Recently, the popular and edgy (for an airline anyway) JetBlue Air announced a partnership with Coursera that will make ten Coursera MOOCs part of a set of new inflight “Edutainment” options (alongside other content from organizations like National Geographic). Interestingly, only one of the courses on offer (an Introduction to Marketing MOOC from the Wharton […]
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MOOC Grading
One of the more challenging aspects of working with a MOOC provider to improve assessments (or, as I prefer to call them: “Active Learning Components”) is what all this assessment (sorry “Active Learning”) is supposed to add up to. After all, the way to improve MOOC quizzes and exams is by applying appropriate elements of […]
Rebekah Nathan’s Freshman Year
I just finished a book that provides an interesting response to the question I hinted at in my last posting, namely, what makes up that component of the college experience that seems to command so much more of the cost of college than do classes alone? My Freshman Year, by Rebekah Nathan (a pseudonym, for […]
Hogwarts is Here! – MOOC from Other Worlds
Tomorrow morning, I plan to record an interview with Russell Beale, one of the people behind the MOOC provider FutureLearn, a platform launched by Britain’s venerable Open University (the world’s oldest and still largest distance-education institution). A quick scan of their site demonstrates the success FutureLearn has had drawing in well-known British institutions such as […]
MOOC Platforms
I recently received a note from American Online congratulating me for having been a user of their mail service for twenty years. Unsurprisingly, my kids greeted the news with a sneer followed by an eye roll. For they, after all, are far more hip than either I or their mom (another AOL user) having revolted […]
MOOCs and Critical Thinking
Another point Daphne Koller brought up in that Ted video I mentioned yesterday was that MOOCs, especially if they were implemented as part of a flipped classroom, would enable professors to spend less time lecturing and more time helping students master important skills, notably critical thinking. Having spent the last several years trying to figure […]
MOOCs and the Flipped Classroom
I suddenly remembered that piece I wanted to write before getting into the whole backlash backlash last week. So with Thanksgiving break looming, time to take a look at the latest role MOOC makers are hoping their programs will play: supporting the flipping of the classroom. For the few of you reading this who aren’t […]
Coursera Learning Hubs
We interrupt this week’s Obviousity Experiment to talk about today’s announcement by Coursera of their new Global Learning Hub program. As they describe in this press release, these new Learning Hubs “will offer people around the world physical spaces where they can access the Internet to take a Coursera course, while learning alongside peers in […]
MOOC-ing Together – Personal Experiences
Given that pace required to learn the equivalent of a liberal arts BA in just twelve months using only MOOCs and other forms of free learning, the time I’ve dedicated to learning within a community has been fairly minimal. I’ve commented previously on the lack of reward for participating in discussion forums (although if and […]
MOOC-ing Together – Prefab Learning Groups
I mentioned yesterday that creating a study group (physical or virtual) out of the enrollee pool of a MOOC class (even a huge one) is tough to pull off. But that might just be because by the time a class has started, it’s too late to create a learning community to take the course together. […]
