{"249271":{"#nid":"249271","#data":{"type":"news","title":"MOOC Instructors Share Lessons Learned","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwo young Iranian women expressing how happy they were to find a strong female figure to look up to. A quadriplegic in Scotland sharing how, for the first time in his life, he felt equal to his classmates.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese are just a few of the stories that Karen Head, assistant professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, shared about her experience teaching a massive open online course (MOOC) during last Thursday\u2019s MOOC-focused town hall.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201c[In the case of the Iranian women] I feel like the anonymity of the MOOC allows students to speak up in a way that they can\u2019t always do under other circumstances,\u201d Head replied to a question regarding whether it was more challenging to get students to participate and provide feedback with a MOOC format. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHead was one of five MOOC instructors who joined Provost Rafael Bras to discuss the progress of MOOCs at Georgia Tech and lessons learned.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe other panelists included \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.newscenter.gatech.edu\/hg_legacy\/220301\u0022\u003EBonnie Ferri\u003C\/a\u003E, professor and associate chair for undergraduate affairs in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering; \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.newscenter.gatech.edu\/hg_legacy\/226711\u0022\u003EMike Schatz\u003C\/a\u003E, professor in the School of Physics; Charles Isbell, senior associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Computing; and Alex Duncan, a master\u2019s student in Human-Computer Interaction, who served as a teaching assistant for the Introduction to Psychology as a Science MOOC.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo kick off the discussion, each panelist was invited to share a bit about their MOOC experiences.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was impressed with the [discussion] forums, because I loved how students would jump in and answer each other\u2019s questions,\u201d Ferri said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESchatz shared that he doesn\u2019t usually have a chance to get to know students in his introductory physics courses. But, in teaching a MOOC version, with an on-campus contingent of students, he was able to use class for interactive activities that supplemented the online lectures, providing him a chance to develop relationships with his students. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIsbell, who is preparing to teach his first MOOC, commented on how he always thought he did a good job of evaluating how he teaches his courses on a regular basis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve realized that I wasn\u2019t doing as good of a job as I thought,\u201d Isbell said. \u201cThis has forced me to really think about my learning objectives and assessments.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere was also an opportunity for members of the audience to ask questions. One person asked if MOOCs were going to completely replace on-campus classes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI don\u2019t think this is the situation,\u201d Bras said. \u201cI certainly believe that undergraduate education, especially in an environment like Georgia Tech, will only benefit.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuncan added that people often think that MOOCs are in competition with face-to-face courses. Actually, the two formats can complement one another by providing opportunities for those off campus to learn and on-campus contingents to make more out of class time because lectures are done online, he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo view a recording of the town hall, click \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.provost.gatech.edu\/town-hall-2013\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwo young Iranian women expressing how happy they were to find a strong female figure to look up to. A quadriplegic in Scotland sharing how, for the first time in his life, he felt equal to his classmates.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Two young Iranian women expressing how happy they were to find a strong female figure to look up to. A quadriplegic in Scotland sharing how, for the first time in his life, he felt equal to his classmates."}],"uid":"27445","created_gmt":"2013-10-28 11:11:08","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:15:14","author":"Amelia Pavlik","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-10-28T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2013-10-28T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"249261":{"id":"249261","type":"image","title":"MOOC Town Hall","body":null,"created":"1449243795","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:43:15","changed":"1475894929","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:49","alt":"MOOC Town Hall","file":{"fid":"198052","name":"moocpanel.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/moocpanel_1.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/moocpanel_1.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":410777,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/moocpanel_1.jpg?itok=nLI86-ET"}}},"media_ids":["249261"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.provost.gatech.edu\/","title":"Office of the Provost"}],"groups":[{"id":"1259","name":"Whistle"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"78331","name":"Alex Duncan"},{"id":"33191","name":"Bonnie Ferri"},{"id":"10664","name":"charles isbell"},{"id":"5201","name":"Karen Head"},{"id":"52391","name":"massive open online courses"},{"id":"68221","name":"Mike Schatz"},{"id":"14385","name":"mooc"},{"id":"78321","name":"Provost Bras"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:amelia.pavlik@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EAmelia Pavlik\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}