Hey readers!
I just wanted to check in and make a brief comment on Conor’s informative insight into Coursera, the online education platform that is fighting to change the classroom norm.
The benefits of Coursera, that Conor outlined in his highlight piece, are clear and seemingly untapped in the Irish education system. While Trinity students do have access to an mobile-app version of their student card and timetable, the world of digital and online teaching resources is yet to be implemented to its full potential. To me, replacing a system like Blackboard with a system like Coursera would work wonders for the University environment. I have personally endured the mind-boggling experience of having to miss a lecture because there are no seats left in the room, which is an issue Coursera could eradicate entirely. It would also allow, although the Universities themselves may not, the sharing of resources and classroom material across schools, countries, and continents. This increased engagement on a global scale would surely improve the education system. Lecturers, assistants, and the whole community community would still be needed and would still have a job to do, but the way they work would be transformed; most likely for the better.
An aspect of Coursera that is important to consider is the cost. Coursera’s business model, outlined here, has three distinct revenue generators: fee-based courses, specialisations, and course certificates. With the cost per course ranging from $49 to $79, the fee for one course for each of the 16,700 students at Trinity would fall between $818k and $1.3m. While ideally each lecturer would develop and upload their own course to the system, that ideal situation is a long way away, and there is no doubt costs would be incurred at the beginning of the implementation of a system like Coursera. The problem then lies in determining whether the costs are worth the benefits, which is a question only time will answer.
Take care,
Devin
Novus Opus 