The MOOC Fraud

Remember MOOCs?  They are not so much in the news now, but there was a time when they looked like the great hope for education. Somehow, I missed this essay from December 2013 by Jakub Grygiel. It is probably the hardest hitting short critique I have seen of the idea of MOOC education, and more generally, of online education - not the kind we do here at AU in the MAHG, where students and instructors are present at the same time and converse with one another, but the more common "asynchronous" form that is closer to an electronic correspondence course. "Online education," Grygiel writes, "is to education what pornography is to marriage. It destroys stable relationships, vitiates the ability to argue and reason, splits people apart and ultimately leaves no intellectual offspring. It is, in short, liable to be thoughtless, asocial and sterile.... Thinking, like marital love, takes time and patience."

Here is the whole essay: 

The MOOC FraudYou can’t consume an education; you can only earn it.

The current infatuation with the application of new technologies to education, in essence, replacing teachers in carne e ossa with pixels and bytes and arguably turning students into consumers of data rather than seekers of knowledge, has all the features of a revolution. Much like the ideological fanatics who led the communist revolutions of the past century, the cheerleaders of online education promise free or low-cost access to intellectual utopia for all. As Nathan Harden argued in these pages (January/February 2013), technology is indeed a great equalizer, but mainly in the sense of being a leveler, leaving a path of destruction wherever it passes. Harden and others, invoking Schumpeter, would call that destruction creative. I doubt it. Tacitus is rather the source to invoke: They create a desolation and call it education.

“Online education” is to education what pornography is to marriage. It destroys stable relationships, vitiates the ability to argue and reason, splits people apart and ultimately leaves no intellectual offspring. It is, in short, liable to be thoughtless, asocial and sterile.

Thinking, like marital love, takes time and patience. Online sources are marvelous if you want to learn how to install a garbage disposal or to satisfy the urge to watch old episodes of Firing Line; they ease access to snippets of information and can scratch every itch of curiosity. As a fact-checking source they will, if used with care, save you time better spent on, say, reading. And the democratization of access to higher learning will surely allow some people otherwise unable to tap into treasuries of human knowledge to get a taste for it, and who knows how many hearts and minds that might elevate to society’s general benefit? Still, you will never approximate a good plumber or William F. Buckley simply by staring at a screen. Coursera, edX or Udacity may be able to open data feeds at the click of a mouse, but they cannot teach a person how to think or argue or appreciate. For that, you have to look up from the screen.

All Expenses-paid Trip to NYC to study American History?

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has a great opportunity for College juniors and seniors: an all expenses-paid weekend in New York City, June 3-7, 2015.  It is a weekend of special presentations, tours, and meetings with eminent scholars.  You must have "demonstrated academic and extracurricular excellence" in your study of American History as well as "a commitment to public service and community involvement."  Many of you History and Political Science majors should qualify for this.  You can find more details and the application process here: Gilder Lehrman History Scholar Award.

Mentor Award Winners in History and Political Science

Congratulations to Rene Paddags in Political Science and Emily Hess in History, both of whom were awarded Ashland University Academic Mentor Awards last week. Outstanding!  The student who wrote the nominating letter for Dr. Hess says that "I have gained so much confidence in myself because of her.  She has instilled in me the ability to have faith in my writing, my future, and my character.  Dr. Hess is my advisor, but she has helped me develop as a student and as a person.... [Without her] I would not be who I am today." Of Dr. Paddags, the nominating student wrote that he "keeps me level-headed ... He is also passionate, funny and deeply knowledgeable in such a variety of subjects that  an encyclopedia would be put to shame.... He values his student's opinions and is thrilled to listen to what they have to say about the topics that they share an interest in...As my thesis advisor and professor, Dr. Paddags has pushed me to think more critically.... [and} allowed me to become a better writer and an overall better learner."

AU in France

AU is offering a great new opportunity to study French in France.  For more details and the date of an information meeting this week, see the flyer below:

Professor Moser's New Book

Paradigm Publishers has just published Professor John Moser's new book, "The Global Great Depression And The Coming of World War II."  Alonzo L. Hamby, Distinguished Professor of History at Ohio University, says that "with this bold and far-reaching interpretation of the economic interplay and its political consequences among the world's great powers during the first half of the twentieth century, John Moser ... has given us a landmark work in international history."

Alexander Hamilton Society Event

The Alexander Hamilton Society presents Dr. Michael Schwarz, who will lecture on "Unrepaired Wrongs: James Madison and the War of 1812."  The lecture is scheduled for February 5 at 7:30pm in the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University.  It is free and open to the public.

What is Liberal Education?

According to the Renaissance humanist Petrus Paulus Vergerius:

We call those studies liberal which are worthy of a free man; those studies by which we attain and practise virtue and wisdom; that education which calls forth, trains and develops those highest gifts of body and of mind which ennoble men, and which are rightly judged to rank next in dignity to virtue only. For to a vulgar temper gain and pleasure are the one aim of existence, to a lofty nature, moral worth and fame. It is, then, of the highest importance that even from infancy this aim, this effort, should constantly be kept alive in growing minds. For I may affirm with fullest conviction that we shall not have attained wisdom in our later years unless in our earliest we have sincerely entered on its search.