3 ms·

So you just have to remember enough to complete the test that occurs right after the lecture, which is all short-term memory. Retention is long-term. And I have

by bphogan 11y ago

So you just have to remember enough to complete the test that occurs right after the lecture, which is all short-term memory. Retention is long-term. And I have taken those quizzes; I don't believe they test for understanding very well. They tend to focus on lower-order thinking "what, which, etc" rather than higher-order thinking such as "Why" or "explain how". Required discussions are great, but they are asynchronous and often after the fact. They certainly help. But in my small online courses, only 5% of the students engage in discussions that are not required, and 70% of the students only do the minimum of the required discussions. Which if you think about it is about the same as a traditional classroom. Ask a question of the whole group, get crickets until one brave student answers just to move things along. But put them in small discussion groups and watch things get noisy quickly.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
wobbleblob 11y ago
Let me tell you what my favorite aspect of the MOOC model is: it allows me to enroll in classes that are not in my field and have absolutely nothing to do with advancing my career. I have a feeling that a class like yours would cost thousands of dollars, a kind of investment I could only justify if it made me better at my job. Another aspect that is a lot of fun is that in one year you can take a class at Princeton, a few months later one in Calgary, then a few months later in Kopenhagen. All for no other reason than that I'd like to learn more about the subject. It's like going to college, but without the stress and pressure. About retaining knowledge: you always lose the details after a subject ends, but regain it as you use the subject in your daily work. That's just how education works, you learn how to learn, not to retain the details. You can always look those up later.
- bphogan 11y ago
  No stress and pressure because nobody asks anything of you as a student. It's entertainment, not education. It's like watching TLC or the History Channel. I get that. And that's totally cool. Where things get messy is when people try to pass this off as a replacement for a formal degree. And as for "learning how to learn...", may I ask how you learned how to learn? Your description sounds very similar to other people who have obtained a formal degree somewhere and already learned how to do that and have a natural drive to get better. I don't think everyone has that. Not everyone values learning.
  - wobbleblob 11y ago
    TLC and the History Channel serve bullshit like Ancient Aliens. Who still watches a 20th century medium like TV? I don't. On Coursera, colleges showcase some of their most famous professors, they cite sources, offer background material. The courses serve as advertisement for a college, so they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they served rubbish. What course did you do on Coursera that gave you such a low opinion of it? I had a formal education, and liked it so little that it turned me off the field. After working in a completely unrelated field for years, I got another formal education to get a degree relevant to my job. A MOOC is not a replacement for a degree, and doesn't compete with you at all. It's a way to check a university out. Did you know Alberta is a great place to study dinosaurs? Did you know Kopenhagen is a great place to study earth sciences? Thanks to Coursera, you can now find out. Twenty years ago, there was no way for such information to reach me, or for me to act on such information. Or for me to study such a field, because there isn't a career in it outside academics, and we weren't that well off.

by bphogan 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

wobbleblob 11y ago

Let me tell you what my favorite aspect of the MOOC model is: it allows me to enroll in classes that are not in my field and have absolutely nothing to do with advancing my career. I have a feeling that a class like yours would cost thousands of dollars, a kind of investment I could only justify if it made me better at my job. Another aspect that is a lot of fun is that in one year you can take a class at Princeton, a few months later one in Calgary, then a few months later in Kopenhagen. All for no other reason than that I'd like to learn more about the subject. It's like going to college, but without the stress and pressure. About retaining knowledge: you always lose the details after a subject ends, but regain it as you use the subject in your daily work. That's just how education works, you learn how to learn, not to retain the details. You can always look those up later.

bphogan 11y ago
No stress and pressure because nobody asks anything of you as a student. It's entertainment, not education. It's like watching TLC or the History Channel. I get that. And that's totally cool. Where things get messy is when people try to pass this off as a replacement for a formal degree. And as for "learning how to learn...", may I ask how you learned how to learn? Your description sounds very similar to other people who have obtained a formal degree somewhere and already learned how to do that and have a natural drive to get better. I don't think everyone has that. Not everyone values learning.
- wobbleblob 11y ago
  TLC and the History Channel serve bullshit like Ancient Aliens. Who still watches a 20th century medium like TV? I don't. On Coursera, colleges showcase some of their most famous professors, they cite sources, offer background material. The courses serve as advertisement for a college, so they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they served rubbish. What course did you do on Coursera that gave you such a low opinion of it? I had a formal education, and liked it so little that it turned me off the field. After working in a completely unrelated field for years, I got another formal education to get a degree relevant to my job. A MOOC is not a replacement for a degree, and doesn't compete with you at all. It's a way to check a university out. Did you know Alberta is a great place to study dinosaurs? Did you know Kopenhagen is a great place to study earth sciences? Thanks to Coursera, you can now find out. Twenty years ago, there was no way for such information to reach me, or for me to act on such information. Or for me to study such a field, because there isn't a career in it outside academics, and we weren't that well off.