When Professor Cathy Davidson of Duke University agreed to teach a Coursera course on the “History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education,” which will launch on January 27, 2014, she was determined to see how the course itself could help others to think about the many forms and functions of higher education in the 21st century. Co-founder of the 12,000+ member network HASTAC (hastac.org), an open community dedicated to innovations in learning, Professor Davidson sent a notice around to other network members to see if others might be interested in exploring the same topic in a variety of ways. More than thirty different universities and institutions in North America and internationally responded, offering courses, webinars, hangouts, and conferences on the topic. Along with the participants in Professor Davidson’s Coursera MOOC, they will also be making their research publicly available through a number of collaborative, crowdsourced tools on the hastac.org site, including a wiki of learning resources, pedagogical innovations, and successful institutional changes worldwide.
Via Miloš Bajčetić