Representative AI image of an artificial intelligence lecture and online learning setup. (Image Credits: ChatGPT)
In October 2011, professors from Stanford University made their introduction to Artificial Intelligence as a free course and open to anyone with internet access. Taught jointly by Stanford research professor Sebastian Thrun and Google research director Peter Norvig, who expected few sign-ups, the course exceeded their expectations when 160,000 enrolments came from more than 190 countries. The course started on 10 October and ran until 18 December, forming part of a wider experiment that involved three online computer science courses offered by the university, according to Stanford Engineering .
The course was designed to offer students more than the scope of university lectures, wherein they could work through recorded mini-lectures, complete exercises, and take examinations, according to Stanford Engineering . Along with the artificial intelligence course, students enrolled in Introduction to Databases, which was taught by Jennifer Widom, and Machine Learning under Andrew Ng. Unlike a typical online setting where students can learn through online lectures, the classes were structured like a course of study.
As a result, the system generated different question sets for each iterative attempt a student made on a given assessment. Moreover, the design of the assessments was made in a way that allowed for repeated attempts. The one responsible for this interface was Stanford computer science professor emeritus, Jeffrey Ullman. Ullman had conceptualised a testing method that relied on a pool of possible answers rather than just the visible options on a single question.
