Taken Any Good MOOCs Lately?

One of Beethoven's Pianos from the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, Germany

I'm taking a MOOC about Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Beethoven is my favorite composer, and the Piano Sonatas are my favorite Beethoven genre. I have mixed feelings about the MOOC, though, (more about that later). Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are big news in education these days. Well-known, respected, and prestigious colleges and universities offer these online courses for no cost and usually with no limits on how many students may sign up. Providers include Coursera, Saylor, edX, and Udacity, and each manages their course environments differently. Some educators believe these courses are a great way for students to catch up on work they've missed, or supplement existing knowledge, but few would expect MOOCs, even the most rigorous, to stand alone. Some educators see MOOCs as a threat to traditional education as we've known it for centuries. Maybe. Maybe not. I'm still trying to learn enough about them to have an opinion. I'm collecting relevant MOOC information on a Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/moocing. I'm involved with three MOOCs at the moment, and the pedagogies of these three couldn't be more different.

I'm still in my first MOOC, a Medieval English Literature course through Saylor (http://www.Saylor.org). I've been involved with this course for over a year. It's asynchronous, meaning I can work at my own pace, speeding up in the lazy summer months, and slowing down when work and teaching schedules are busier. I signed up for this course because I thought it would complement the music- and art-centric medieval knowledge I already have. This is exactly what is happening, although most of the material is presented through readings with only a few audio lectures in the beginning and the end. Some material is gleaned from college professors, and some comes from scholarly online resources. Saylor promotes their courses as "built by professors." There is a discussion area for students, but I have yet to see a discussion going on there relevant to my course. If I didn't already have an interest in the literature of this era, I suspect I might not have worked too far into the course. There are many English Literature courses available at Saylor in case I decide to keep reading through the centuries.

Secondly, I'm taking "Think Again: How to Reason and Argue" presented by Duke University via the massive MOOC provider Coursera. Obviously, this does not involve music, but I mention it because it contrasts markedly with the Saylor Medieval Literature course. Most of the material is presented through lectures with periodic review questions, and quizzes every few weeks. It is synchronous, which means that I have to keep up as I would with a traditional college course. The material is challenging, so I pause often to make sense of my notes. The online discussions for this course are robust, so students do have the opportunity for interaction as they would with a traditional course. There is no interaction with the professors, so far, and there is no evaluation of student work except for electronically-graded multiple choice questions. I don't see this as a replacement for a traditional college credit course; it is a nice supplement, perhaps an elective I was not able to fit into my own program of study.

The Master (from the Beethovenhaus in Bonn)

"Exploring Beethoven Piano Sonatas" is offered by the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, again through Coursera. The instructor is Jonathan Biss, a pianist of note who teaches at that venerable institution. This MOOC has generated some media attention in the New York Times and BBC. Biss presents the content of the course to me and 29,999 other students from the piano, usually in five lectures per week. Each lecture runs anywhere from six to twenty minutes, and each ends with a review question. (He hasn't stumped me yet.) Since Beethoven composed piano sonatas throughout his life, his evolution as a composer evolves before our eyes and ears from the young idealistic composer, through the rule-breaking middle-aged innovator, to the profound sage. Professor Biss demonstrates points of interest in the sonatas, but does not play the works straight through in the interest of conserving time. He offers interesting insight into the composition and performance of the sonatas, and he's particularly adept at using non-musical metaphors to illustrate his points. Here's a sample:

I think this course would be as effective for someone with little prior musical knowledge as it is for one who has carefully studied the sonatas before. This is not easy to pull off. As with the other Coursera course, there is an active discussion area where students bounce their ideas off one another. Some reflect on assigned discussion questions, and others reflect on more philosophical questions like "Does study of music enhance listening?" Unlike the instructors of the other courses, Professor Biss has made himself available to students in real time, once in-person at a Philadelphia cafe, and once through a Google Hangout. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend either, but word is both were well-attended.

I'm a Lifelong Learner and I really like my MOOCs. I'll be sad when they finish, just like I am when I finish a really good, thought-provoking book. Just as there are always more books to read, there are more MOOCs to take, and I'll be starting another next week again through the Curtis Institute via Coursera: "From the Repertoire: Western Music History through Performance." That will be four concurrent (temporarily) and might even be a record!