repost from Core II ITP blog:

In addition, the interpersonal aspects of sharing a space with other learners is valuable. Dr. Dinosaur posted a comment on Shirky’s Awl piece  that faculty can’t really get to know students from online interactions. Students might be hard pressed to form real relationships with each other online too. I know many of the best conversations I had about academic topics during college occurred in the dining hall after class. Being part of a community where everyone is trying to learn from each other is a unique experience. If this experience is worth the hefty price tag may be debatable but there must be alternatives to increased tuition. MOOCS can’t be the only answer.

Perhaps the conversation regarding MOOCS and typical 4 year colleges must be framed in terms of learning. The question then being what is learning? And how do these two types of educational structures foster learning? Finally, what are the goals for someone who enrolls in a MOOC and someone who enrolls in a 4 year college? I suppose these questions could have been posed at the beginning of my MOOC posts. However, as so often happens I didn’t even think in these terms when I started writing on MOOCS. Only after having read and written and read my own writing again did I come to these questions, which, may frame my future inquiry on the question of MOOCS.

(One addendum, I think this piece from the Times reflects many of the concerns I’ve voiced about student-faculty interactions and MOOCS)

and for anyone who is interested, check out the conversation on our course blog and the second half of reading for our upcoming class on MOOCS!

I particularly liked the Bustillos piece:

from nytimes:

21MOOC-articleLarge

go and see my MOOCS part I