{"id":11820,"date":"2012-09-19t07:00:11","date_gmt":"2012-09-19t12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=11820"},"modified":"2012-09-18t14:21:45","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18t19:21:45","slug":"vanderbilts-newest-digital-learning-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2012\/09\/vanderbilts-newest-digital-learning-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"vanderbilt’s newest digital learning initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>by derek bruff, cft director<\/em><\/p>\n

this morning vanderbilt announced a new partnership with the digital learning consortium coursera<\/strong>.\u00a0 coursera is an online platform for open-access, non-credit classes, available at no cost to participants.\u00a0 such courses have been dubbed \u201cmoocs,\u201d or massive open online courses<\/strong>, and vanderbilt faculty will offer five such courses via coursera this spring, in the fields of computer science, nursing, english, management, and bioinformatics.\u00a0 see the vanderbilt press release<\/a> for more information on the partnership, as well as thoughts on this initiative from chancellor zeppos.<\/p>\n

the term \u201cmooc\u201d dates<\/a> back<\/a> to 2008, when george siemens and stephen downes offered a course called \u201cconnectivism and connective knowledge\u201d through the university of manitoba to over two thousand students around the world<\/strong>. \u00a0that course, and subsequent \u201cconnectivist\u201d moocs, emphasized peer-to-peer learning across multiple platforms, including course management systems, blogs, video chat, and so on.\u00a0 more recent moocs, such as those offered by coursera, utilize instructor-created videos, discussion forums, and other tools embedded in a single platform, although students in some of these moocs have collaborated outside those platforms<\/a> in interesting ways.\u00a0 all moocs are characterized by their openness, enabling anyone across the world with an internet connection to participate.\u00a0 as a result, most moocs have thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of participants.<\/p>\n

let that sink in for a moment.\u00a0 maybe your class has 50 students in it.\u00a0 perhaps you\u2019ve taught one of the larger courses on campus with 200 students in a section.\u00a0 can you imagine teaching a class with 20,000 students?<\/strong> you can\u2019t know all their names, much less their individual backgrounds and reasons for taking your course.\u00a0 you can\u2019t have them all assemble online at the same time since they\u2019re scattered throughout a dozen different time zones.\u00a0 and you can\u2019t give each student personal feedback on his or her learning, on the student\u2019s attempts to put what you\u2019re teaching into practice.<\/p>\n

an online course with potentially tens of thousands of students is a very different teaching environment than face-to-face courses or even \u201ctraditional\u201d online courses.\u00a0 teaching strategies practiced in other teaching contexts won\u2019t necessarily translate well to this context.<\/strong> indeed, the sets of choices regarding learning objectives, content presentation, assessment, and instructor-to-student and student-to-student interaction are still being developed in this emergent teaching environment.<\/p>\n

this brings me to the three primary reasons that the 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 is involved in vanderbilt\u2019s new coursera partnership:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. to help vanderbilt\u2019s coursera faculty explore their options for teaching in this new setting,<\/li>\n
  2. to investigate what kinds of learning can happen on this scale and what teaching choices help facilitate that learning, and<\/li>\n
  3. to determine how massive open online courses and related technologies might enhance teaching and learning here on vanderbilt\u2019s campus.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    i\u2019ll address these reasons in order.<\/p>\n

    supporting coursera faculty:<\/strong><\/span> the cft offers teaching consultation services to all vanderbilt instructors, faculty and graduate student, online and face-to-face.\u00a0 although the novelty of the coursera platform means that any consultations we offer to vanderbilt\u2019s coursera faculty will take more preparation than our usual consultations, such consultations fit squarely within the cft\u2019s services to the vanderbilt teaching community.\u00a0 see our new teaching guide on moocs<\/a> for information on cft support for coursera faculty as well as an overview of common (and uncommon) teaching practices used in recent coursera courses.\u00a0 and please note that we\u2019re prepared to extend the same kind of support to any vanderbilt faculty member teaching moocs, regardless of platform.<\/p>\n

    investigating teaching and learning in moocs: <\/strong><\/span>the mooc concept raises several interesting questions about teaching and learning:<\/p>\n