Recently, I signed up for a MOOC to see what the fuss was about and to learn more about American history. So far, I can report the following:
- The lectures are really good, and I’ve learned a lot from listening to them.
- The readings, which are mostly primary sources, are great, too.
- I quickly realized that I did not have time to do the assignments, so I’m not doing them.
- That being said, the assignments are not as rigorous as I would expect undergraduate assignments to be. In the official class, there’s probably an exam or two and a term paper.
- Classmates evaluate each other’s written assignments. I’m not participating (see above), but I know from teaching that evaluation is hard. You want to be honest and give people ideas to do better next time without making them upset; if they are too upset, they won’t learn from the comments. (It’s not a matter of “everybody gets a trophy for showing up” but rather of human nature.) I was surprised to receive an email from the instructor noting that too many of these peer reflections were disrespectful and dismissive; they often did not appreciate how hard it is for non-native English speakers to do this type of writing.
Based on this experience, a MOOC is a great way to learn something new. It is not fully equivalent to a college course, and if we are not careful, classes could end up going the way of too many online discussions, with pointless nastiness and ad hominem attacks.
