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No Film At 11: the Case For the Less-Video-Is-More MOOC

Posted by Soulskill on from the better-learning-through-animated-GIFs dept.

theodp writes: In Why My MOOC is Not Built on Video, GWU's Lorena Barba explains why the Practical Numerical Methods with Python course she and colleagues put together has but one video: "Why didn't we have more video? The short answer is budget and time: making good-quality videos is expensive & making simple yet effective educational videos is time consuming, if not necessarily costly. #NumericalMOOC was created on-the-fly, with little budget. But here's my point: expensive, high-production-value videos are not necessary to achieve a quality learning experience." When the cost of producing an MOOC can exceed $100,000 per course, Barba suggests educators pay heed to Donald Bligh's 1971 observation that "dazzling presentations do not necessarily result in learning." So what would Barba do? "We designed the central learning experience [of #NumericalMOOC] around a set of IPython Notebooks," she explains, "and meaningful yet achievable mini-projects for students. I guarantee learning results to any student that fully engages with these!"

5 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. MOOC = massive open online course by Racemaniac · · Score: 5, Informative

    Since the summary didn't bother mentioning that tiny detail.

    1. Re:MOOC = massive open online course by Racemaniac · · Score: 1, Informative

      Ooh, it took quite long for a troll to come at me for not remembering the acronym.
      Can't say i read that much about such courses to remember the acronym (although after looking it up it did sound familiar). If you feel that's enough to have a go at me, good for you, you must feel really special and good right now :)
      *enough feeding trolls*

    2. Re:MOOC = massive open online course by khellendros1984 · · Score: 3, Informative

      "An Em-Oh-Oh-See", or "A mook". The choice of indefinite article tells you which way the writer was thinking about the acronym.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  2. There's a lot of stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    On YouTube that is pretty good... And I guarantee you that it didn't cost a hundred grand to make... You just need a camera - and a $200 Canon works great for this - and a good presenter. Guess what: good teachers usually make good presenters, and since you are already paying them to do that, that solves that problem. If you want to get really fancy, you can even spring for an external mic to clip onto the shirt they are wearing...

  3. Re:MOOG = massive open online synthesis by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 3, Informative

    Frankly, I had to look up MOOC online too because it wasn't in my 1938 Webster or Corey Ford's Guide To Thimking [1961, Doubleday] , the computer reference I most often consult.

    [...] some people started GOOgling it,
    not knowing what it was,
    and they'll continue GOOging it forever
    just because This is the trend that never ends,
    only the name does change my friend, [...]

    It means eLearning or iBrainPodPeople or LearningMOO/MUD. It also means Learn-A-TRON or Learn-O-Matic. As you see on the oldest revisions of the Wiki, it was "founded on the theory of connectivism and an open pedagogy based on networked learning." From these huble 2011 origins it has gone on to have been founded on other things too. TIL In MOOC "every letter is negotiable," which means the shortest possible variant of it is "" the null set...

    No biting satire intended, as one who never attended High School I welcome the advent of the online courses that can be realized for less than $100,000, whatever the cost. Along with Benny Hill I am learning all the time.

    --
    <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>