MOOC Mythbuster – What MOOCs are and what they aren’t

“Welcome to the college education revolution. Big breakthroughs happen when what is suddenly possible meets what is desperately necessary.” Thomas Friedman, Come the Revolution,  NYT

Mr. Friedman is right – and though he doesn’t mention MOOCs directly in the article, the ‘revolution’ he is speaking of is in the near future with the launch of  edX and Coursera by the Ivy Universities. This past week I’ve been following a number of blog posts and articles about MOOCs, Massive Open and Online Courses, of which Coursera’s model is based upon [edX I predict will be something different], yet there’s been much speculation, misconceptions, exaggerations and misinformation. It’s time to clear the air – in this post I’ll define what MOOCs are and are not, what the skeptics are saying, and I’ll conclude the post with an attempt to clarify the differences (and similarities), between MOOCs, online courses for credit, and traditional face-to-face courses.

Recent headlines read, Will MOOC’s provide SuperStar Teaching?, or Playing the role of the MOOC Skeptic: 7 Concerns, and Then who do we Shoot?  What’s going on here is an illustration of the clash, the collision between learning theories which may be viewed as a threat to traditional higher-ed learning – and Glader at Wired Academic says it this way, “Carey sees MOOCs setting up a power struggle between the two coasts of knowledge power – the West Coast, Silicon Valley-based tech sector and the DC to Boston corridor of Ivy League and elite colleges” (Glader, 2012). Wow, time to roll up the sleeves…

How MOOCs Work
First, let’s break down what’s really going on before we don the fighting gloves – the traditional model of higher education is being challenged – the ‘course’ where the professor lectures, delivers the content, student uses a textbook, complete assignments and is assessed –  is at the crux of the matter.  Note however, that MOOCs include similar core components of the traditional ‘course’, there are three as outlined by Stephen Downes, [educator, researcher and founder of the MOOCs] in his essay, Introducing my Work (2012, p 35) which are:

1. Open Content
2. Open Instruction
3. Open Assessment

You may notice the similarities between what Downes outlines and traditional education: content, instruction, assessment, yet its the word OPEN that differentiates how a student participating in a Massive Open Online Courses goes about learning. The other fundamental difference is the presupposition on how learning happens, and the pedagogy that goes along with it.

Origins of the MOOC
MOOCs are a vehicle for learning and are based on a theory of open education and how people learn – a theory called connectivism as coined by Stephen Downes.  Downes launched the first MOOC  in 2008 with George Siemens (Downes, 2012) and MOOCs are based upon their extensive research on how people learn, and upon the premise that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks. Downes describes his learning theory further in his e-book,

“I have expressed my (very unoriginal) theory of pedagogy very simply: to teach is to model and
demonstrate, to learn is to practice and reflect. Both teaching and learning consist of talking
about and of doing. Theorizing and practicing. Abstracting and making concrete.”

How MOOCs work
For MOOCs to be successful, certain conditions have to be in place. One fundamental is the motivation of the learner, where the learner actively participates because he or she wants to learn and thus constructs knowledge based upon his or her input and activity/engagement in the course. Learning, in other words is not passive. I’ve excerpted instructions to students from Stephen Downes book, delivered at the beginning of a MOOC:

“This type of course is called a connectivist course and is based upon four types of activities.”

1. Aggregate: [students engage with content at this phase – lectures from experts, daily content links provided through course news letter, reading content on Web]
2. Remix: [students are encouraged to dialogue with peers and communicate about content and what they are learning, either through blogs, discussion boards or chat]
3. Re-purpose: [students construct or create knowledge]
4. Feed Forward– [students are encouraged to publish what they learned through blogs, or any other ‘open’ venue, in other words ‘share’ their knowledge]

The Myths debunked…
When reviewing the slew of recent blog posts and articles, it appears that numerous authors are seeing the MOOC as one dimensional, as a mode of delivering the lecture [content] and that’s it, without considering the other components involved in the learning process – the interaction, the communication etc.. We see an example of this in Glader’s article, “He [professor] compares online teaching to hosting a TV show rather than a classroom, which functions more like a play..“,  or this misconception as reported in Inside Higher Ed’s article on the 7 concerns of MOOCs, “1. Education Requires Dialogue: Massively open online courses are wonderful things, but they should not be confused with a higher education.” (Kim, 2012).  With all due respect to Mr. Kim, he’s got it wrong – the point of MOOCs is the dialogue, the interaction the construction of knowledge and re-purposing and ‘feeding forward’. This is where learning lives and breathes.

See below for the chart I put together which attempts to clarify the differences between MOOCs, Online Course and traditional f2f courses for college credit.

I hope this sheds a small bit of light what MOOC’s are and are not.  More to unfold over the next few weeks and months, stay tuned.

Resources:
Come the Revolution, Thomas Friedman, The New York Times

Connectivism and Connected Knowledge, [e-book for download] Stephen Downes Web

Will MOOCS Promote SuperStar Teaching over Stuperstar Research at Princeton and other Ivy universities? Paul Glader, Wired Academic

Playing the Role of the MOOC Skeptic: 7 Concerns, Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

Then who do we Shoot?  More or Less Bunk, Blog

Critical thinking in the Online Classroom

This is part 3 in a 3 part series discussing the concept of ‘presence’ in online learning communities.

I’ve been writing about online presence in this series and though complex, it is best understood by the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model, a framework of three dimensions that work together to create what I call a complete learning experience (though the  creators of the model call it an ‘educational experience’ where all three coincide (Garrison et al., 2000). In part one, I reviewed instructor presence  and part two, social presence. Though this third dimension is officially labeled ‘cognitive presence‘ I have made reference to critical thinking, as this is what should be happening in the cognitive presence domain, which I’ll elaborate on further in the post. I’ll also provide several examples of what cognitive presence looks like (or sounds like as I’ll be using actual student feedback to illustrate), and for those interested, practical strategies to build and support cognitive presence (critical thinking) in an online learning community.

What is Cognitive Presence?
I thought social presence was the most abstract and elusive, but I was wrong, it’s this dimension, Cognitive Presence that is the hardest to get my head around and put on paper. It’s in this dimension where all the action is – where the student learns – thinks critically – he or she goes through the process of constructing knowledge, inquiring, exploring, and thinking. This model is interesting, as it illustrates how other aspects of presence, social and teaching presence need to exist before critical thinking skills are engaged and deep learning can happen. Though CoI is a model (or theory), I do see how it works in real life learning communities, based upon my analysis of student feedback, engagement levels (measured by LMS activity) and retention numbers of our online student body at my workplace. Granted, some level of learning can happen without either social or teacher presence, yet to create the very best environment for learning online all three dimensions are necessary.

cognitive presence: is the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2001).

How does cognitive presence lead to critical thinking?
There are four categories of events within the cognitive dimension that need to happen to stimulate the cognitive processes and critical thinking, 1) triggering event, 2) exploration, 3) integration and 4) resolution. These are nothing new from the educators perspective –  we want the student to become interested, in the topic (trigger), and be motivated to explore, ask questions, discuss (exploration),  leading students to construct knowledge, learn and think by means of discourse and discussion (integration) and finally to think critically, apply the knowledge to other areas, draw conclusions and demonstrate knowledge (resolution).

These events do not need to happen sequentially, they may overlap and run into one another – it might get messy, but all this to illustrate the need for meaningful interaction and discourse that supports the student’s development of higher order thinking skills.

Strategies for developing Critical Thinking
Creating opportunities within the course for these above mentioned events to happen takes planning, it is part of the instructional strategy, the course design. However, It does not have to be complicated, or time-consuming to develop – but intentional and purposeful. Here are some examples of types of activities that support cognitive presence.

• Discussion forums that include meaningful and thought-provoking questions that get students to think and apply the course content. Clear participation guidelines and expectations for students are an important part of the activity. Instructor involvement will be needed to monitor and guide the discussion.
• Small group activities where students discuss a topic, even a complex one – with the goal of creating something together – for example, a [unified] position statement on a controversial  topic OR an analysis of a problem [in the form of a presentation] that involves applying the course content and drawing upon other resources.
• Forum structured for a debate – this takes some upfront work – but is worthwhile. For example, the instructor assigns each student one of three points of view on a given [controversial] topic, prompting students to engage in discussion/discourse through an asynchronous discussion forum [or live chat] defending their assigned point of view, even if they do not personally support that point of view. This can be effective, as it encourages students to appreciate diversity, acknowledge others’ perspectives and points of view different from their own.
• Reflection Activities – having students create a blog for to work on throughout the course is one example, where students discuss and write about what they’ve learned in class. This is effective in promoting thinking, and getting students to internalize content. Other reflection activities could be as simple as students creating a Slideshare presentation, blog post, or forum posting at the end of the course describing the critical things they learned from the class, how the class might have changed his or her thinking and/or how they will apply the new knowledge beyond the class.

A study reported in the British Journal of Educational Technology in 2007 on cognitive building activities similar to those mentioned above, determined factors contributing to the activities success:

1. They were well structured.
2. They provided clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the students.
3. They provoked the students to explicitly confront others’ opinions. (Kanuka et al., 2007).

What the students say…
You may be thinking, OK sounds good in theory but does this really work with students? Yes I believe it does – after reading through student responses from our last session in our online program at my workplace I was convinced more than ever, not only of the value of the instructor and his or her presence, but that discussion forums and group activities do develop critical thinking, promote deep thinking and engage students’ higher order thinking skills.  Below I’ve shared feedback from students, which are responses to the question “What did you like best about the course?‘

“I liked how certain questions were asked and then I was allowed to think about them. Then when I came to the conclusion that I was not sure, Dr. ____ then took us to the [course materials] to draw our conclusions…”  [Discussion forums encouraged critical discourse].

“I loved the challenge of this course to compare philosophy [from different viewpoints]…. The choice project was awesome being able to watch films and converse about their philosophical meaning was very fun.”  [Comparing activity forced use of critical thinking]

“Probably the responses required by students after the reading assignments … it made me think deeply and apply my answer not only to the material, but to other [areas] as well.”  [This reflection activity supports analysis and deep thinking].

These are real student comments, though I’ve removed professor names, and references to specific course materials to protect privacy of students.

In this post, I’ve just scratched the surface of what can be done in this presence domain, as there are factors to consider that I’ve not been able to address, for example course topic, delivery platform, course duration, number of students etc. But hopefully I’ve given you some ideas for supporting and promoting critical thinking within your own online courses.

Resources:
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-10

Kanuka, H., Liam, R. & Laflamme, E. (2007). The influence of instructional methods on the quality of online discussion. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(2), 260 – 271.

Do we need ‘social butterflies’ in Online Learning Communities?

 Part 2 in a 3 part series on Presence in online learning communities.

Does it matter if students are social in an online learning community? Should we be concerned if students lurk in the background, not participate, be a [virtual] wall flower? At first blush you might think so. Isn’t this a benefit of online, letting learners choose their level of participation? I’ll take a stand on this – not OK. It’s not beneficial to learn in a vacuum, though in the ‘virtual’ world this is exactly what can [and does] happen. In one of the MOOC‘s I participated in (for a short stint that is), I remember reading a post of one of the participants who said she much preferred learning online because she could fade into the background, and participate minimally or not at all, and not be called out.

This may be preferred by some, yet much research contradicts – it appears that students want social connection – in fact one study  by Swan and Shih discovered that learners who perceived a strong social presence recorded higher scores of perceived learning, and cited learning from their peers as a benefit (2005). Another study, conducted in an online community [albeit within a social gaming platform as opposed to a learning community], examined the effectiveness of member’s engagement and repeat visits in a group gaming environment. Results revealed that when there was visual representation of group member, in other words a profile picture, the study participants exhibited higher levels of engagement [return visits to the site] and longer participation times. (Gaytan & McEwen,2007). The implications for learning environments are profound, by one [seemingly] simple action, a learner uploading an image of him or her self in the learning platform, a sense of social presence is supported.

What does social Presence look like?
Social presence in the online community is more abstract, intangible than instructor presence [as discussed in my last post], yet social presence, one of the three dimensions of presence required for complete learning is the most difficult to describe and create, and is further complicated because it is out of the instructors control. Social presence is felt by learners, yet is created by the course design and participation of other learners, in contrast to instructor presence which is mainly driven by instructor behaviours and participation. Hence the challenge.

And though social presence is a much discussed topic in literature about online learning, there are numerous [sometimes vague] definitions – the one I believe to be most fitting is:

“the sense where the learner feels part of the community, by demonstrating willingness to engage in communication exchanges,  perceives learners and instructor to be real people, and is able to project him or herself  in the online environment confidently.”

In face-to-face environments, there is a stark contrast as to how to gauge, visualize and describe social presence. In the nearby illustration, we see that the learner is present and the instructor can read the body language, make eye contact (or lack there of), identify facial expressions of learners – read the visual cues.

Why is building social presence necessary?
Social presence allows the learner to feel ‘connected’ with an emotional and personal connection to the group in order that they can express themselves socially, and eventually cognitively which ultimately leads to engagement with content and concepts. This is described in Garrison’s Community of Inquiry model, where the 3 presence dimensions are required for meaningful and effective learning to take place.  It is not only this model which emphasizes the social component, Kellar’s ARCS model of motivation design for learning builds on similar principles in the Attention dimension [the ‘A’ in ARCS].

In years past, when I was in training and development and conducted day long [f2f] seminars, I thought that ‘social presence’ was an extra, the nice-to-have, not the need- to-have.  In this context social presence, was created by the ‘rapport’ building exercises, also known as ice-breaker activities. These activities, in a sense did build social presence, and did help facilitate learning. Also I had the 3-dimensional advantage, where I could recognize when learners were bored [this happened more often than I’d like to admit], lost focus or would need to be drawn out. This is not so easy to do online. In fact, what is most interesting about creating social presence in online learning, is that activities and actions must be considered and planned for within the course design – built into the fabric of the course, and throughout the course. Let’s get to the nitty-gritty.

How to Create Social Presence Online Community?
There are a few things we have done at my workplace with our online courses to support building social presence

1. Encourage learners to upload a picture or avatar to his or her profile (we use Moodle). Though we make this voluntary, about 75% of students do so.
2. Create Orientation Activities just prior to classes starting. In our online program, we give students access to their course home page(s), 4 or 5 days prior to official start date of class, and among other activities we have students participate in introduction forum where they post a bio and introduce themselves and share their interests etc.
3. Design learning activities which encourage group interaction (ideally small group activities). This will vary from course to course depending upon learning content and objectives, but each course has unique small group activities where groups work on a project together, conduct peer reviews and share work samples, or engage in small group discussion.
4. Encourage students to join [program/school] Facebook Page, if you don’t have one, create one.
5. Suggest students use social tools for collaborating. Example Skype, Google Docs, Facebook or Google +Hangouts.
6. Use discussion forums  with well crafted questions that will promote meaningful dialogue.
7. Post discussion forum etiquette. Create and post guidelines for posting to discussion forums.

Above are only a few suggestions. There are many great resources available on the Web. I’ve included a slide share below which includes some helpful tips, and also refers to the Community of Inquiry model.  Further resources listed below.

Related Posts:
Part I: Instructor Presence in the Online Class: Key to Learner Success, Click here

References:
Gaytan, J., & McEwen, B. C. (2007). Effective online instructional and assessment strategies. American Journal Of Distance Education, 21(3), 117-132.

Swan, K. & Shih, L.F. (2005, October). On the nature and development of social presence in online course discussions. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 9 (3), 115-136.

Instructor Presence in the Online Class – Key to Learner Success

Part 1 in a 3 part series on the  concept of ‘Presence’ in the Online Classroom.

Instructor presence in the online environment can be elusive as a shadow – it’s one dimensional, monochromatic and takes on various forms depending upon the point of view. Yet, instructor presence in online learning communities is vital to ‘complete learning’ (by complete I mean student engages with content, applies higher order thinking skills, and produces tangible evidence that learning objectives are met). In the virtual environment the instructor needs to be ‘real’, 3 dimensional, have a personality, be the subject matter expert and as if this isn’t enough, help the student achieve the learning goals in this virtual space. A tall order. In this post I’ll share why and how instructor [virtual] presence is critical, essential instructional design components to facilitate presence, and strategies used by instructors that demonstrate presence.

What is Online presence?
The concept of ‘presence’ in the online environment is in itself complex, involving thought, emotion and behaviours (Lehman and Conceicao, 2011). Presence in this context can be divided into categories of social, cognitive and instructor presence as presented in the Community of Inquiry model, which provides a framework for  learning in the online environment (Garrison, 2003). An uncomplicated definition of online presence is, a sense of ‘being there’ or ‘being together with others’. For students to experience this sense of presence online, the technology must become transparent – the web enabled device, the platform, or site is invisible, in other words:

…the student becomes engaged by the content (whether people, text, images or other) and the technology disappears.

Why Instructor presence is Key to Learner Success…
Of course there are theoretical reasons which describe why the role of the instructor is crucial to online learning, but this week as I reviewed student feedback from our most recent session of online courses at my workplace, it became apparent just how important the instructor’s role is, by the level of ‘presence’ as perceived by the student. Below is a selection of student comments which illustrate the value of the instructor. Responses are to this question – “What did you like best about the course”:

Dr. ___  insight and instruction is outstanding. As a student who already holds a Master’s degree in Science, I appreciate a good instructor …

…The best thing about the course was Dr. ___. He really made things so that you could understand them…

Dr. ___ was very helpful, but at this point (the middle of week 8), he still has not uploaded grades for any of the course discussion boards, some of which I submitted 7 weeks ago….[this comment reinforces the value of instructor feedback]

A research study in Journal of Interactive Online Learning supports this observation. The study found that the largest single instructor action that students attributed to their success in the online course was the feedback provided by instructors that helped them [students] understand their strengths and weaknesses. The second most important success factor identified was the “instructor’s ability to focus discussions on relevant issues” (Kupczynsk et al., 2010).

Course Design to Support Instructor Presence
Another concept which is interesting is how the instructional design of the course itself supports ‘presence’. Course design can be considered, the silent instructor. When strong design principles are in place, this frees up the online instructor to invest time in connecting with students in the online community and teaching.

“The need for presentation of clear, concise objectives, instructions and general participation guidelines should be a cornerstone of online course development. Both groups in this study expressed significant frustration when these elements were not present and believed that successful engagement with content and activities was dependent on sound instructional design and organization”. (Kupczynsk, 2010).

How the Instructor can establish presence

1. The professor as a real person: Our instructors create a one to two minute welcome video. Students watch the clip during the first few days of the class. Instructors create a YouTube video clip (can be private), or create a .mov file on their laptop and upload the clip to our Learning Management platform. I love these clips – each are unique as the professor.  Some are filmed in the instructor’s office, outside, or even in a coffee shop. These clips make the professor ‘real’ and set the tone for an open and interactive learning community.
2. Communicating regularly: Posting a weekly announcement with course updates, web resources, commenting on course discussion boards and/or upcoming assignments also seems to be an effective method by the instructor communicating ‘en masse’. Using humour strategically can also break the ice and make the class fun, with a humourous YouTube clip or comic.
3. Feedback on assignments. My absolutely favorite method of feedback that I received as a student, was when my professor recorded feedback on an assignment using the  screen cast format, [Jing is one example]. The file was emailed (and posted in the gradebook). The instructor gave specific, personal commentary, and though it was only 3 or 4 minutes in length, it was effective. Another option is Audacity or Screencast.com.
4. Feedback/input on Class Discussions. [Not surprising] research also suggests that students respond positively when instructors are involved in class discussions, rating this as a strong indicator of presence.

It takes a completely different skill set to instruct online than in the face-to-face environment. Hopefully this post provided some insight and assistance for those instructors teaching online. I’ll be covering social presence and cognitive presence in part 2 and 3 respectively. Click here for part II, Do we need Social Butterflies in Online Learning Communities?

Resources:
Lehman, R. & S.C.C. Conceicao. (2011). Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching.
Jossy Bass Publishing. San Fransisco, CA.

Kupczynski, L., Ice, P., Wiesenmayer, R., & McCluskey, F. (2010). Student perceptions of the relationship between indicators of teaching presence and success in online courses. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 9 (1).

Photo Credit: Professor: University of Maryland, Flickr

Webinar Round-Up: Get thinking out of the Box…

I find Webinars [web based seminars] a tremendous, efficient and effective way to stretch my thinking beyond the ‘normal’ parameters that I work within day-to-day, kick-start my creativity and learn something new that often leads to novel way to approach a project. Usually only an hour-long, often for free, [and with a web-enabled device], Webinars allow you to log on and listen to an expert in a given field [social media, leadership and education which I’ll focus on in this post] ask questions through chat and learn about a new topic, technology or perspective. As part of my own personal development, my goal is to participate in one Webinar a month on a topic that might be related to my work though often is not. In this post I’ll share some upcoming Webinars around the Web that may be of interest.

Below I’ve listed upcoming sessions in May and June that look interesting –  in a previous post, I explained the ins and outs of Webinars, with some tips for maximizing their effectiveness, if interested, click here.

Culture/Leadership
The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance, Sponsored by Harvard Business Review. Date: May 21.  No cost. The host is one of Harvard’s esteemed professor’s James Heskett who will discuss his new book Culture Cycle, describe how culture evolves, is shaped and sustained, fosters innovation, and can promote organizational survival in tough times. Click here for further details.

Conversations in Leadership. Sponsored by Skillsoft. Date: June 6. No cost. Author  Shawn Achor, former professor of Harvard University, has extensively researched the elusive concept of ‘happiness’ and in this webinar discusses his findings in his new book, The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work.  Though this webinar is free, it is promoted by Skillsoft company, likely for leads for new business. Click here for further details.

In Conversation with Jay Cross: Social Business takes Social Learning. Sponsored by Social Learning Centre. No cost with free membership to the Social Learning Centre. Hosted by Jane Hart and facilitated by Jay Cross, author, educator, who is considered “the Johnny Appleseed of informal learning”. Jay has challenged conventional wisdom about how adults learn since designing the first business degree program offered by the University of Phoenix. A champion of informal learning and systems thinking. Click here for further details.

Social Media
Using Social Media to Support Workplace Learning, featuring Jane Hart (a leader in social media for professionals and educators, founder of Social Learning Centre a terrific network that offers free resources and insights into emerging tools and technologies). Sponsored by eLearning Guild. Date: Fee based. June 12. In this session, listen and discuss with Jane Hart about her experiences in, ideas about, and predictions for using social media to support workplace learning. Click here for further details.

Managing Traditional and Social Media for Libraries. Sponsored by the Public Library Association. No cost.  Date: May 31. This session, geared to the media library media specialist, will discuss the fundamentals of media planning and outreach, social media, and skills required to promote library activities and advocacy efforts.  Click here for further details.

Higher Education
Meeting Today’s Workforce Education Challenges. Sponsored by Pearson Learning Solutions. No cost. Date: May 31. The Webniar’s host, Pat Gerity, is VP of Workforce Education at Westmoreland College in PA,  and appears to have extensive experience in  transitioning college students into the workforce. Click here for more info.

Captioning for Lecture Capture. Campus technology. Sponsored by Campus Technology and Tegrity, McGraw Hill. June 5. No Cost.  Click here for further details.

K12
Improving Student Engagement Through Early Career Mapping. Sponsored by EDweek. Date: May 22.  No Cost. Click here for further details.

How States use Digital Learning to support Education Reform. iNacol (International Association for K12 Online Learning).  Date: June 13. Members $39, Non-members $99. In a report from Illinois State Board of Education, co-authors Dr. Tom Clark and Dr.  E. Oyer explore the changing landscape of education reform and technology programs to develop and sustain innovation. Click here for further details.

Empowering School Cultures to Support all students. Sponsored by Edweek. Date: June 5. No cost.  Education author and speaker Alan M. Blankstein, will discuss how to create and build resourceful and confident school cultures. Click here for further details.

Beyond LMS Boundaries: Web 2.0 Enriching Online Learning and Assessment. Sponsored by iNACOL  (International Association for K-12 Online Learning). Date: June 21. Fee based. Click here for further details.

Learning Management Platforms
Haiku, Learning Management Platform. Learn about this K-12 LMS platform with webniars offered every Tuesday and Thursday. Click here for further details.

The Flipped Classroom. Sponsored by Sophia, Learning Management Platform. May 22, and June 12. Click here for further details.

The Moodle Gradebook. Moodle Rooms. Date: May 30. Click here for further details.

Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Tic-Tac-Toe, Think outside Box, by ArtJonak

Why Socrates and Open Education should be Friends

 Is there value in studying Socrates?

Some suggest we should ditch the study of Humanities altogether, others are supportive, some just plain indifferent and scholars like Stanley Fish suggest that the study of humanities has no intrinsic value at all. Though we’ve all heard that the study of humanities is valuable for something, I happen to wholeheartedly agree, and there’s convincing research that supports this point of view — that cross-disciplinary study is of value. Most  recently a study conducted at Harvard University found that,

“The further the problem [to be solved] from the solver’s expertise, the more likely they are to solve it,” K.R. Lakhini, Harvard Professor. [More on this later].

As the announcements of new online learning ventures multiply, though exciting, I am concerned that the possibility of the fading emphasis of studying such works as  Plato’s Cave,  Soren Kierkegaard’s Journals, Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, and on and on we could go. What I am referring to is the study of humanities. I’m all for much needed reform – an accessible and relevant model for Higher Ed is needed, and I’ve written about promising initiatives recently. However, there appears to be an abundance of mathematics, and science topics within the open learning resources and open online universities, and it’s more than a little scant on the arts, history, literary studies and languages.

If you peruse through Kahn Academy‘s over 3,200 video lectures [all quite excellent] – you’ll find the majority are related to math and science, (granted they are working on expanding the humanities side, and have even partnered with SmartArt), – or how about Udacity (granted the founder S. Thrun is a math genius), or MIT OpenCourseWare (granted it’s a Computer Science school) , and Open Lectures [granted newly launched]. Yet there are the bright spots, Cousera, [one of the newest open university course platforms] has a category devoted to Humanities and Social Sciences, (though only 5 courses so far), and Open Yale Courses which appears to offer a robust selection of history, art and language courses. Encouraging.

Why study Humanities?
Though really, should we bother following the historic path of educating students in the Arts, History, Literature and such? Yes I believe so — and not just to produce a well-informed, literate, highly functioning citizen who makes solid contribution to his or her society, but because people who study a breadth of topics, and who have many interests are better problem solvers when they do. And, we have an abundance of problems that need solving.

An interesting study done recently as mentioned, at Harvard Business School’s InnoCentive (similar to a ‘think tank’) by Professor Lakhani, analyzed hundreds of scientific problems posted by companies that for whatever reason had failed to solve. Lakhni found InnoCentive’s network solved nearly 30 percent of the problems, and that the more diverse the interests of the solvers, the more likely the problem was to be solved. Also fascinating – the study found that expertise [held by the problem solver] in the field of the problem, actually hurt a solver’s chances. (Ronsenberg, 2012).

The Practical Side
This post points alludes to a broader topic which I won’t get into here, but mention briefly, is the purpose of higher education to become an educated individual who can think critically with breadth and depth, which may mean studying within various disciplines, OR is the purpose of higher education to focus on a vocational track and that leads to a specific job path and career? I’d like to say both – but they can be at cross purposes for a young college student. On this same vein, the Wall Street Journal reported this past week  in ‘For most graduates a grueling job hunt Awaits‘, that the top 5 majors companies are hiring from this year are engineering, business, accounting, computer science, while [sadly] the majors being least hired were from social studies, humanities, agriculture, health science and education (Weber and Korn, 2012).

However, we DO need the scientists and engineers, and those that study social sciences, education and others, and within these groups the innovators, problem solvers, critical thinkers and risk takers to solve the problems at hand just as we have with every crisis that has presented itself in years of past.

In summary, I suggest we study humanities to…

1. be creative problem solvers.
2. be informed of history, the parallels to current problems in order to contribute to solutions that are relevant using sound knowledge and rationale.
3. be able to think with depth and breadth, ask questions, think critically.

I hope we can work towards an OPEN and Online education model that offers humanities, science, mathematics, communication and the Arts that will educate a to produce a bright, informed and intellectual problem-solver.

Further Reading:
Prizes with an Eye towards the Future, Tina Rosenberg, The Opinionater
Why Colleges Don’t Teach the Federalist Papers, Peter Berkowitz, WSJ
Will the Humanities save Us? Stanley Fish, The Opinionater
Why are the Humanities important? Stanford University