The Next Web (San Francisco, March 30) -- Coursera has announced a new Data Science program in partnership with the U. of I. The program, which promises a full tuition at under $20,000, combines courses from the University's top-ranked computer science school with the top library and information sciences school to teach concepts like data visualization, machine learning, data mining and cloud computing. Also: The Economic Times (March 30), ScienceBlog (March 30), Marketwired (March 30), iProgrammer (March 30), ITProPortal (March 30), insideBIGDATA (March 30), BusinessBecause (March 30), Inside Higher Ed. (March 31), News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana, IL, March 31), Indian Express (March 31), eCampus News (March 30), EdSurge (March 30), Crain's Chicago Business (March 30), IllinoisHomepage.net (WCIA-TV, March 30), The PIE News (March 30), Education DIVE (March 31), Chicago Inno (March 31), Campus Technology (March 31), Quartz (March 31).
Related story: The Chronicle of Higher Education (March 30) -- As the costs of graduate education skyrocket and students demand cheaper, more-convenient ways of learning, colleges and universities are increasingly experimenting with so-called "stackable degrees." Think Lego blocks of college education, letting students start with a MOOC, then add a few more MOOCs to get an online certificate, then add yet more courses to get a traditional master’s degree. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced such a degree on Wednesday.