tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post4602799205465172386..comments2024-02-28T18:29:41.120-08:00Comments on Not of General Interest: MOOC partnership in the classroomundinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-4809956512832820472013-06-02T13:22:08.750-07:002013-06-02T13:22:08.750-07:00Contingent Cassandra--"invisible labor" ...Contingent Cassandra--"invisible labor" is exactly right. I get those brainstorms about courses all the time, and as you say, they take up time but really energize you for the classroom. Of course, the dream of online education is that nothing gets changed, ever, because then it's paid for once and doesn't have to be paid for again. <br /><br />Historiann--I know! I shouldn't like them, but oh, well. <br /><br />It's absolutely true about the extra work in collaboration, the extra time in making decisions, and so forth. There's also the exhaustion that results just from trying to be collaborative when you really know what you want to do. undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-63455122339707750882013-06-02T11:59:51.488-07:002013-06-02T11:59:51.488-07:00Mmmmmmmnnn. . . potato chips. . . !
Your descript...Mmmmmmmnnn. . . potato chips. . . !<br /><br />Your description sure sounds like a hell of a lot of work for the facilitator. It sounds like he's adding substantial content and value to the course, but as you point out, it's only the most labor-intensive and thankless parts. <br /><br />I'd describe this experiment not so much as a MOOC but rather as an oddly uncollaborative excercise in co-teaching a course. And anyone who has taught a course with a colleague can tell you that it requires MORE work and MORE self-conscious meetings and planning to do collaboratively what you'd normally work out in your head on your walk/drive/bike ride to work. I'm co-teaching a course again in the fall, and while I love it, it means that every decision takes at least twice as long because we have to make them together (book orders, the schedule for essays, writing major essay & exam questions, weekly in-class writing questions, etc.) Whew!Historiannhttp://historiann.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-32632044302596674772013-05-31T05:52:11.823-07:002013-05-31T05:52:11.823-07:00Also, you have no opportunity to update/modify (or...Also, you have no opportunity to update/modify (or even supplement?) the lectures based on what you've observed about student's learning, either on a semester-to-semester basis, or as necessary, on the fly. In that sense, a MOOC is worse than a textbook (well, unless you're in a program that forces you to teach solely from the textbook, but I don't think that's common). <br /><br />The whole MOOC discussion strikes me as highlighting another area of invisible labor on the part of professors: not just planning courses in the first place, but the ongoing updating/modifying/tweaking of course components that most of us engage in (so much so, in fact, that I and my colleagues, at least, frequently have conversations along the lines of "I swore I wasn't going to change anything in this course this semester, but then I had this idea. . ." and now have several dozen responses to an unfamiliar assignment/exercise/what have you to grade. It's just what we do, because we're teachers. But whatever those outside the classroom (including many administrators) think "teaching" is, it doesn't seem to include such activity. Contingent Cassandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08161652083031423415noreply@blogger.com