By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor
warns us that “Students no longer receive their education directly from a person standing in the front of a lectern and the learning experience may now take place virtually or across augmented realities…. Faculty should take proactive steps to address potentially triggering material that they set students to watch or read online, prior to a meltdown occurring.”1 She provides insights into how to integrate trigger warnings into assignments and lectures, e.g., via eblasts and in-line messages.
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If you’re a teacher concerned about your students’ writing or a student searching for a way to upgrade your basic writing skills, here’s a MOOC that might address your needs. English Grammar and Style is an “eight-week course… starting on July 26 [on] how to apply grammar and syntax to ‘produce coherent, economical, and compelling writing.'”2 It’s being offered by the University of Queensland via edX. Last year, it attracted 50,000 students. Thus far, it has attracted 10,000. MOOCs are free, and students can take them in conjunction with their regular classes. They can log in at a time and from a place that’s convenient for them.
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, reporting from ISTE 2015, shared results from a study “released… by the Education Technology Industry Network of the Software & Information Industry Association.” Molnar says, “In general, the study found that the most critical unmet needs for K-12 educators are: Continuous access to adequate bandwidth[;] Access to the level of technology resources common to other professionals[;] Training in technology that is available to other professionals.”3 The dirty little secret in K-12 schooling is that precious little of our education technology dollars trickle down to teachers, who are asked to do more with less every year as the gap between technology and the profession widens. The question everyone ought to be asking is, Where are the tech dollars going?
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1“As Learning Moves Online, Trigger Warnings Must Too,” The Conversation, 3 July 2015.
2Tim Dodd, “MOOC Watch: Users Flock to Online Grammar Course from the University of Queensland,” AFR, 3 July 2015.
3“Educators Report on Uses, Wish List for Student Data in K-12,” Education Week, 1 July 2015.
Filed under: Instructional Design, Instructional Technology, MOOC, Writing |
John Mark Walker: "If educational communities can continue to push platform integration and content portability, in the future, students may be able to design their own personalized degrees from smaller, modular chunks that cross institutional barriers" (
Richard Koubek
Judith McDaniel
Tim Fraser-Bumatay: "Although the format leaves us far-removed physically, the online forum has its own sense of intimacy" (Judith McDaniel, "
Ryan Kelly: "For me to be able to work with people clear across the country for an extended period of time opened me up to new things" (Judith McDaniel, "
Daniel Herrera: "As a Mexican American, I know that words of identity are powerful; so to discuss white privilege with my professor and classmates in a face-to-face class would have been terrifying and impossible" (Judith McDaniel, "
Cathy Gunn: "Traditional methods for effecting change at my institution aren’t getting us even to a trickle yet, let alone to thinking about or planning for a wave!" (
Educational Technology and Change Journal 
Based on what I see every day, there should be many more than 50,000 students in this MOOC!
You’re right, Harry. The vast majority of teachers have yet to grasp the potential of MOOCs as a resource for course design. They continue to rely on textbooks and lectures while MOOCs such as this are freely available and accessible 24/7 from anywhere in the world. They really ought to begin thinking of MOOCs as a series of ongoing workshops that they can recommend or even require for students who need to brush up on basics in nearly any subject or field. Once students discover the value of MOOCs, they’ll begin to explore them on their own not only for basics but for enrichment as well. School and college administrators, too, should begin thinking of MOOCs as replacements for some of the courses that they now offer. This could relieve some of the burden on limited budgets. Students could receive credit for successfully completing MOOCs, and the best part is they can log in from home or dorms at times that are convenient for them and they can study at their own pace. I’d like to see basic courses such as this modularized into smaller units, from a day to a week in length, focusing on specific skills or skill sets. This way teachers could refer students to only those modules that they need.
My point is that too many people just cannot write.
A further thought: what about mini-MOOCs for learning something less than a full semester’s worth of material? I might love to learn something but not like having to push through an entire course to do so. The online medium has great potential here.