Beyond MOOC Hyperbole: Why We Should Support MOOC Experimentation … Critically and Carefully by Siva Vaidhyanathan
This is the first post based on the MOOC “Current/Future of Higher Education 2012“. (available at this page)
Since I joined this MOOC late, I ended up listening to recordings of presentations instead of attending live events. This one was for Week 1 (direct link at http://davecormier.com/edblog/siva.mov). Here are some key ideas as they relate to my work and experience:
- Siva Vaidhyanathan takes a Critical view on MOOCs based on his experience at the University of Virginia. High expectations of his university to offer MOOCs and some controversies around it.
- He’s still positive about Moocs and their potential esp. for the marginalized, disenfranchised populations.
- He’s hopeful that Moocs could help identify the best technologies for more traditional courses.
- Privacy of students’ data including grades – one of his concerns
- He cites https://www.coursera.org/, a website that offers MOOCs, apparently sensitive to student privacy data
- Another concern of his is the talking head mode in which most MOOCs are delivered
FInal notes:
Some neat courses I personally liked at coursera.org:
- Surviving Disruptive Technologies https://www.coursera.org/course/sdt
- Introduction to Sustainability https://www.coursera.org/course/sustain
- Writing in the Sciences https://www.coursera.org/course/sciwrite
- Social Network Analysis https://www.coursera.org/course/sna
