Well said, Michael.
While the COVID-19 pandemic is not a conspiracy to accelerate the CODE transition, now is a good time to consider the potential virtues of online education (given that we already know and value in-person teaching).
I have been fortunate to get SFU to sign in for a course on the Kadenze MOOC:
https://www.classcentral.com/report/moocs-for-credit/#kadenze
https://www.kadenze.com/programs/generative-art-and-computational-creativity
and, in fact, students can get SFU credits by completing the
two courses online.
There are probably others reaching both SFU and non-SFU students. I know that Pr. David Hik is also teaching a popular MOOC class, but not sure if students can get SFU credits in his case:
https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2019/05/the-dirt-on-sustainable-sheep-farming.html
Stay safe everyone.
Regards,
--
Philippe Pasquier
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PhD, MSc, Associate Professor,
Associate Dean Academic,
Faculty of Communication,
Arts and Technology (FCAT)
Director, Metacreation Lab for Creative AI.
School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT),
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.
http://www.sfu.ca/pasquier |
http://www.Metacreation.net
http://MusicalMetacreation.org | http://MovementComputing.org/
Kadenze Class on Creative AI: https://tinyurl.com/ycvleqlm
---------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Fraser University is based on the unceded traditional
territories of the Coast Salish people.
Sent: April 4, 2020 9:39 AM
To: academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca)
Subject: addressing the unemployment problem
I think it's important to look beyond our own needs to consider those of the wider society. Millions of jobs lost, which even if the pandemic ended tomorrow, many won't be coming back. The university, as a core institution of civilization, has a special obligation to do what it can to help those suddenly economically dislocated to gain a foothold in the economy.
While many in the academy are not thrilled with online learning (it seems no number of decades of research can counter general perceptions based on Medieval traditions), there's really no other way to educate at scale than online delivery methods. Society is going to have a major education-at-scale problem (actually, it has already had this problem for many years, given the millions of annually vacant technology jobs, which the 'bootcamp' industry has addressed– now this education-at-scale problem has become much worse).
South of the border, University of Washington invested years ago in infrastructure to educate millions of students online, and its Continuum College annually awards 50,000 + certificates and degrees. A forward-thinking approach to address vast society unemployment would be to consider ideas that often seem to be anathema to the general local discourse, such as awarding university credit to students who complete courses on the MOOC platforms, which many other universities (and, very high quality ones, too), have pursued:
https://www.classcentral.com/report/moocs-for-credit/
Best,
Michael Filimowicz, PhD
Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology
School of Interactive Arts and Technology | Simon Fraser University
Office: SUR 2818 | 250-13450 102 Ave. Surrey, BC V3T 0A3
T: 778-782-8178 | Skype ID: michael.filimowicz