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I believe free online materials can be tremendously valuable, but... > To see how effective these courses can be, look at Big History’s impact on students’ wri
by civilized 4y ago
I believe free online materials can be tremendously valuable, but...
> To see how effective these courses can be, look at Big History’s impact on students’ writing skills, and particularly how it helps close the gap between high- and low-income students. At the beginning and end of the school year, teachers who use the course get a measure of how well each of their students is writing. According to the OER Project’s internal data, on average, only 26 percent of the students taking Big History in low-income schools start the academic year rated “proficient” or better in writing. By the end of the school year, that number has jumped to 62 percent—which is roughly on par with Big History students at private schools.
Color me skeptical that a history course can magically turn students into proficient writers over one school year.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoI'm not skeptical. The data appears to be there.
- vorpalhex 4y agoI believe it. History is the process of reading - digesting - synthesising - formulating. That is the "write better" treadmill. Run it long enough (on any meaty topic) and you will improve.
- rg111 4y agoI agree. I write a lot nowadays. Proposals, reports, documentation, papers. One might think that scientific writing is entirely different from humanities writing. That would not be true. I had a very good middle school education in humanities, and that education comes in handy whenever I write something, anything. Writing has some core characteristics that are everywhere. Once you learn them well, they keep paying forever.
- bigyikes 4y agoAs a mid-level engineer, lately I’ve come to think that improving my writing (or more broadly, communication) skills is the best way to grow my career. All of those great ideas you have aren’t worth anything if you can’t communicate them. We try to make technical decisions as objectively as possible, but often some amount of persuasion is required to align everyone on your preferred outcome.
- thrixton 4y agoJust anecdata but this matches my (as an engineer) experience exactly. For any engineer, transitioning to people management of any sort, or just to have a better voice in any decisions, I think that broadly communication improvement, and probably some sort of project management should be a very high priority.
- kragen 4y agoAs every fiction author knows, you can't tell people anything. You have to show them. http://habitatchronicles.com/2004/04/you-cant-tell-people-anything/ http://habitatchronicles.com/2004/04/you-cant-tell-people-an...
- Didyourestart 4y agoAnother note is that if the material is actually something that a student can engage with the work tends to be a lot better because people take more pride in it. In high school I tended to get lousy grades and struggled to focus, but in college it's been easier because I have more flexibility in my topics and can choose things that matter more to me.
- Taikonerd 4y agoYeah, I was wondering about some kind of selection effect... not sure if the kids get to pick whether they're taking the course or not.
- powersnail 4y agoI'm not. A course that is heavy on reading and writing can transform the writing ability of a student, especially when the starting point is relatively low. I've witnessed this in my friends when we were in college. English was not our first language, and we started with roughly the same level of writing ability. But the ones in philosophy/history/sociology classes quickly outgrew those of us in engineering school. I've read some of their assignments, and the improvement could be seen on a weekly basis. Practice matters. Feedback loop matters.