Comments on: Comments? You don’t need no stinkin’ comments. This is a MOOC.

By: “Yoshimi, they don’t believe me. But you won’t let those robots defeat me.” « More or Less Bunk

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:02:40 +0000

[...] going to bleed into the face-to-face ones as time passes. Perhaps more importantly, I suspect the inherent limitations of MOOC grading will make teaching writing harder because students will be less prepared. Perhaps writing will [...]

By: “Has he lost his mind?” « More or Less Bunk

“Has he lost his mind?” « More or Less Bunk — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 13:01:23 +0000

[...] covered this precise subject before, but this sounds even worse to me now than it did then. When testing becomes the be all and end all [...]

By: brianmmulligan

brianmmulligan — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:35:20 +0000

Ahh, “authority”. Don’t you miss the old days.

By: Britney Titus

Britney Titus — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 02:08:59 +0000

If my phd plans weren’t in the graveyard already, this about sealed the deal. I mean why go on if I can be the professor as a student?

A wise man (and by man I mean professor and not student) once told me that class is your relationship to another person in society….if students are put on the same wavelength as those who teach them, then professors lose all authority in the classroom. Looks like cellphones being used in class are the least of your worries now.

By: Rohan

Rohan — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:03:39 +0000

Some related discussion at Margaret Soltan’s place: http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=36570#comments

By: brianmmulligan

brianmmulligan — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:52:55 +0000

“When I grade, I spend the vast majority of my time writing comments in the margins (on essays, papers and draft papers) and at least one paragraph at the end explaining why a student got the grade they got so that they can do better next time. I do this because a) It’s my job. and b) That’s kind of what education is all about.”

Maybe education is about one or two other things as well.

By: Higher education is dying already. Therefore, we’ll just finish it off for you. « More or Less Bunk

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 19:29:58 +0000

[...] breathless post about that Coursera announcement in Forbes is just too much. Here’s my favorite part: “Quizzing is an absolutely critical [...]

By: Rohan Maitzen

Rohan Maitzen — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 18:42:17 +0000

“Peer to peer grading” is a phrase that will strike fear into the heart of anyone who has ever overseen a peer editing session in the classroom! What on earth does it mean to “match the professor’s grading of an assignment”– that they could guess what letter grade or percentage the assignment would get? Like you, I comment extensively on my students’ assignments. As you say, this is one way we have to help them do better next time. This kind of feedback (which continues and individualizes, rather than punctuates, the learning going on in the class as a whole) requires not just superficial knowledge of the course content but pretty rich discipline-specific understanding of what the stakes and possibilities and nuances are for the often quite specific project the students has conceived of. Mind you, we all know that some students care almost exclusively about the grade they get (how many of us have files of uncollected final essays tucked away in corners of our office?) but I can’t imagine institutionalizing such indifference to the process. But maybe they do intend for student commentary to “match” professional input?

I’m not saying no good can come from peer to peer engagement or assessment, but the idea that our expertise is somehow peripheral to the evaluation process seems crazy to me.

By: Randolph Bourne Identity

Randolph Bourne Identity — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:22:24 +0000

One of the money quotes:
But even Mr. Thrun, a master of MOOCs, cautioned that for all their promise, the courses are still experimental. “I think we are rushing this a little bit,” he said. “I haven’t seen a single study showing that online learning is as good as other learning.”
But hey, full speed ahead, most likely for the reason you’ve singled out (huge market of overseas students).