There was a very interesting article in Time last October. The reporter took three versions of an introductory physics course: one at an elite university, one at an inner-city community college and one with a MOOC. Her observations were that each was suited for some and not for others. The elite university course was the "best" with the best instructor and best labs and demos. All the students finished the course but all the students had similar backgrounds, came to the class prepared and had their own computers. The MOOC had a good but lesser quality of instruction, a low completion rate but did provide access to students who had no other access. The students at the community college were older, less prepared and came from poorer backgrounds. Almost all finished the course but needed and were given all the one-to-one help they needed. This group would not have succeeded with either the elite course or the MOOC.
Some of you may also be interested in reading Stuck in the Shallow End which details the difficulties in trying bring Computer Science education to under-represented groups in LA high schools. It is available from MIT Press or Amazon and because it is the result of an NSF project can be downloaded for free. Although the results are very depressing, its analysis of the issues makes it clear there is no simple solution to the equality issue whether it be MOOCs, more teachers or just putting more money into the system. Ed __________ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 (home) [email protected] 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel On Jan 20, 2013, at 10:30 PM, Bruce Sherwood wrote: > The Shirky article is thoughtful. Thanks for the pointer. A key issue, which > Shirky handles well, is the need to compare apples with apples. Many > university courses are just plain not very good, for all the reasons he > gives. I've seen the kind of criticism of MOOCs that he rightly challenges. > Comparing a small seminar taught by an actual professor with a giant lecture > is daft. > > Ruth Chabay and I took the Udacity CS 101 course to see what a modern MOOC is > like. The course is superb. It has a very clear, very challenging goal: "In > about 7 weeks you will write a small search engine, even if you've never > written a computer program before." Along the way, all CS concepts were > introduced in the context of the goal. The "chalk talks" were in general > excellent, there were frequent meaningful quizzes, and there was challenging > homework in the form of having to write Python functions that were checked by > the uploaded program being given data different from sample data and seeing > whether the function produced the correct output. > > On the other hand, historically, failure and dropout rates have typically > been huge in distance courses, as would seem to be the case with current > MOOCs. You have to be highly motivated to keep at a challenging course > without the usual social contract implicit in traditional course settings. > Maybe MOOCs + social media will change this, but I have my doubts. > > Bruce > > > On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 8:45 PM, Ron Newman <[email protected]> wrote: > Clay Shirky points out the obvious but overlooked re: accessibility of > traditional education: > > http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2012/11/napster-udacity-and-the-academy/ > > Ron > -- > Ron Newman, Founder > MyIdeatree.com > The World Happiness Meter > YourSongCode.com > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
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