately attracted more than 100,000 students from 190 countries.

Stocks started the week out stable, for the most part. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 11 points to end at 12,708, the Nasdaq lost two points to end at 2,784 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose a fraction of a point to end at 1,316.
The yield on the 10-Year Treasury note rose slightly to 1.92 percent. Gold also traded lower by a third of a percent to end at 1,673. Stocks continued trading lower on Tuesday morning with all of the averages down no more than half a percent.
Data collected from the Monday close and Tuesday morning open on Wall Street.

– Compiled by staff writer Chet Galloway