Dive Summary:
- After Minnesota reversed course on its decision to ban MOOCs in October, the University of Minnesota and its professors began preparing for their first MOOCs, which launched earlier this month, with the help of the school's librarians.
- Chemistry Professor Chris Cramer, who "put 400 hours into preparation" for his first MOOC, Statistical Molecular Thermodynamics, said that he relied heavily the University's MOOC production team of librarians: "[Professors] are used to creating our courses almost on our own. You can’t do a MOOC that way."
- Nancy Sims, a librarian who is part of the production team, spotlighted the ongoing evolution of what libaries do: “Sometimes people think of the library of just being buildings with books in them, but I think this has shown that this is not what we are. The way the library folks have been able to just dive right in in a short time frame has shown a very high level of amazing talent.”
From the article:
Karen Monsen, who is teaching a MOOC called Interprofessional Healthcare Informatics, said she also leans on the team frequently for help.
“They are the one who really showed us about the in-video stuff,” she said, adding that they have also shown her how to see the real-time progress of data collection.