How do Coursera and Udacity compare?

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Eric Mansfield

Here's a bare-bones fundamental comparison based on the 4 Coursera courses I've taken along with two partial courses on Udacity:

Coursera:

1. Courses occur within a fixed time frame decided by the instructor.
2. Course content is generated by a numerous professors at many institutions.
3. Course content is 80% computer science/math today, but liberal arts courses exist, and further growth in non-technical subjects is expected.
4. Course structure is at the discretion of professors, but usually combines long-ish video lectures (usually 1-2 hour per week) with comprehension quizzes and a longer assignment (i.e. programming).

Udacity:

1. Courses are available on demand; there is however a suggested completion time.
   
2. Course content is generated by a core group of technical experts with ties primarily to Stanford and Google.
3. Focused 100% on technical subjects (computer science, math, and a startup class).
4. Courses follow a consistent structures built around a short (<5 min) topic video, a quick quiz (usually a few lines of code), and then a recap. After the lesson part, a larger quiz section occurs.

Overall, they're two horses pulling the same wagon toward the goal of making education readily accessible and easy to deliver.

EDIT: The NYT also has its own comparision: The Big Three MOOC Providers

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