D’une magistralité l’autre. Remédiation de l’ethos professoral par le dispositif du MOOC

Abstract

The MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) has often been presented in media discourse as a triple challenge “revolution”: a revolution of the communicational and media models (“open” and “online”), a revolution of pedagogical relations (“participation” and “interactivity”), and a revolution of the roles of teacher and student (“reversed class” and “disappearance of teachers”). Through an in-depth study of the first MOOC hosted on the platform FUN, this article shows that these bold proclamations are not supported by a rhetorical and enunciative point of view. The verticality of the traditional lecture is not replaced or rendered obsolete by purely “horizontal” teaching. With the use of audiovisual and digital tools, the teacher can be seen through a wide range of enunciation gestures. Far from disappearing, the academic ethos is reconfigured for a polyphony and a “polytopy” which allows for several discursive and editorial “roles”. It is another pedagogical device that is constructed on the screen.

Keywords

• MOOC
• ethos
• pedagogical device
• remediation
• FUN