“From Real to Virtual Blackboards: the How and Why of Teaching History”

HTAV 20 February 2015

Peter McPheeUniversity of Melbourne

The editors of Farrago, 1925: Brian Fitzpatrick, Joan Finlason, Kathleen Pitt, Robert Fraser.

Kathleen Fitzpatrick

La Pérouse, 1788Bruni d’Entrecasteaux, 1791-94

M.L. Freycinet, Voyages de découvertes aux terres australes, atlas (Paris, 1811)

Flinders and Baudin, 1802

COURSERA - Our MissionWe provide universal access to the world’s best

education.

How It WorksCoursera is an education platform that partners with top universities and organizations worldwide, to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.

Discover a course and sign up todayChoose from hundreds of courses created by the world’s top educational institutions. Courses are open to anyone, and learning is free.View courses

The French Revolution

Professor Peter McPhee

Lecture Week 1

1 - An introduction to the French Revolution

‘Learners joined’: 33,054 from 169 countries

‘Visited the course’: 19,792

Watched at least one lecture: 15,791

1,244 submitted the first assessed exercise,and 805 the second

First set of six lectures: 8,347

Sixth set of six lectures: 4,215

Total lectures viewed: 418,000

The French Revolution

Professor Peter McPhee

Lecture Week 6

6 – The ‘maximalist’ approach: the turning-point of the modern world

National background: 31% were from the US, 6% from India, 5% from both the UK and China, and 4% from each of Australia, Brazil and Canada. 30% were from ‘emerging economies’.

Age: 31% were aged 20-29 and 21% 30-39. That is, 52% were 20-39, compared with 18% who were over 60 years. 54% were male.

Education: 75% Bachelors degree or higher (6% PhD); only 10% high school.

An estimated 1,150 separate discussion forums. The students made a total of 10,282 posts across the course. 6,500 ‘browsed’ the forums.

“According to Fiona M. Hollands of Columbia University’s Teachers College, MOOCs ‘are not democratizing education. They are making courses widely available, but the wrong crowd is showing up.’http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/business/economy/udacity-att-nanodegree-offers-an-entry-level-appr...

“The ‘wrong crowd’ seem to be those who are overqualified, have too much time on their hands (ie probably those a bit underemployed) and tend to dominate in the forums.”

“I guess I fit in as I have a PhD and MA in Modern History, by choice work as little as possible (I work as a private tutor in Thailand) so have a lot of free time, and love to study, so sign up for pretty well every MOOC around and then see which seem to be stimulating/fun/suitably challenging. So, I don't really fit in with the original purpose of MOOCs, which seemed to be for educating the youth of the world (I'm 45).

“Do you fit in to the ‘wrong crowd’? Or are you like me, who thinks you can never learn enough...?”

“The way in which students are accessing material points to the need for the modularization of online classes whenever possible. The very notion of a ‘class’ may be outdated. This in many ways mirrors the preferences of students on campus. The unbundling of classes also reflects a larger trend in society—a number of other media offerings have become available in modules, whether it is a song from an album, an article in a newspaper, or a chapter from a textbook. Modularity also enables ‘just-in-time’ delivery of instruction, further enabling 'project-based learning on campus and for students worldwide.” http://web.mit.edu/future-report/TaskForceFinal_July28.pdf

“UW-Madison say they will go in the direction [of] shorter courses, 'greatest hits' courses (and probably easier assessment - probably like those courses with 5 multiple choice questions and 100 attempts allowed)”

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/uw-madison-making-next-round-of-moocs-shorter-more-wisconsin/a...”

Lynn Hunt

Eric Hobsbawm

Greg Dening

The French Revolution

Professor Peter McPhee

Lecture Week 1

1 - An introduction to the French Revolution

Map created by Gavin Leys© University of Melbourne, based on P.McPhee, The French Revolution, Oxford, 2002, p. 205.

Languedoc

Corbières

Occitan

Camps-sur-l’Agly