MOOCs and Liberal Education

Good provocation by Derek (always worth following). Again, the old Two Cultures divide returns.

I thought this comment was of interest to Liberal Arts Colleges: Justin Sipher, VP of libraries and information technology at St. Lawrence University, said the liberal arts colleges who have so far been lukewarm to the MOOC phenomenon might be making a mistake by "sheltering students from an experience of lifelong learning" that they ought to be exposed to. Even if an institution is concerned about diluting its brand with online offerings, students probably ought to be required to learn how to learn in an online course "just like you must learn a lot of other things as part of a liberal arts education," he said.

Justin's a fine CIO thinker.

Watters has a compelling argument for the rewriting of MOOC history. Fascinating read.

This is indeed fascinating! I find myself feeling a little silly that I didn't already know more about the work of people like Siemens and Downes, though I've started learning bits here and there as a product of my participation in our discussion group :) And it bothers me that publications like Wired, The NYT, and the Chronicle are complicit in handing us a warped sense of the history of online learning. But I do feel like "MOOC" as a term (like all terms) has meaning through its circulation and use, and as such may have been hijacked in some senses but may be "naturally evolving" in others. What I'm certain we do need is more contextualizing pieces from the folks who know - folks like Siemens, Downes, and Watters - so I'm glad she wrote it.

A fine talk (and must have been delightfully rude in that setting). Aren't you guys glad we began this program with the xMOOC/cMOOC distinction?

An earlier article by Watters...

An article that gives Downes credit for the first oMOOC (original MOOC).

Only a matter of time...

That's a big move. It also might be one more reason for liberal arts colleges not to engage with MOOCs, if they see teacher ed as removed from core mission.

This is interesting....how MOOC data is being collected and studied. Also, another look at completion rates.

Professors in the philosophy department at San Jose State University wrote the following letter to make a direct appeal to Michael Sandel, a Harvard professor whose MOOC on "Justice" they were being encouraged to use as part of the San Jose State curriculum. (See a related article.)

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Duke faculty reject partnerhsip with other universities to provide online courses. Not really a MOOC but I think all these larger online collaborative efforts are getting the same attention. I think I was most surprised by the last paragraphs...this "controversy" was over 1 proposed class (initially, then 2) offered by a faculty member...

The line which struck me was a quote from the faculty letter in the student newspaper: (students will be) "enjoying neither the advantages of self-paced learning nor the responsiveness of a professor." The temporal aspects of the MOOC are increasingly troubling me. I'd argue that most of the xMOOCs, at least, are not so much "self-paced" as "self-scheduled work within externally set pacing." I'd like to see that addressed in future iterations of these courses. There's a college that has already done this with their online offerings - UCF? Rio Salado? - where canned courses start every week if they make enrollment.

"It's time that we all calmed down." Good post from Cathy Davidson. I attended the HASTAC conference she references. I also did not hear anything about MOOCs anywhere...

Our own Tracy Mitrano poses a good question.

Very interesting discussion including U Penn's pro-MOOC president and the head of edX.

Millions of students have signed up for massive open online courses, and hundreds of universities are offering some form of Web-based curriculum. Most students aren't paying much for these classes, if they're paying anything at all. So where is all that knowledge-and all the cash-coming from?

History of higher ed...