Could there ever be a MOOC for the sensitive subjects for undergraduate students

From my own background of Criminology, I started to think if I would be happy to share my information/lessons to students I had not met or discussed the topics with. 

So, the topic that I am thinking of falls under Victimology and the syllabus covers, human trafficking, Harmful cultural practice (Female circumcision and Male circumcision initiations) and child abuse. All these topics are very sensitive and it is open for discussion as they need to be delved into to see the harm that they cause.

Now before I start this blog, I don’t think these topics can be discussed with undergrads through an online platform due to the sensitive nature. Especially when you are dealing with students who might have been through some of these situations and that is why they have decided to go into these disciplines. But I have decided to research and see if it would be possible. 

There are many resources that are available on how to deal with sensitive topics within the classroom environment. For example, giving the assignment before the topic to allow for students to understand what is coming (University of Indiana Bloomington, 2017), inform the students to “Criticize ideas, not individuals” (Moore & Deshaies, 2012). However, this is easier to do when you are in the class with the students as you can monitor their facial expressions and debrief the students if necessary. You can also make sure that when students are pushing their opinions and framing them in harmful ways you can ask them to rephrase. My focus is not necessarily the students who are vocal as you can assist with that through the online platform, but it is more the quiet students who may be struggling with this practice. As a Criminology lecturer I felt that an important part of my job was to assist students to look at topics from different points of view. For example, the idea of female circumcision or genital mutilation (WHO, 2017) is abhorrent but to be able to comment properly on this topic we need to look at the cultures that may be continuing the process and why and get an understanding from their view.

So, can this be done through an online platform and is it wise to share this information with students that you have not come into contact with. The argument would be that this information is already online, but my focus would be more the hard questions that one needs to ask, such as should these practices be banned? Who is responsible for the continuation of these practices? Who are the victims and who are the offenders, looking at female circumcision, it is often the elder ladies in the community who continue the practice, are the offenders?  

These subjects that I was lecturing was given as a distance program and then the students attended lectures that I gave on the material, but I found that the students who did not attend lectures did not have the ability to look in-depth at the information and were never forced to ask the hard questions, which is such an important part of developing skills in the humanities.

A very interesting article that pertains to this subject is one by Reichard (2013) which looks at an open letter by the San Jose State University Department of Philosophy in which they refuse to be a part of an Edx course. The article sums up the opinion that Humanities is a field that is open to so many opinions and that “The humanities have to deal with ambiguity [and] with multiple answers,” (Reichard, 2013). Which is where I think I am coming from. The topics that are discussed in these fields are based on the multiple answers and there is so often never a real answer to this. There is also a loss of ‘personal touch’ (Reichard, 2013) of the education and the topics that are discussed. When it is presented online it may be too easy for the students to accept whatever is given to them instead of (if needed) forced to face other opinions and points of view.

Another point is presented by Koller and Ng (Reichard, 2013) who have found that translating the courses to an online platform, especially the grading of answers for the humanities is proving challenging. There is no way to make an automatic memo that can answer the students as there are so many possible answers to a statement. Because of this there would still need to be human markers, which could make the burden of a MOOC too high. One way to overcome this is that peer marking has been introduced, but this again raises concerns as will the feedback be insightful enough to progress learning, Ng (Reichard, 2013) found that this was the case. That even though there were now five feedbacks, the feedback was not as insightful as a professor’s response.

I think subjects such as these could be offered through online platform, but I think it is a good idea to only offer it to a post graduate level. These students then have gone through the ungraduated program and have more ability to cope with the difficult subjects and now will have the ability to partake in the discussions with minimal harm. They will also have developed their arguing skills and have developed the ability to look at both sides of the argument.

After completing my research, obviously this topic could be researched for years to come, I think I am still in favour of certain subjects not being offered online. Or at least if offered online not through a channel such as a MOOC. I believe that the personal touch that these subjects warrant is crucial to assisting students to learn in the future. I think it is also important that the damage that some students might incur when doing these subjects without a lecturer to lean on and to assist with debriefing could be more harmful than helpful.

Bibliography

Moore, A. & Deshaies, M., 2012. Ten Tips for Facilitating Classroom Discussions on. [Online]
Available at: http://bento.cdn.pbs.org/hostedbento-prod/filer_public/SBAN/Images/Classrooms/Ten%20Tips%20for%20Facilitating%20Classroom%20Discussions%20on%20Sensitive%20Topics_Final.pdf
[Accessed 16 October 2017].

Reichard, C., 2013. MOOCs face challenges in teaching humanities. [Online]
Available at: http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/06/04/moocs-face-challenges-in-teaching-humanities/
[Accessed 16 10 2017].

University of Indiana Bloomington, 2017. Managing Difficult Classroom Discussions. [Online]
Available at: https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/diversity-inclusion/managing-difficult-classroom-discussions/
[Accessed 16 October 2017].

WHO, 2017. Female genital mutilation. [Online]
Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/
[Accessed 16 October 2017].