{"id":12089,"date":"2012-10-23t08:00:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-23t13:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=12089"},"modified":"2012-10-22t08:00:59","modified_gmt":"2012-10-22t13:00:59","slug":"getting-to-know-coursera-video-discussions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2012\/10\/getting-to-know-coursera-video-discussions\/","title":{"rendered":"getting to know coursera: video discussions"},"content":{"rendered":"

by katie mcewen, graduate assistant<\/em><\/p>\n

last time, we began our discussion of some of the shared features in coursera — across courses and disciplines — with the favored method of presentation: the video lecture<\/a>. \u00a0today, we’ll take a look at a less common approach, the\u00a0video discussion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

to me, a student and teacher used to small classrooms and plenty of interaction, the video discussions were a return to familiar territory. \u00a0finally, a class i could recognize!<\/p>\n

like the in-class lecture footage we introduced in our\u00a0last post<\/a>, video discussions require filmed\u00a0“live” interaction<\/strong>. \u00a0as a result, this format not only presents information to students, but also\u00a0models<\/strong> the kinds of discussions of ideas, texts, and contexts found in a\u00a0discussion-focused seminar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

however, we should keep in mind that these interactions are no less\u00a0staged<\/strong> than the screencast lectures. \u00a0discussions are carefully choreographed and edited to fit within the\u00a08- to 15-minute “chunks”<\/strong> recommended by coursera. \u00a0the result: neat, contained, and well paced discussions that bear only a glancing resemblance to\u00a0the sometimes messy\u00a0reality of a seminar course.<\/p>\n

certainly, the video discussions present an\u00a0ideal scenario<\/strong>: universally engaged students, who are articulate, interested, prepared, and always on task. \u00a0there is not a missing book, lame excuse, or sheepish look to be found on film. \u00a0in fact, students are often not your usual undergraduates, but rather\u00a0course tas or recent majors<\/strong>. \u00a0obviously, this improves the quality of discussion greatly, enabling a degree of focus and concise, critical insight difficult to achieve in a\u00a0spontaneous classroom setting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

perhaps this is why video discussions often forgo\u00a0embedded quiz questions<\/strong>. \u00a0the material, in general, lends itself less readily to the kind of “check-in” questions that test the short-term retention of facts. \u00a0instead, video discussions (again, ideally) favor the elaboration of more complex ideas.<\/p>\n

the format of video discussions varies by course. \u00a0let’s look more closely at a few examples.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
modern and contemporary american poetry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

in “modern and contemporary american poetry,” penn professor of english al filreis facilitates what he calls “collective close readings<\/strong>” of individual poems. \u00a0the videos focus on students — here, course tas and recent graduates from the english department — as they together work through aspects of a poem. \u00a0as a germanist, close reading is a familiar language; i find the discussions fast-paced, thought-provoking, and always engaging, the students terrifyingly articulate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
listening to world music<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“listening to world music” takes a different approach. \u00a0although the course features screencast lectures by the professor — carol muller, also at penn — each weekly unit also includes\u00a0pre-recorded discussions <\/strong>among the course tas. \u00a0these discussions model the comparative listening exercises students are asked to complete and guide them through questions to consider when listening to piece of music.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
a history of the world since 1300<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

video discussions, called “global dialogues,” also supplement the weekly screencast lectures in “a history of the world since 1300.” \u00a0in this course, however, discussions function more as a “panel of experts<\/strong>,” where the professor, jeremy adelman at princeton, facilitations conversation among his (very well known) colleagues –recently, for example, molly greene and tony grafton — including questions from on-campus students in the audience as well as coursera students.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
introduction to mathematical thinking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

finally, a rather unorthodox example. \u00a0one of my surprise-favorite courses in this round of coursera offerings has been “introduction to mathematical thinking,” taught by keith devlin at stanford. \u00a0mind, i know very little of mathematical thinking save a course in calculus i in my first year of college … in 1998. \u00a0but devlin’s presentation is so absorbing and conversational that his pen and paper almost become interlocutors. \u00a0the kinds of analysis modeled in seminar discussion are here applied to math, as he uses a verbal dialogue<\/strong> to lay out the steps in his thinking through each stage of a problem. \u00a0it’s unexpectedly engaging.<\/p>\n

next time, we’ll tackle another aspect of coursera:\u00a0methods of assessment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by katie mcewen, graduate assistant last time, we began our discussion of some of the shared features in coursera — across courses and disciplines — with the favored method of presentation: the video lecture. \u00a0today, we’ll take a look at a less common approach, the\u00a0video discussion. to me, a student and teacher used to small…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":12029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[191],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wp0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2018\/07\/09154346\/coursera-logo-300x2251.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12089"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}