Comments on: Can MOOCs Work with Liberal Arts? http://www.nebhe.org/thejournal/can-moocs-work-with-liberal-arts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=can-moocs-work-with-liberal-arts NEBHE Tue, 13 Aug 2013 14:16:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: George McCully http://www.nebhe.org/thejournal/can-moocs-work-with-liberal-arts/comment-page-1/#comment-139013 George McCully Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:08:34 +0000 http://www.nebhe.org/?post_type=thejournal&p=17193#comment-139013 Agreed that MOOCs are already revolutionizing training (knowledge- and skills-development, which can be a mechanical process), and that the challenge is to accomplish education (training plus self-development, which is a personal and social process) and especially liberal education (strong humanities and values emphasis), the key is interpersonal communication, at which the Internet also excels.

To investigate that, I have enrolled in the MOOCs course on the Greek Hero. Students are being divided into groups of 1,000, with coaches, and the prospect of lots of communication. I have high hopes, unclear expectations.

As a former Wellesley faculty member (history, late '70s, replacing folks on leave), I understand that intensive personal exposure to various disciplines and people is the unique strength of residential liberal arts colleges, probably not achievable by MOOCs. I'm wondering whether MOOCs can achieve their own characteristic form of liberal education by promoting global personal communications, among students for whom Western scholarship and inquiry are radically different from backgrounds in impoverished, often undemocratic, developing countries. Liberation and empowerment can take many forms, and situations demanding creative problem-solving enabled by MOOC training and education, may constitute a new non-traditional form of recognizably liberal education.

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