College’s first free online course draws 11,000
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Jennifer Evans-Cowley was inspired to offer the College of Engineering’s first massive open online course, or MOOC, as a way to learn about the teaching model firsthand. Almost 11,000 students participated in TechniCity, her four-week course offered as part of The Ohio State University’s free Coursera offerings.
TechniCity explored how the increasing availability of networks, sensors and mobile technologies allows for new approaches to address the challenges that cities face. Emphasizing the importance of open discussion, the course also included guest lectures by business and industry professionals, homework assignments and a peer evaluation project.
“One of the interesting things that we learned early on is that about 70 percent of the students participating already have a degree, and were treating it as a continuing education course,” said Evans-Cowley, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of city and regional planning. “That was pretty exciting because we had so many students who were knowledgeable in so many areas around the world.”
Teaching free online courses is an extension of the everyday continuing education work that faculty already do to support industries and professionals, explained Evans-Cowley. She teamed with Tom Sanchez, professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech, to teach the course.
“The MOOC is really a hybrid of our continuing education and for-credit teaching work,” said Evans-Cowley. “It’s just a new opportunity to present it to a much wider audience.”
Evans-Cowley found teaching online fit well with Ohio State’s land grant mission of educating Ohio citizens and the world.
“It was about a bunch of people who were interested in the topic and wanted a place to talk about it,” said Evans-Cowley. “Having 11,000 people actively participating, but only 400 actually formally completing all the requirements, says to me that there are a lot of people interested in participating in informal education as a way of extending their learning. In addition, a select audience is very interested in receiving formal recognition of their accomplishments.”
Current Ohio State students were able to enroll in the course for credit as part of the university’s May session.
“We taught it for-credit for 47 of our students and it was an exciting opportunity for them to experience global education without even leaving campus. They were able to learn from other students from across the globe about things that are happening in India, China, Brazil and all over the world,” said Evans-Cowley. “I saw that as a really exciting opportunity for our students to learn about different ways technology is being applied in other contexts.”
Following the success of the pilot, the College of Engineering plans to offer up to two open online courses per year.
