Computer Science | Grinnell College

Feb. 26 CS Table location: JRC 224B, noon.

At CS Table we will discuss Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

To prepare for our discussion, please read the selection of short articles that appeared in Communications of the ACM in late 2012, and one of the many retrospectives on MOOCs that has appeared more recently. All of the articles are brief, but contain many links to outside sources. You are encouraged to read all of these articles and explore some of their links, but any subset of these articles would be helpful for you to prepare for our discussion.

• Will Massive Open Online Courses Change How We Teach?
• Will MOOCs Destroy Academia?
• In the Year of Disruptive Education
• Research Questions About MOOCs
• Why MOOCs Didn't Work, in 3 Data Point

Computer science table (CS Table) is a weekly meeting of Grinnell College community members (students, faculty, staff, etc.) interested in discussing topics related to computing and computer science. CS Table meets Tuesdays from 12:00–12:50pm. Most CS Tables for the spring semester will meet in JRC 224B inside the Marketplace, though a small number will be in an alternate location, so watch each week for the location. Contact the CS faculty for the weekly reading. Students on meal plans, faculty, and staff are expected to cover the cost of their meals. Visitors to the College and students not on meal plans can charge their meals to the department (sign in at the Marketplace front desk).

TUESDAY, October 25, 2016
4:15 p.m. in Science 3821
Refreshments at 4:00 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Science 3817)

Technologies for Online Instruction: Do They Support Authentic Learning?
Ursula Wolz, Noyce Visiting Professor at Grinnell College, will talk about technology and education. She is also looking for research students for the spring and help with outreach programs in our community.

Abstract: AI Researchers in the 1980s assumed they would replace classroom teachers within a decade. 'Online learning' is not what we envisioned. This talk presents an historical perspective on Computers in Education, raising important issues for student privacy, curricular choice and and freedom of speech. The impact of technology including knowledge engineering and data science/deep learning will be discussed in the context of how it can support both massively online open classrooms, and small face-to-face classrooms.