41–47 of 47 posts
A plus is that several of the teachers were absolutely world class.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
However, everyone learns differently. I have found greater success in learning without that kind of interaction. Such contact may be essential for a subset of students, but certainly not all. I find the potential of MOOCs exciting because it finally moves us away from believing the one-size-fits-all model serves all students equally. The future of education is probably not MOOCs alone, or brick and mortar schools alo…
Same here. In real classes, I get distracted by people's flow. I was utterly shy in college and couldn't interact well with people at all, not the best environment to exchange ideas or even think. [1] I personally like to learn in isolation, I have a tendency to quickly ~plagiarize ideas of others thinking I understand, so learning alone in my room is better. Inspiring teachers I've met fits on one hand fingers. I en…
I work as an assistant teacher every now and then and it is mostly small group teaching and going over the homework exercises. What I have seen is that the first couple of sessions are totally worthless subject wise. But they are extremely critical. During those sessions the students learn to know each other and me. When everyone is comfortable attending the sessions can the actually learning begin.
From this perspective I think MOOCs would need the following. Firstly, you need to create small enough groups of people that are comfortable discussing the subject with each other. Encouraging local study groups is a one way of doing this. The other thing is to encourage discussion through anonymity with forums or IRC. And you need to acknowledge that you don't reach all of your students with these methods and not rely on them too much.
> I personally like to learn in isolation, I have a tendency to quickly ~plagiarize ideas of others thinking I understand, so learning alone in my room is better.
There's nothing wrong with self-study per se, but it has a one great flaw. It is easy do the kind of plagiarization I think you are talking about without knowing. This can be remedied by getting feedback from an instructor, or going through the material with someone else and then cross checking how you understood the ideas.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here. In real classes, I get distracted by people's flow. I was utterly shy in college and couldn't interact well with people at all, not the best environment to exchange ideas or even think. [1] I personally like to learn in isolation, I have a tendency to quickly ~plagiarize ideas of others thinking I understand, so learning alone in my room is better. Inspiring teachers I've met fits on one hand fingers. I en…
I'm just replying to your comment agumonkey as it has some key points that I want to address. Nothing personal. I work as an assistant teacher every now and then and it is mostly small group teaching and going over the homework exercises. What I have seen is that the first couple of sessions are totally worthless subject wise. But they are extremely critical. During those sessions the students learn to know each othe…
That sais I think my paragraph about copying others idea came out wrong. When I'm with people, learning by osmosis often lead to superficial repetitions of some of their findings, something that is not deep learning. I like to reach the enlightening phase, ability to find solutions from blank slate, hence being alone helps avoiding this to an extent.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm just replying to your comment agumonkey as it has some key points that I want to address. Nothing personal. I work as an assistant teacher every now and then and it is mostly small group teaching and going over the homework exercises. What I have seen is that the first couple of sessions are totally worthless subject wise. But they are extremely critical. During those sessions the students learn to know each othe…
No worries. I never had this setup in college. How large are your study groups ? 30 ? 10 ? I had classes of 30, we don't really get comfy, we couldn't spend much time discussing, and often it was dull and lifeless as people did want to open up and speak out loud. That sais I think my paragraph about copying others idea came out wrong. When I'm with people, learning by osmosis often lead to superficial repetitions of…
I think we are on the same page about your last paragraph. You are right, you face a problem of a same kind that I wrote about when learning in a group. Someone seems to know the material well, they are confident and maybe even charismatic. They go through their solution and everyone just nods and agrees.
The trick is to get everyone tell their solution (maybe not for the same problem) and have an atmosphere where people feel comfortable correcting and getting corrected. That is a key responsibility of a small group teacher.
The "peril" in self-study is a bit different. You may find your enlightenment but how do you know that your mental model is correct?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm currently enrolled in an online degree program at the University of Illinois, and while the teachers are good and the material is interesting and challenging, the class is fundamentally less engaging. The closest analogue I can think of is the difference between IM and a video chat. Many conventional college students use study groups to boost their success rates. What is preventing an online course from using vid…
The problem with MOOC forums are that they bring together students with very different expectations and attitudes toward education and learning. During the courses I took, I noticed certain trends. Students with Indian-looking names were often most concerned about the certificate of achievement given out after the course. In each course I'd see students asking if it were available yet well before the end of the cours…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No worries. I never had this setup in college. How large are your study groups ? 30 ? 10 ? I had classes of 30, we don't really get comfy, we couldn't spend much time discussing, and often it was dull and lifeless as people did want to open up and speak out loud. That sais I think my paragraph about copying others idea came out wrong. When I'm with people, learning by osmosis often lead to superficial repetitions of…
Yeah, 30 is too much. I think 16 is an upper limit and even then you need to break it into groups of ~4 to actually have small group teaching . Of course the universities never have money for that many assistant teachers for the bigger courses. The point is that the group needs to be small enough so that people can get to know each other. Then you can have a relaxed atmosphere and then the real discussion can start.…
Somewhat related: do Silicon Valley startups consider someone with actual completed MOOC courses an asset when looking to hire?
No: edX tried matching 868 high-performing MOOC students with employers, and none were hired. http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/edx-drops-plans-to-co...