Oceanography (Dec 2014)
THE OCEANOGRAPHY CLASSROOM. How to Run Amok—Or Is It a MOOC?
Abstract
An email comes through from my Head of Department: "Simon, are you getting involved in the Exploring Our Ocean MOOC this year? You don't want to miss out!" I try to figure out whether this is a typo and also what it is that I don't want to miss out on. Has her cap-lock key got stuck? What letters are close to M, O, and C that she actually meant to type? Another email grabs my attention, and I decide I have too much to do to worry about decoding an email, which is either mistyped or in a hitherto unseen language. A week later as I walk down the corridor, there it is again. A bright and engaging poster with images of the deep ocean proclaims: "The University of Southampton MOOC on Exploring Our Ocean goes live in October 2014, register today—don't miss out!" As I study the poster, a passing student asks if I am starring in the MOOC this time around—he was surprised I wasn't involved in last year's. Last year's? I suddenly feel like someone who fell asleep in the 1980s comfortable with the fax, VHS tapes, and a mobile phone that occasionally made phone calls, and woke up 20 years later to discover emails, online movies, and the iPhone.
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