Confessions of an online course completer

Last update: Saturday 7/21/18

DLL Editor's note -- I am an online course (a/k/a MOOC) completer, one of the nerdy five percent. Better still, I am also a compulsive completer of multi-course certificate programs, one of the super nerdy one percent; but I wasn't always this way.

Higher ed's grudge against MOOCs -- Part 2

Last update: Tuesday 3/20/18

Part 1 of this note registered my strong disagreement with a recent editorial about Coursera's pivot from non-credit certificate programs to fully accredited degree programs. Coursera's certificate courses were MOOCs because they were inexpensive, whereas the courses in its degree programs entail tuition and fees comparable to the tuition and fees charged by conventional online degree programs. Therefore I say its degree courses are not MOOCs. 

Higher ed's grudge against MOOCs -- Part 1

Last update: Tuesday 3/20/18

This note has a provocative title, but it's not nearly as provocative as my original: "The continuing grudge of U.S. higher education's Olde Guarde against MOOCs and Sebastian Thrun" -- which is what I'm really going to talk about. For readers who have never been tenured members of a faculty, it may come as a surprise to learn that the oh-so-rational, truth loving scholars of academia hold venomous grudges just like the Mafia. 

A "must take" MOOC and a "must read" book for data scientists

Last update: Tuesday 2/27/28

According to a 2017 New York Times review of the MOOC, Learning How to Learn, this course has been taken by "more than 1.8 million students from 200 countries, the most ever on Coursera". The course is based on Dr. Barbara Oakly's best-selling book, "A Mind for Numbers, How to Excel at Math and Science, Even if you Flunked Algebra". Now here's a flash: This MOOC and its companion text are not just for "them" -- the algebra flunkers; it's also for "us" -- the "us" who cursed loudly when we "only" got a 98 on the algebra final exam ... :-(

Competency-based job-oriented MOOC programs

Last update: Tuesday 2/6/18

By definition, job-oriented MOOC programs provide their students with the professional competence required to obtain and succeed in new jobs. Nevertheless, job-oriented programs do not adapt their curricula to accommodate the varying skills and aptitudes that their entering students bring to the table. In other words, there are no competency-based programs.

Six features to look for in job-oriented MOOCs ... (4)

Last update: Monday 1/29/18

In August 2017, I posted a discussion of job-oriented MOOCs on this blog that provided lots of data about some U.S. providers. The following note provides guidelines and recommendations based on that data and on my personal experience in passing almost 50 job-oriented MOOCs in the last three years. 

Another "Masters" in Data Science via MOOCs ... (3)

Last update: February 2/25/18

Two years ago David Venturi posted a widely read description of the path he followed to obtain a self-designed "Masters" degree in data science via MOOCs, i.e., a free education that was equivalent in scope and quality to what he would have received had he completed a Masters degree program from one of the nation's leading universities.  You can read his account here ==> MY DATA SCIENCE MASTER'S. The following note describes the "Masters" in data science that I designed for myself, a program that I will complete within the next five or six months.

Directory of Academic Degrees & Certificate Programs in Data Science

Last update: Sunday 10/7/18

DLL Editor's note -- Data Science is a rapidly growing profession with strong academic roots. But most current practitioners do not have academic certificates or degrees in data science. This demographic is likely to undergo a substantial redistribution as more universities offer certificates, bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in this field.

MOOCs, Data Science, and me

Last update: Friday 26 January 2018

This post is a personal note from the DLL Editor, a belated follow-up to previous posts that have marked his progress via MOOCs towards becoming a data scientist ... :-)

Readers can offer me their congratulations and/or condolences on my completion of another online Data Science certificate program -- this one from DataCamp (23 short courses); my first online DS certificate was from Johns Hopkins U via Coursera (9 courses plus a capstone course). 

Pass the MOOCs ... Part 1 (New Job)

Last update: 12/2/15

Two years ago I posted a note about my dropping out of a couple of MOOCs. Since then, I've dropped out of a few more. But I'm currently taking and passing a series of MOOCs offered by M.I.T (via edX) and Johns Hopkins (via Coursera); and I will probably take and pass a couple of MOOCs offered by Udacity by the end of the year.

Directory of Potential Strategic MOOC Partners for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs

Last updated: Saturday 12/7/13 @ 11:22 am

HBCUs and strategic alliances of HBCUs ("virtual HBCUs") can engage online service providers as strategic partners to help them launch massive open online courses, a/k/a MOOCs. A list of some of the nation's most prominent providers of support services for MOOCs that have been engaged by HBCUs and non-HBCUs as strategic partners appears in Table 1 (below). 

2014, a Good Year for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs to (Quietly) Flip and MOOC

Last updated: Monday 7/21/14 @ 5:14 pm

As the year 2013 wound to a close, the Academic Old Guard lulled itself into an inertial stupor, convinced that the previous two years' discussions of the pending MOOC "revolution" in higher education were just the blatherings of ambitious con-men, a noisy media vaudeville that would fade away if ignored for long enough, leaving things as they were before, as they were meant to be in this best of all possible worlds. The (mostly white) sages would remain firmly entrenched on center stages; technology would remain relegated to its proper place inside but on the outer fringes of the classrooms; and the Old Guard's preferred, self-serving solutions to the persistent achievement gaps between white and underperforming minority students would remain at the top of the national agenda ==> more funding for more (mostly white) researchers.

Virtual HBCUs Should Offer MOOCs for Internet-based Black Entrepreneurs

Last updated: Saturday 10/26/13 @ 1:21 pm

Yes, dear readers, the title of this note contains some of the most ubiquitous jargon found on the Websites of HBCUs, HBCU media, and the Facebook and Twitter pages of just about every person on the planet who has ever had the slightest interest in the future well-being of HBCUs.

MOOCs as eBooks

My belief that opportunities for greatest personal growth tend to lie along the lines of one's greatest weaknesses led me to decide about 15 or 20 years ago that I had to greatly increase my minimal knowledge of modern biochemistry. 

Disruptive Innovations

Disruptive Innovations in a Turbulent Academic Environment

Who's Doing What???

Last updated: Thursday 12/12/13 ... Work in Progress 

The following table provides a compact framework for tracking the innovations in higher education that have received the most coverage/buzz in the academic and national media during the last few years.

Confessions of a MOOC Dropout

A.  Mea Culpa
I am a MOOC dropout. There. I've said it. Now the whole world knows that I have become one of the millions of MOOC dropouts, the 80 to 90 percent of MOOC enrollees who don't finish their courses. No doubt the dreaded High Demons of MOOC will burn a scarlet "D" in the middle of my forehead while I'm asleep tonight ... :-(

Response to an Unpublished Comment

Yesterday a reader submitted a provocative comment on the "Best of Blogs" page. The following note is an edited version of an email that I sent to the reader in response. I've omitted any references to the names and statistics mentioned in the reader's comment that could identify specific persons associated with a specific HBCU for reasons noted in my opening paragraphs. As it happens, Gmail returned my response as "undeliverable" ... Given that I copied and pasted the reader's email address into my response, the reader must have mistyped his or her email address when submitting the comment ... or deliberately entered a false address in order to preserve his or her anonymity from me. No matter. The comment merited a serious response.

A MOOC MOOC and a MOOC for Launching Online Programs at HBCUs

The MOOC MOOC, organized by the good folk at Hybrid Pedagogy, began last Sunday, August 12th, and ended today, August 18th. It was billed as a MOOC about MOOCs. In other words, it was  an introduction to MOOCs in the format of a MOOC, i.e., a massive open online course. But for me as a student/participant, it turned out to be an intense, chaotic, catalytic learning experience that greatly accelerated my thinking about how to facilitate the launch of a comprehensive set of online and blended degree & certificate programs at my own HBCU, an initiative that began in January 2011.

Video Introductions to cMOOCs for HBCUs ... modified 4/27/13

Like many other members of the HBCU community, I have read many articles and reports in the higher education media over the course of the last year about MOOCs. All of these readings were written by well informed reporters but, from what I have learned in my first four days as a student/participant in the MOOC MOOC, most of these reports were way off base.

The MOOC MOOC and HBCUs

A. Background

The hype about MOOCs ("Massive Open Online Courses") in the media ever since 160,000 students enrolled in Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence course in the fall 2011 semester encouraged some MOOC pioneers, whose involvement predates Stanford's by a few years,  to launch the MOOC MOOC. This is a short, intensive MOOC about MOOCs that is designed to enable participants to discover what MOOCs are and can be from the inside and/or refine their previous conceptions. The MOOC MOOC started on Sunday, August 12th and will run until Saturday, August 18th.