Take My Class for Free-Seriously
Updated
Yesterday I decided to post the working syllabus for my grad class for the upcoming semester in an attempt to elicit feedback before I make some final choices. I then posted that I had done this twitter. Not surprisingly I received some useful feedback. What I hadn’t anticipated was interest in taking this class from people in my twitter network, mostly grad. students at other universities where a course like this is not offered. So, then I started thinking, why not give the class away for free to those who want it?
Here’s what I am thinking:
The class at UTD (University of Texas at Dallas) is structured like a typical graduate seminar, that is a heavy amount of reading, followed by class discussion/lecture lead by me. It is easy enough for anyone to download the syllabus, and do the reading. The difficult part is coordinating some sort of online discussion section for those who are not at UTD, as I feel a large part of the learning experience is informed by discoursing about the material. What I thought might work is the following:
- Students who want to take this class do the reading as they would with any graduate seminar.
- I record all my grad classes, so the students who want to take this class who are not at UTD could download the recording as a podcast, and listen to it. This clearly is not as good as being in class, but gets closer to the experience.
- Then, sometime later in the week, we (by we I mean me and those who want to take it online) “meet” online somewhere to discuss the reading for say an hour.
This would not be for credit from UTD, the knowledge is free, the degree will cost you money. Grad students who are currently enrolled at another university though could arrange with their home institution to take a directed reading on this material, with a professor at their university signing off on it, perhaps by writing a seminar paper which that professor would evaluate. Of course grad students who just want the knowledge would not have to do any work save reading, listening, and showing up for a discussion. Think of it as a more formalized reading group.
So, I am considering conducting this experiment. Serious, you can just take this class for free, I’ll give away the knowledge. A couple of caveats though. First I am not sure I can do this, I need to find a way to host online discussion, preferably video conferencing. Second, I am only going to do this if I have the right group of people and the right number. I think perhaps between 5-10 committed students. Less than five the discussion is not so productive, more than ten and it can get out of hand. Also I am thinking of limiting this to grad students currently enrolled at other universities. I realize this is rather prejudicial, but if I am going to do this I want to “stack the deck in my favor” by having a group that has a relatively homogenous sense of purpose and educational background, this makes the discussion far more productive (I could be convinced otherwise though).
Thoughts? Issues I haven’t thought of? An idea for how to host a video conference for between 5-10 people? Leave a comment.
Interested in this class? Send me an email, and if I get enough response just maybe I’ll run this experiment in free knowledge. So, pass the word around to grad students who are interested in Emerging Media, but don’t have classes at their schools. You can find information about the class at the course blog.
Update: Nils Peterson asks why not do the “full monte” (i.e. make the class really progressive and refigure even assessment?). Read his post, and my reply at his blog. (Basically I agree with him, but this is just a strategic first step.)
August 5th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
If not video conferencing, why not consider a virtual space like Second Life, or even a web-based space like Google’s Lively? It will still allow students to connect and meet with each other having the same conversation that would occur inside a classroom. I’d happily designate some space for you in Second Life for your meetings.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Sharon-Second Life would be a second best option I think (but def. worth considering). A lot of nuance can be lost in a space like, hand gestures, facial gestures etc. But it still might be the best option. Primarily I want to have audio conversation not typing ones.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Dave,
You can use audio with Second Life as well as text, so if you do decide to go that route let me know. As I said, I’d be more than happy to designate some space for you on my private island for meetings/conversation. - Shannon
August 5th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Shannon-thanks, I may take you up on this if I cannot find a video solution
August 5th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Even Windows Live Msgnr … it’s not ideal - but it’s free and allows for video/text. I used it recently to facilitate a consultation discussion.
C
August 5th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Dave,
I think that this is a great idea to spread your knowledge to those outside of your institution. However, if knowledge is truly “free”, shouldn’t the class be offered to those who are not already well educated? Are you planning on making your course available to absolutely anyone who is interested in learning about this topic in the future? I think it would be beneficial to get the ideas of those who are not part of the collegiate world.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Matt,
Yes I would plan on opening it in the future to anyone, this is just an initial test run. Also there are features of the course that cater to those who are in graduate school, and things that would perhaps be altered to design the class for those not in academia/higher ed. Second, all the lectures will be free to anyone who wants to download the only thing that will be restricted is the small group discussion.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I’d be interested in observing the process - how you go about doing this. Howard Rheingold is doing something similar with the video part - you might want to talk to him about what he’s using for the conferencing. I want to do something like what you’ve proposed with my own materials - not as a course but as a wiki with resources. One thing I do right now is use delicious as our required reading. No text book. Delicious IS the textbook. Something can happen online within a few days of a discussion that has more relevance to my course than some article I was using the year before. Also, my students find things. I’d like a way to get their bookmarks more integrated with the course. So perhaps every week we have a student selected reading (a best of bookmarks) - turn this into a discussion point.
August 6th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Dave, I left my comments in my blog with a suggestion for your course design
Nils
August 6th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I’m not qualified to take part in your course, however, the course sounds extremely interesting to me - would you mind making available the recorded lectures if you go through with it? I’d really appreciate it!
Thanks for staying on the edge of education technology, I’m thankful that someone is.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Dave, you might consider using Elluminate as a virtual meeting space for participants. Audio, video, whiteboard, text, and archiving of meetings are supported. http://www.elluminate.com/
Other options: vYew (http://vyew.com/site) or DimDim. (http://dimdim.com/), or TappedIN (http://tappedin.org/tappedin/)
Charlie
August 11th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Being able to handle arbitrary numbers of non-registered virtual participants is difficult (you’ve decided to opt with allowing a small number), but I think it is desirable, if possible. Its ‘possibility‘ is based on the modality of the interaction(s). Clearly having hundreds or even dozens in a video conference is not possible. But (many) courses can be re-structured to allow for interactions that can scale to larger numbers. There is a paper in examining the taxonomy of course interaction modalities and their scalability, impacts, etc (if it isn’t already out there).
August 12th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Dave,
Just a thought but why not attempt to use skype and the conference calling features. It is free as long as the students are using a computer, it has video capability if needed, and would suit the class size you are thinking of (5-10).
August 12th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Have you thought about using iChat? The current version on Leopard allows for video conferencing, sharing screens, adding text messaging as well. This may limit to Mac users, but it seems to interface pretty well with AIM on a PC.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I’d suggesting looking at ustream.tv for options to broadcast video of the class… as well as collaboration.
http://www.ustream.tv/
August 12th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Second Life and Skype makes a great combination. You can set up a slideviewer in a SL virtual classroom and a Skype conference call with conference chat and pretty much duplicate anything you can do in a real life classroom. Except smell the next guys cologne that is..
August 13th, 2008 at 12:46 am
I have used dimdim for the last 4 weeks in my Microsoft operating systems class. It is possible to record and download the contents of the meeting now as well as have up to 4 microphones to share with the participants for free.
Not only do the remote students like it but I have found that the students in the classroom enjoy it as well. I use the desktop sharing feature during my lectures so they can follow along.
They have a phone number for skype users to call. I am not sure if that counts as a phone call and thus not free. Using DimDim and a skypecast could also work for more than 4 microphones.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:10 am
I’ve been using EVO for the weekly meetings of EGEE SWE and it seems to have everything you need: multiplatform (Win, Mac, Linux), audio, video and whiteboard. Good luck with the course.
August 24th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
How’s your university taking it? Most would not want to see real-time course content offered for free to non-tuition-paying students. Nor, would the tuition-paying-students necessarily want to see it offered for free to others? The strict definition of “tuition” then simply means “credit” and most places would not want to make that narrow a definition. At any rate, you’d better get it cleared before offering it!
No way that ichat will work. EVO would have everyone spending a half hour adjusting mutes and audio…plus, I don’t know if it’s legal to use it for such an exercise given the funding sources for EVO.
I’ve wondered about Second Life for courses. I could imagine a variety of nonsensical structures that could be built for students to climb inside of to understand molecular structures, high energy physics events, stellar layers…the mind boggles.