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Leading And Learning:Bringing The Liberal Arts OnlineThrough Coursera

Wesleyan UniversityEducause ELI

February 4, 2014

David Baird, CIO and VP for InformationTechnology Services

Jolee West, Director of Academic Computingand Digital Library Projects



pollev.com/wesmoocsor

Text Responses to22333



To join or not to join! why and when?" President Roth is an explorer, values learning by doing

" Add the Liberal Arts perspective

" Increase global awareness of Wesleyan

" Strengthen connections with alumni

" Give prospective students a taste of Wesleyan faculty

" Summer decision presented challenges with respect to facultyconsultation; announcement was made at first faculty meeting (9/18)and Coursera announcement was released on 9/19.

" Faculty response was mixed, but has evolved interestingly



Coursera Intern Program

• Work as TAs while prepping and/or running the course

• Undergraduates and a couple of alumni

• Recommended by faculty based on prior courseexperience

• Work < 10 hrs/week

• Avg. hourly rate $9.50



Cost per Six Week Course

First Run: average of $7,000 instipends to faculty members, wages forteaching assistants, and equipment thatwould not otherwise have been

purchased

Second Run: 10-15% of original costs



First Run Second Run Third Run In Prep

0

1

2

34

5

6

7

8

9

Count of Course Cycles



Copyrights and MOOCs

• Non-profits vs. For-profits

o Campus subscriptions don’t include MOOC students.

o Claims of fair use may be defensible, sometimes even forheavily commercialized use.

o Always requires careful risk assessment.

• edX and Coursera face similar copyright issues

• Faculty wariness of copyright issues discouragesparticipation



“Is this transformative?”



Star Trek “transporter” noise

Screenshots

Movie posters & stills

Silent film movie clip

Yale Law faculty photo

Book covers

AP Images

Museum images

A record label



Wikimedia Commons



Corporate Sponsorships



Show Clips



Sample Discussion PostsPassion Driven Statistics:



Sample Discussion Posts: Analysis of a Complex Kind



Roth on MOOCs



!as many a glowing recommendation (complete with chili

pepper) on RateMyProfessor.com will attest, listening tothe voice of Andrew Szegedy-Maszak is exactly likesoaking in a huge stone bath scented with rose petalswhile being fed grapes and gently serenaded by a distantlute.



Overall, I found this MOOC comparable to an upper levelundergraduate course in literature (which, in fact, was myundergraduate degree, so I have taken many classes quitesimilar to this one, varying only in theme). By the end, Iattended nearly fifteen hours of lectures, read approximatelya dozen full-length texts, and produced over twenty pages ofessay writing.



All MOOC students at some point exclaim “I amdoing this for the experience.” I am not sure if they

always mean it, but in this case it must have beensincere. I cannot begin to describe the pleasure ofdiscovering Hollywood’s past. The vibrations thatwere felt as we went behind the curtain of thesecinematic gems were staggering. Honestly, thequiz never mattered for me in this MOOC course;the journey was reward enough.



Number of Countries 177

Median age 25-34

USA residents 1/3

Female 57%

Native language other than English 62%Less than 2 years of college 1/4

Bachelors or beyond 71%

Use a PC to access course 85%

Would like to take another Wesleyan Courseracourse

90%

Consider course equivalent to a college course 71%

Rate teaching as good or outstanding 95%

Rate peer interactions as good or outstanding 1/3

Stronger view of Wesleyan 2/3



To join or not to join! why and when?

President Roth is an explorer, values learning by doing

Add the Liberal Arts perspective (1/108 @Coursera, 2/31@EdX)Wellesley - 1 done, 3 to come; Davidson - 2 to come

Increase global awareness of Wesleyan

Strengthen connections with alumni

Give prospective students a taste of Wesleyan faculty

Faculty response was mixed, but has evolved interestingly



Campus Reaction and Response

Controversy # buzz# discussion

Increased interest in flipped classes andblended learning

Re-purposing Coursera content Re-running Coursera courses

New questions prompted about credit foronline courses



Acknowledgements

• Karen Anderson – Senior Associate Provost• Sheryl Culotta – Associate Provost

• Michael Whitcomb – Director of Institutional Research

• Academic Computing Services

• New Media Lab

• Office of Communications

Thanks!

leading and learning: bringing the liberal arts online through coursera (205740281)

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