By Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge
When budget woes threatened faculty reductions in the anthropology department at Kansas State University, one professor decided to address the shortfall by teaching differently. The professor, Michael Wesch, has a long track record of teaching innovation. He’s won a national teacher-of-the-year award and his viral videos about education earned him praise from Wired magazine. Throughout his career, Wesch has relentlessly refreshed his approach, at one point admitting that some of the tech he’s infused in his teaching wasn’t working and trying a reboot.One way he looks at the online course is as a competitor to commercial textbooks, but one that is updated and enhanced by a community of professors. For instructors who want to adopt it, he provides a password to a library of materials, and even plans to add the slides he uses for the in-person version of the course. And he encourages those professors to upload their own materials as well. So far about seven courses at other colleges have adopted the site so far for their courses.
Share on Facebook