Faculty Technology Center Hosts Campus Roundtable Discussions on Higher Ed, Starting this Week

Anyone up for a MOOC about MOOCs? 

If so, you’re invited to join six roundtable discussions about the future of higher education, beginning Thursday, Jan. 30.

The meetings at the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses will revolve around “History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education,” a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) being taught by Cathy Davidson, Ph.D., the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and co-director of the Ph.D. Lab in Digital Knowledge at Duke University. The first MOOC will be available on Coursera as of today, Monday, Jan. 27.

Kristen A. Treglia, instructional technologist at Fordham’s Faculty Technology Center, said the goal of the meetings, which are being co-sponsored by Fordham’s Blended Learning Task Force, are modeled after book clubs. Participants can participate in the MOOC on Monday (or later) and then discuss it on this Thursday, Jan. 30, from 12 to 1 p.m.

The Blended Learning Task Force was formed in October by the Office of the Provost, and under the leadership of Debra McPhee, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, it is exploring issues related to technology in the classroom, online learning, and hybrid courses.

And although the discussions will use that week’s MOOC as a jumping point, Treglia says any topic related to education will be on the table. The meetings will hopefully demystify the experience of taking a MOOC, and also open up a space for conversations about education-related topics, from standardized testing to the traditional September-to-June schedule.

“Even if people just want to come and talk about teaching and learning and have some pizza on us, we’ll be happy,” she said. 

The MOOC will cover these topics:  

Week 1:  History of Education

Week 2:  Theories of Education and Learning

Week 3:  Digital Literacies

Week 4:  Innovations to Curriculum

Week 5:  Innovations in Pedagogy and Assessment

Week 6:  How Can We Implement Changes at an Institutional Level?

For more information, contact Kristen Terglia at treglia@fordham.edu. 

To sign up for the MOOC, click here:

To sign up for the discussion groups, click here:

—Patrick Verel