Applied Abstractions

Between teaching, freelance projects, and settling a new apartment I have been a bit lax in writing new posts. To recommit to this blog, here is the Monday MOOC News. Debt-Free Degrees - Former Acting Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary education at the U.S. DoE David Bergeron, and philanthropist Steven Klinksy, propose a new accreditation association called Modern States that would accredit specific courses and not whole degree programs. This would allow MOOCs to grant credit for specific courses, reduce student costs, allow the creation of competency-based education models, and other good things. I think this would work, but creating it in the current environment, with faculty concerns of corporatization of the university, federal scrutiny of for-profit institutions, etc., would be difficult. Not saying it shouldn't be tried, just unsure how successful it will be. MOOCs: Corporate Welfare for Credit - Salon has an insightful look into MOOCs, but creates a clunky argument

For this week a short list of links: This blog post by Jenny Gray gives a good perspective from the 'other' side of the looking glass. It is always helpful to remember that there are actual people on the other side of the screen, who may or may not have our proficiencies with technology. With MOOCs reaching an ever-widening audience, we should be mindful of how we use, and construct technology. Melissa Hunder has a good summary of a LinkedIn discussion about having a 'messy classroom'. I use this approach for in-class assignments, but can see these ideas of 'messy' or 'strategic ambiguity' applying to an appropriate MOOC. A few Chinese universities are signing up with edX to host their MOOCs. I'm curious how they'll structure their courses, and how/if they will be monitored by the Chinese government. I am not currently involved with any MOOCs, but I am teaching two developmental math courses at a small community college. Hopefully I