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| (Photo: William Mbugua, S.J.) |
The phenomenon that is massive open online courses (MOOC) was recently brought to my attention by an acquaintance. These are courses being offered online by different universities, and most importantly, they are free. You do not have to be a registered student from the university to take them. It means you can take free courses on your own time through prestigious educational institutions such as Stanford, Columbia, or Case Western Reserve. As I have been assigned to post-secondary classroom teaching at this stage of my Jesuit formation, this seemed to hit a nerve.
It is quite impossible, nor is it my intention, to give a comprehensive review and critique of MOOC in a short blog entry. Furthermore, I want to acknowledge some obvious positives that MOOC literally brings to the table on which rests one's computer: it creates learning opportunities for those who would otherwise not have access to such resources due to geographical, temporal or financial reasons. It is possible as long as internet access is available, and that one is willing to diligently persevere through the course. I merely focus on one issue: what clear advantage does a teacher-student interaction in a physical space bring?
