So, I asked this question at the discussion board as soon as the wiki appeared (the discussion board is how we are supposed to contact Coursera staff; if you go to the "contact" page, it explicitly tells class members to post questions at the discussion board) and labeled it carefully. There have been some comments from other students (I've replied to their comments), and there have been over 100 views of the forum thread, but apparently none of those viewers are Coursera staff because I still don't have an answer to my question. As I explained in the forum post, my motivation to work on the wiki is high if it will persist, but I have no motivation to work on it if it is going into the virtual trash can.
I also have very little motivation to contribute to the larger effort of a class in which the staff are so conspicuously uninterested in what is going on. I never see staff comments at the discussion board, while the problems with plagiarism, blank essays, etc. persist, as do the problems with incomplete/abusive peer feedback, etc.
Note that the real problem here is not that Coursera staff fail to reply to discussion board posts (although that is a serious problem) - the bigger problem is that there was no announcement to begin with: the wiki is something potentially of interest to everyone in the class, and deserves an announcement. Even if Coursera staff eventually answer my question, it will be lost in the abyss of the discussion board and only a microscopic fraction of the class will ever see it. I don't know what it's like in the other Coursera classes, but the lack of broadcast communication in this class is a huge problem - and it would be such an easy one to fix.
I agree the communication has been dismal. I believe no one monitors the discussion boards. I signed up for two other course which just started and the interaction between staff and students is far different with near daily updates and the instructor participating on the discussion boards. (Granted it's early, so these may collapse into chaos also.) I am starting to strongly suspect that much of the disfunction in the science fiction and fantasy class needs to be placed at the instructor's feet. I feel that Dr. Rabkin believes his component of the course ended with the creation of the syllabus and the lectures. We are now on our own to either make it work or allow it to become a "Lord of the Flies" scenario. I still have reservations over the final outcome.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid you might be right, Natasha - although I would really hold Coursera to task; they are the ones who need to be checking up on things and giving guidelines to the faculty, since presumably the faculty have never done anything like this before - MOOCs are so new. As for Lord and the Flies, that's been on my mind too - and someone else mentioned that book at the discussion board today also. Ouch.
DeleteAs for me, I'm going to be checking out other kinds of MOOCs and non-traditional online learning. It's going to be a while before I cycle around to doing a Coursera course, that's for sure.
The wiki could salvage the course for me, which is why I would really like an answer to the question... I'd like to contribute something of lasting value and would be really motivated to do that, way more than writing the essays. But I strongly suspect Coursera has not even thought about what to do with the wiki after the class is over.
Give Modern Poetry a try. Al Fireis comes with digital footprint, online teaching and blogging experience ~ and is communicating regularly before the class starts. If not now, then perhaps after an appropriate xMOOCoursera recovery period.
ReplyDeleteAs for lectures, I wonder if some might be available anyway on U Michigan open resources pages. If not, I'd still consider using it with a guided online SRL study/test prep ~ and flip it.
Dr Chuck over on History of the Internet posts makes regular forum posts, reads forum posts (or has grad students read them and prepare synopses), tweets. Can't imagine Rabkin in black sleeveless t-shirt (with Harley logo) and bill cap, sporting tatts though...
In the meantime, Lisa Lane's Program for Online Teaching starts soon, orientation ongoing. And you get to call yourself a POThead.
Hi Vanessa, my next destination is Treehouse - it's not free ($25/month), but a friend of mine just started working there (he's going to be a php/WordPress guru), and I am really intrigued by what they are doing. I'm definitely burnt-out (in a bad way) from this Coursera experience, so I'd like to try out something which seems to be filled up with nothing but good energy, and the Treehouse guys seem to have some very good energy going on. I want to MAKE something... and it looks like that is exactly what I will get to do over there. :-)
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Well, I am now taking Machine Learning course for the second time, and there is plenty of material in the Wiki from the previous course, so I really hope it will stay, and the experience of the students taking this course for the second time will be better.
ReplyDeleteAs for forum monitoring, I believe it is the duty of the support stuff, and we shouldn't blame prof. Rabkin for this. He does a lot already making lectures based on what he sees on the forum every week. Anyway, no normal university makes its professors arrange the light and desks in their classrooms.
And about subtitles - yes, I feel like being used, although I don't have time and don't contribute. They should have concentrated on putting subtitles to videos in time first.
That's good to know about the wiki, Arenel - thank you! I wonder, though, if that is a decision that they leave up to the instructor, for example. There's really no way of knowing what Coursera considers to be the instructor's responsibility and what is a Coursera decision. It's an unusual model that way - is attending to the class wiki like arranging the lights and desks in the classroom? My guess is that it is a shared responsibility that has not been clearly defined which is why everything is just falling through the cracks. Anyway, I still don't have an answer to the question about our wiki and the lack of an answer doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that they really even have decided just who is responsible for doing what - in the absence of a clear plan, I'd prefer not to overinvest. Same with the videos - I actually don't see it as being used at all; I think it's great to have students creating useful things of lasting value ... but Coursera's apparent lack of time or inclination to communicate with us about anything makes me not inclined to participate.
DeleteI don't think the blame should fully lie with Coursera. I'm in the Sustainability Course that just started this week, and the whole set up is different.
ReplyDeleteThere are a staggering number of students at the beginning, yet, you get the feeling that the forums are being monitored (Week 1 discussions came with an instruction post) and either the Professor or assistants are around paying attention. We'll see how that goes on...
Sorry you're feeling burned out. I am too, but for another reason: My writing (or at least my scores) seem to be getting worse, rather than better and I don't know what to do about it. A certain ennui was predictable around the halfway mark, but I never thought it would be this bad...
The pacing of a class is something really important for the staff (Coursera staff, university staff, whoever) to ponder. I really like having a portfolio so that even though you can be getting tired out at the end, you can also have the pleasure of adding new stuff to your portfolio and watching it grow. I actually had fun with the essay this week and adding it to my portfolio... but if I didn't have that visible evidence of progress (not so much that my writing is getting better, but that themes are criss-crossing throughout the accumulated writing), I would find it hard to keep going in the class too. We are just at the half-way mark, so there is still a long way to go.
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