MUNCIE, IND. — In her largest traditional college class, Ball State University instructor Christina Blanch taught 80 students the most the fire code would allow in the classroom.
Now she’s fielding tweets and emails from some 5,000 students around the world enrolled in her upcoming massive online open course called Gender Through Comic Books.
Among those international pupils are comic geeks and scholars. Some are students at other universities.
“They’re not getting credit for this. They’re doing this because they want to,” Blanch told The Indianapolis Star. “If I could just shake every one of their hands and say, ‘I’m just so proud of you for wanting to learn.’”
Massive online open courses, or MOOCs, are the latest craze in learning. They’re exactly what they sound like: big online classes, often free, that just about anyone can take anywhere, anytime, but usually not toward a college degree.
Bursting onto the scene less than two years ago, MOOCs are gaining momentum as national and state leaders re-evaluate higher education. Some herald MOOCs as a revolutionary way to target major learning concerns, such as affordability and accessibility.
But even as Ball State, some elite universities and Big Ten institutions experiment with the courses, other Indiana colleges are taking a wait-and-see approach.
