The massive open online course (MOOC) movement is still
in its infancy, but some faculty members are already tweaking the format. One
form emphasizes interaction between students, whether between high-achieving
students and their peers within a MOOC or between online and on-campus
students.
“In a classroom or a learning setting, people want to
connect with others,” Tina Seelig, executive director of the Stanford
Technology Ventures Program, told University Business.
“My big insight is not that they want to connect with the teacher. It’s that
connecting with other students is equally important.”
Seelig taught a MOOC last spring that had 25,000
registered students. She reported that 50% of the students who completed the
first assignment finished the course, but she also recruited the most active
students onto a teaching team to respond to the thousands of comments that appeared
on the discussion board for the course.
Gordon Mitchell, associate professor of communications
at the University of Pittsburgh, has developed a hybrid open online course that gives online students the chance to interact with graduate students on
campus. The graduate students teach lessons, which they prepare themselves to
the online students, who participate by posting comments on Twitter.
“It’s a symbiotic evolution for two courses that are
happening at the same time,” Mitchell explained. “They’re working on a
parallel, evolutionary path.”
