I think independent study groups are the big win from this. This isn't the first time high quality videos have been online (the full "regular" ML class can be viewed on youtube), but because it's more "real-time" it allows for groups of people to work through the material together. It would be significantly more difficult to co-ordinate that with the MIT videos that you can watch whenever you'd like.

Both are great resources, and I don't know that the Stanford classes will be able to sustain their ability to get people to create their own study groups. Our study group here in Cleveland Ohio gets 5 - 10 people each week, but we're drawing from areas almost an hour away. Future ML and AI classes will have a tougher time having that same draw, as those most interested will have already gone through the material and would be much less likely to drive an hour each week for a study group.

Survey classes like the ML and AI class work very well with this format. I'm looking forward to seeing how it fits with more specific classes. There are times in the AI class that are a bit "hand-wavy", which is OK for an over-view/survey class. I'd find that a bit more annoying on something like the upcoming natural language processing class.

"Future ML and AI classes will have a tougher time having that same draw"

Really? Or are you pioneers? I know reading your comment just greatly increased the probability that I will take another class (currently in db-class) and seek out a study group next time.

I'm a big fan of the study group setting for these classes. It's been a great way to find and work with like-minded people. I'd encourage you to find one for future classes, but I'm not sure how sustainable they are.

The AI and ML classes drew a lot of attention to start with (over 100k signups). Follow up or repeat classes will obviously draw less interest. I'm interested in seeing how that translates to viable study group sizes. The good news is that the minimum viable size of a study group is fairly small.