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I literarily have butterflies because I am going back to school. No, I am not enrolled in a graduate programme, no masters degree is on the horizon. I am going to pursue my interests and talents through a new way of learning. After researching about MOOCs for an article I wrote on Degisim Yelpazesi, I felt an urge to enroll in a few courses I am truly interested.
Before sharing with you my hunger for taking all these interesting classes, let me tell you a little bit of MOOC – a brand new term to me until last week. Massive Open Online Course or MOOC is a web-based platform that brings courses from reputable universities around the globe to your fingertips. MOOC is defined on Wikipedia as ‘an online course aiming at large-scale interactive participation and open access via the web.’ In other words, the courses are not limited to a certain number of participants rather it is open to everyone which qualifies for the subject being taught. The courses are available online upon enrollment mostly free of charge. The lectures are conducted by one or more professors and supported by videos, required or recommended readings and assignments.
The most unusual and engaging quality of MOOCs is the interactivity among peers, teaching assistants and professors. MOOCs build online communities who are eager to engage in new subjects, exchange ideas and enhance the learning experience by collective efforts. Attending or completing the courses are completely voluntary as there is no academic credit upon completion of the class. However, students who complete the course are given certificates of completion.
There are a few major MOOC platforms I came across as I researched further. The largest is Coursera launched by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, who are both faculty in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University. Coursera offers more than 325 courses in diverse disciplines from business to social sciences, from biology and physics to computer sciences so on. Most universities offering classes are prominent institutions from North America with a total of 70. Faculty from the most prestigious universities such Brown, Columbia, Princeton and Northwestern are giving lectures to masses from all around the world. Coursera’s classes are conducted in 5 languages which include English, French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese.
edX and Stanford University’s Venture Lab are the other platforms that offer classes online. Their classes are less in number but the subjects are equally interesting. Venture Lab focuses on entrepreneurship and business with courses such as Startup Boards : Advanced Entrepreneurship , Technology Entrepreneurship , and Finance . edX is a partnership of UCLS Berkeley, Harvard and MIT. Ideas of the 20th Century , Take Your Medicine – The Impact of Drug Development , SaaS – Software as a Service and Artificial Intelligence are among the eye catching course titles.
Back to my personal experience with MOOCs… Last week, after I read about this immense treasure of knowledge, the nerd in me who has been dormant for the last 10 years, woke up with excitement.
First, I saw this course on Science & Cooking by Harvard University faculty and was thrilled with the syllabus. The course brings together well known chefs and distinguished Harvard researchers in order to explore the physics and engineering behind everyday cooking as well as refined cuisine. After the chefs’ illustrations of the recipes, scientists will take stage and tell us all about science behind these mouth watering recipes. Some of the topics are – as indicated in the course description : soft matter materials, such as emulsions, illustrated by aioli; elasticity, exemplified by the done-ness of a steak; and diffusion, revealed by the phenomenon of spherification, the culinary technique pioneered by Ferran Adrià – the revolutionary chef of El Bulli. This super interesting class was not starting until October.
So, I needed a course that starts sooner like late April or early May or both! I ran into Stanford Online’s Crash Course on Creativity taught by Tina Seelig, Executive Director of Stanford Technology Ventures Program. I watched the short video of the course, read testimonials from last year’s students who completed the class and quickly decided to enroll. The course starts on April 22nd and will finish on June 2nd. I even went to the library to borrow the recommended reading for the class. Let’s see how this class will impact my creative thinking!
Ela Erozan Gürsel writes a weekly column named “Değişim Yelpazesi ” on global business trends for Dünya Gazetesi on behalf of Datassist for almost two years. Her feature topics include: green energy; climate change; impacts of financial crisis on companies, sectors and regions; innovative technologies in sciences, human resources and management; social networks transforming business and politics; changing dynamics of marketing and branding.
She also writes articles for international magazines published in Singapore.
Prior to her writing career, she worked at Datassist as a Project Manager in a project that combines human resources and mobile communications with the aim to connect blue-collar workers and employers through mobile phones. Before engaging in this exciting project, she was in pharmaceutical sales working for a multinational company. She graduated from American University, Washington, DC, majoring in International Studies with a concentration on International Business and Europe. She worked in Washington D.C. as an Account Manager at a boutique telemarketing firm that specializes in fund raising and publication renewals. She speaks Turkish, English, French, and Spanish. She currently resides in Singapore with her husband.
All these projects are inspiring for artists, students and general public, who would like to be proud of the richness of the Turkish culture. For these cultural projects to last and prosper, museums need to be financially supported by the government agencies, private sector and international foundations. I hope Baksı Museum will keep up its creative projects with the help of professionals’ efforts and get the attention of potential sponsors in order to further contribute to the local economy and art.
