Sweating the Details of a MOOC in Progress

By Karen Head. Because I grew up in a military family, the expression “boots on the ground” always informs how I look at the planning and execution of a project. No matter the situation, I believe an accurate assessment of resources and personnel is paramount to success. Like many instructors who have agreed to teach MOOCs (I’m currently working with colleagues to develop a massive open online course in freshman composition at Georgia Tech), I was eager to explore the possibilities. But in recent weeks I’ve begun to feel naïve, and even at times misled, about the necessary resources and procedures. In defense of all the universities who have signed on to create MOOCs, I don’t think any institution was, or could be, fully ready for the endeavor. There are too many unknowns. As a colleague of mine recently said, “We can’t build the track fast enough for this train to run on.” And this is where eagerness and naïveté really caught up with me—I signed on to this project assuming that the track was already there. It wasn’t, and that has meant a series of disruptions. Read more...