Learning in Creative Chaos

How valuable are "free" online classes?

My earlier post about AncientSites/AncientWorlds got me to thinking. The only reason that site works is because of the level/sense of community for the participants. With university online courses, that sense of community should also be fostered by the instructor and by the students feeling that they are part of the university, even if they may never step foot on campus physically.

In the last few months, some free online interactive classes have come to my attention--specifically those offered through Barnes and Noble University. I, myself, signed up for a few since the fall, mainly drawn in by the topics listed. However, I found out that there was no way for me, with my schedule, to keep up with the class. Because the courses are free, there's no cut-off as far as number allowed in each class, so student responses are rampant--too many to possibly read through. Such a large group, I think, actually diminishes the sense of community, simply because there's just too big of a crowd. (Think of it as cyber-social anxiety disorder.) For those of us who have a "real life" and do not have the time to sift through massive amounts of posts every day to catch up with what's going on in the class, we find ourselves on the outside of the circle, looking in. This, combined with the fact that there's no "grade" to acheive upon completing the class, makes for very poor motivation. For myself, I simply ran through the syllabus and each week's lesson plans and printed them off so I could do it on my own--which seems to be the very antithesis of what Barnes and Noble claims that they've set out to do.

So, what can they do?

I think since they've set up the system so that each class already has a "technical advisor/assistant" to the instructor, maybe they should expand this idea. They could have a topic "umbrella" with different class "sections" of, say, forty to fifty students each. The author/instructor would still be in charge of the entire topic but would be aided by several technical advisors or "teaching assistants" in charge of each section. I think this would make the posting level more manageable, increase real participation and lessen the dropout rate of participants. Just my two cents.

posted by Stash @ 2:15 PM