Dive Summary:
- The San Jose State University chapter of the California Faculty Association, which represents 2,059 of the institution's professors, entered the campus' MOOC debate with a memorandum criticizing the school's president, Mohammad H. Qayoumi, for endorsing "private rather than public solutions" in regard to technological tools.
- The memo echoes the sentiment of the university's philosophy department, which refused to use an edX MOOC taught by Harvard professor Michael Sandel because they felt the university's partnerships with MOOC providers are the beginning of a move to replace faculty with "cheap online education."
- Meanwhile, American University Provost Scott A. Bass issued a memorandum to university faculty and staff explaining the institution's moratorium on MOOCs, which began in January, listing questions and concerns being considered in the drafting of a policy while laying out additional guidelines for professors at American teaching online on a freelance basis.
From the article:
... In the memo the union representatives write that Mr. Qayoumi, in his efforts to publicize the university's collaborations with the MOOC providers, has been reluctant to defend professors against "a stereotype of classroom teaching based on some hackneyed Hollywood script of a teacher writing on a blackboard while his students sleep in boredom." ...