Friday, February 8, 2013

FOE is DOA


So my first MOOC didn't go that well.  After a confusing and frustrating week, Fundamentals of Online Education (FOE) went down in flames.  Technical issues and course design flaws bedeviled the course from the start:  videos failed to load, groups couldn't form because students crashed the Google Docs forms the instructor set up, it was hard to navigate to the course elements, and students complained about the reading load and pacing.  Ironically, Fundamentals of Online Education was the first Coursera course ever to be suspended.  Georgie Tech and Fatimah Wirth, the instructor, evidently have slunk off to do a redesign, and the course will be offered again at some unspecified date.  To learn more, check out these articles:

Salon's report: "The Internet Will Not Ruin College"

Chronicle of Higher Education: Georgie Tech and Coursera Try to Recover from MOOC Stumble

I feel for Fatimah Wirth.  I just hope she already has tenure.