The university hasn’t dived head first into the controversial courses hosted by platforms like edX and Cousera; rather, GW officials have met with members of the faculty senate, ensuring educators that no one would be required to participate in GW’s MOOCs.
“If there are faculty members who are interested, it seems to me that it’s incumbent upon a university to figure out pathways for faculty to do that,” Berman said.
And that might me the key difference in how GW has approached its foray into the MOOC market: Berman said he’s made sure to maintain close contact with professors interested in the experimental online platform, encouraging them to discuss MOOCs with their peers on campus.
“It’s always better when it comes from colleagues than administrators,” he said. “I have no interest in forcing faculty members who are not interested in online education to teach an online course.”
GW’s approach stands in stark contrast to some MOOC initiatives that have launched over the past year, including a plan to enroll more than 100,000 State University of New York (SUNY) students in MOOCs without increasing faculty.
A spokeswoman for the United University Professions (UUP) union representing 35,000 academics called MOOCs “experimental” and said faculty members were concerned that mass MOOC adoption would “dilute” education for SUNY students.
The faculty backlash against MOOCs doesn’t stop there.
Amherst College offered a firm denial to MOOC provider EdX in April. Duke faculty, a few weeks later, voted down plans for the university to offer MOOC-like courses.
Philosophy faculty members at San Jose State University, where MOOCs have thrived thanks to campus officials bullish about the courses, said in an open letter that adopting MOOCs was tantamount to watering down students’ college education.
An ‘organic’ move toward MOOCs
GW educators said the university has taken a deliberate approach, preferring not to partner with a major MOOC platform like Cousera or edX — two outfits recently panned by a group of professors who warned against creeping corporate influence in online education.
Berman said the university would not sign with any of the largest MOOC platforms, though he couldn’t discuss GW’s MOOC platform until memorandums of understanding were signed.
GW professors said they’ve appreciated the university’s cautious move toward MOOCs, even as many faculty members have expressed interest in heading up massive courses.
“In general, there’s an effort to move more organically and be a little skeptical of MOOCs,” said Margaret Soltan, a GW English professor who taught a poetry MOOC last year hosted by the platform Udemy. “It’s always good to be skeptical of all the rage.”
(Next page: No MOOCs for credit?)
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