Massive open online courses: a first report card

By Owen Youngman. A month in to my first experience as a Mooc teacher, I'm certainly learning: institutions must adapt fast to serve the best students. Those of us who are engaged in teaching "massive open online courses", or Moocs, find ourselves answering a lot of questions these days, and that's one we hear a lot.
One month into my own effort for Northwestern University, I've heard so many versions of that one on the street, in meetings, and even when doing TV interviews, that I have a quick and facile answer: the students and the software. The more interesting questions, however, are about the kinds of teaching and learning possible through platforms like Coursera (that's where my NU class – "Understanding Media by Understanding Google," with an initial enrollment of more than 45,000 – is offered). More...