A lot of what we do in liberal education is building communities of learning We encourage frank but supportive discussion among students in a class. We chat with them after class and on campus walkways. We drink coffee, and sometimes wine, bring donuts to class ( A Facebook exchange among some classicists I know worried about a class that didn’t eat them all up right away.) We invite students into our homes. This isn’t entertainment. It’s building a community of learning.
Surely MOOCs can’t do anything like that . Or can they? Claudia Filos tells me they can build communities in their own way:, or at least that's part of the goal in Greg Nagy's course on the hero. “When I'm wearing my HarvardX hat, I help to moderate the posts on the discussion forum for [Greg Nagy’s] HeroesX course. One of our goals is to create a community--not just a course. For that reason, I have read every single thread so far and I've been incredibly moved by the universal hunger and excitement for learning that I've seen. People from all over the world really have an opportunity (and a need) to connect with others around these texts which for thousands of years have helped us to think about what means to be human. “
Surely MOOCs can’t do anything like that . Or can they? Claudia Filos tells me they can build communities in their own way:, or at least that's part of the goal in Greg Nagy's course on the hero. “When I'm wearing my HarvardX hat, I help to moderate the posts on the discussion forum for [Greg Nagy’s] HeroesX course. One of our goals is to create a community--not just a course. For that reason, I have read every single thread so far and I've been incredibly moved by the universal hunger and excitement for learning that I've seen. People from all over the world really have an opportunity (and a need) to connect with others around these texts which for thousands of years have helped us to think about what means to be human. “
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