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That is a big reason why Coursera is so appealing and it won in the MOOC race. By having a few open sessions a year, they can provide official support from cour

by frigg 11y ago

That is a big reason why Coursera is so appealing and it won in the MOOC race. By having a few open sessions a year, they can provide official support from course TA and students all gather in an active forum to discuss the material and help each other. It's why MIT's OpenCourseWare is not nearly as popular as Coursera. I'd argue it's a must for the to keep going with this approach, otherwise it will turn into another OpenCourseWare.

ghaff 11y ago
There's really no "right" answer to how asynchronous courses should be. On the one hand, if you just open things up, make some videos available, maybe some machinery for auto-grading where appropriate, I'm not sure you can meaningfully call that material a MOOC at that point. It's some YouTube videos with an associated website of which there are already many for all sorts of content. On the other hand, if you run things on a tight schedule, real life will get in the way for a lot of people in that many of the better courses are fairly significant time commitments.
- frigg 11y ago
  >There's really no "right" answer to how asynchronous courses should be. Sure, but given Coursera's popularity it seems to be doing something right. >On the other hand, if you run things on a tight schedule, real life will get in the way for a lot of people in that many of the better courses are fairly significant time commitments. But is it? The time commitments are watching few videos, learning and doing the assignments, all of this in a week. I think it's enough even for people working full time. If you don't have enough time on your hands to do all this, I'd argue you don't have the time required to complete the course. Furthermore having time constraints is very important for students to keep on track.
  - ghaff 11y ago
    I don't really disagree. As I said, if you take away all the constraints, what's unique about Coursera or any other MOOC, really? That said, people with busy schedules, travel, etc. can easily get behind on a more time-consuming course and, at that point, the natural reaction is just to drop it. My personal preference is to have structure but to build sufficient wiggle-room in that someone can catch up a week or two.
    - akshat_h 11y ago
      Can't remember exactly which courses, but there were some which dropped off your lowest assignment grade. Of course one could argue that it isn't really about the assignment, but still psychologically, I felt that was a good compromise between maintaining the balance between flexibility and continuity.
Chathamization 11y ago
One of the things I've always found a bit odd about Coursera is the lack of general subject forums. Sure, you can meet with and interact with some students in the forum of a particular course, but then when that course is over the forum empties out. And if you are taking the course on your own schedule, the place is often empty because you're doing a lot of the work after the course ended. I understand that open ended courses might not have the volume to create an active forum, but why not create subject forums where people can discuss things and create a community? In my experience, communities are a very important way to give people the motivation to complete some of these courses.

by frigg 11y ago

ghaff 11y ago

There's really no "right" answer to how asynchronous courses should be. On the one hand, if you just open things up, make some videos available, maybe some machinery for auto-grading where appropriate, I'm not sure you can meaningfully call that material a MOOC at that point. It's some YouTube videos with an associated website of which there are already many for all sorts of content. On the other hand, if you run things on a tight schedule, real life will get in the way for a lot of people in that many of the better courses are fairly significant time commitments.

frigg 11y ago
>There's really no "right" answer to how asynchronous courses should be. Sure, but given Coursera's popularity it seems to be doing something right. >On the other hand, if you run things on a tight schedule, real life will get in the way for a lot of people in that many of the better courses are fairly significant time commitments. But is it? The time commitments are watching few videos, learning and doing the assignments, all of this in a week. I think it's enough even for people working full time. If you don't have enough time on your hands to do all this, I'd argue you don't have the time required to complete the course. Furthermore having time constraints is very important for students to keep on track.
- ghaff 11y ago
  I don't really disagree. As I said, if you take away all the constraints, what's unique about Coursera or any other MOOC, really? That said, people with busy schedules, travel, etc. can easily get behind on a more time-consuming course and, at that point, the natural reaction is just to drop it. My personal preference is to have structure but to build sufficient wiggle-room in that someone can catch up a week or two.
  - akshat_h 11y ago
    Can't remember exactly which courses, but there were some which dropped off your lowest assignment grade. Of course one could argue that it isn't really about the assignment, but still psychologically, I felt that was a good compromise between maintaining the balance between flexibility and continuity.

Chathamization 11y ago

One of the things I've always found a bit odd about Coursera is the lack of general subject forums. Sure, you can meet with and interact with some students in the forum of a particular course, but then when that course is over the forum empties out. And if you are taking the course on your own schedule, the place is often empty because you're doing a lot of the work after the course ended. I understand that open ended courses might not have the volume to create an active forum, but why not create subject forums where people can discuss things and create a community? In my experience, communities are a very important way to give people the motivation to complete some of these courses.