Recently, a student in the class posted an article about people in the world being able to take online classes from prestigious universities in the United States. The article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion/sunday/friedman-revolution-hits-the-universities.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&smid=tw-share
I thought the article brought up many pros of teaching with technology. People from different social backgrounds are able to take classes that they never thought they could. Individuals from other countries can learn about intriguing topics in classes that may not be available to them. It sounds amazing, fun, and innovative. But, I cannot help thinking critically if this really is a great thing for society.
Yes its great because education is available to those who might not have access to it (ex. people in other countries), but as the article stated, class sizes are greatly increased. In the article, it states that 155,000 students from around the world have taken edX's first course at MIT. They then go on to explain this is greater than MIT alumni in the 150-year history of the university. I wonder what this is doing to the quality of the assignments and tests that are being distributed. The only logical form of tests would be multiple choice, because how on earth could a professor grade all those short answer questions (or perhaps there are no tests, which may be beneficial, in that case I retract my statement). Also, how could there be useful assignments? Someone has to be evaluating these students, but how?
Secondly, the article focuses greatly on other countries and what they are learning from our "prestigious schools" like MIT and Stanford. But I would challenge us as a country to see what we could learn culturally from them, so that this is not just a one way street. We are not the only country that has intellect.
I know that these classes will bring more good than bad, but I am just curious of how to manage that amount of students in an online course. I could only imagine it would be extremely difficult.
I find your questions about assessment very interesting. One question I had is: what the real difference between a class of 155,000 and a class of 350 (assessment-wise)? If it's generally acceptable to use online comprehension quizzes before class and multiple choice clicker questions and exams during class for 350 people, then why not open that class up to the world and reach 350,000? Of course, you may not think these assessment methods are acceptable for a class of 350, and without online discussion it wouldn't be the same for sure for the 350,000.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this is my stance on this issue, I'm still wrestling with your questions myself...
You raise some excellent questions, Chelsey. I hope that we will discuss some of these issues when we get to the online learning portion of the course- should be interesting! Beyond the problems of how to assess online students, I imagine that there are also issues with knowing whether a student's online work is truly their own, and whether they are taking online assessments without outside assistance. There's probably an honor code, but it would be interesting to survey students anonymously to find out whether they truly abide by the honor code.
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