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Brian Caffo
I teach a lot of Coursera classes. It's possible that I've taught more MOOC sessions than anyone else (325 sessions according to coursera). Though if title doesn't belong to me, then one of my two colleagues (Roger Peng, Jeff Leek) has it.
It's become somewhat of an addiction. It's fun. The students are really engaged and enthusiastic. It's awesome to be a part of something that is changing people's lives. It's nice to offer education for free. I many ways, it's what drew many of us to the field of academics to begin with.
There's also financial and professional benefits. We use leanpub to "sell" books. There's a free option for the books, but many people buy them anyway. We get a share of the signature track revenue from coursera. How this would work out depends on university revenue models and whether or not the course makes any money. You get exposure. For example, I was able to secure a large and highly visible NIH grant based on these courses. I was a full prof when I started, but I imagine it would be well received for promotion, though not if it comes at the expense of research productivity.
So, there's a lot of personal and professional reasons to do it.
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I teach a lot of Coursera classes. It's possible that I've taught more MOOC sessions than anyone else (325 sessions according to coursera). Though if title doesn't belong to me, then one of my two colleagues (Roger Peng, Jeff Leek) has it.
It's become somewhat of an addiction. It's fun. The students are really engaged and enthusiastic. It's awesome to be a part of something that is changing people's lives. It's nice to offer education for free. I many ways, it's what drew many of us to the field of academics to begin with.
There's also financial and professional benefits. We use leanpub to "sell" books. There's a free option for the books, but many people buy them anyway. We get a share of the signature track revenue from coursera. How this would work out depends on university revenue models and whether or not the course makes any money. You get exposure. For example, I was able to secure a large and highly visible NIH grant based on these courses. I was a full prof when I started, but I imagine it would be well received for promotion, though not if it comes at the expense of research productivity.
So, there's a lot of personal and professional reasons to do it.
See Questions On Quora
Continue reading...
