{"id":4288,"date":"2013-06-28T10:48:55","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T15:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/?p=4288"},"modified":"2013-06-28T11:05:39","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T16:05:39","slug":"ten-critical-questions-about-online-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/2013\/06\/28\/ten-critical-questions-about-online-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Critical Questions About Online Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Understanding<\/a>This summer, I am working with undergraduate researchers Russ Allen<\/a> and Leah Miller<\/a> to study the new possibilities and enduring limits of open online learning. \u00a0We are researching the subject through a grant provided by the Mellon Digital Humanities Fund<\/a> and are experiencing the reality by actually creating our own open online course called “Understanding Lincoln,”<\/a> in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History<\/a>. \u00a0Based on our initial survey of the literature, we have identified ten critical questions that will probably guide the rest of our research. \u00a0We’re publicizing them here to share our initial work and also to help solicit constructive feedback. \u00a0 \u00a0Please feel free to let us know what you think…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How does grading work for open, online courses, especially for written assignments?\u00a0\u00a0 How can you prevent plagiarism and other forms of cheating?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What have been some of the best recent experiences for students in online learning?<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Are MOOCs and other online courses good for some faculty and disastrous for others?\u00a0 Will more extensive online learning create deepening labor problems in academia?<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Can tools and tactics developed for online courses help with regular courses? \u00a0Can they actually improve teaching? \u00a0Does \u201cblended learning\u201d work, and if so, at which levels?\u00a0 Also, are \u201cflipped classrooms\u201d effective?<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How should we measure achievements in online learning \u2013by registrations?\u00a0 By completions?\u00a0 By other types of assessments?<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Who controls the intellectual property of online content and \u201ccourseware\u201d?\u00a0 What are the leading models and challenges in this new open environment?<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How difficult is it to create and maintain effective open, online courses \u2013in time, labor, and money?\u00a0 Will this space become dominated by a handful of large providers?<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Can MOOCs lower costs, especially for undergraduates?\u00a0 Will open, online courses succeed in providing cheaper and faster ways to obtain credits toward graduation?\u00a0 Can MOOCs benefit students outside of college? \u00a0Will these certificates of completion help people compete in the job market?<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Can open, online courses achieve something new in crowd-sourcing?\u00a0 Can students in such courses help build and develop shared projects as part of their learning odyssey?<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Are MOOCs really something new?\u00a0 What has changed –if anything– that makes them seem so revolutionary?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This post is part of a series on \u201cMaking History Online\u201d<\/a> that involves an examination of open online learning.\u00a0 Students and faculty at the House Divided Project at Dickinson College are collaborating this summer on a new open, online course called, \u201cUnderstanding Lincoln,\u201d taught by Prof. Matthew Pinsker and covering ways to teach Abraham Lincoln\u2019s legacy using close readings of his most important writings. This new type of online course represents a unique partnership between Dickinson College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The course is available for both graduate credit and free participation. Registration for the course closes on Friday, July 19, 2013. For more information, go to\u00a0https:\/\/www.gilderlehrman.org\/programs-exhibitions\/understanding-lincoln-graduate-course<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This summer, I am working with undergraduate researchers Russ Allen and Leah Miller to study the new possibilities and enduring limits of open online learning. \u00a0We are researching the subject through a grant provided by the Mellon Digital Humanities Fund and are experiencing the reality by actually creating our own open online course called “Understanding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4760],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-online"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4288"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4298,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288\/revisions\/4298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}