[Imc-makerspace] Discussion of online course offerings

[Charles Schultz]

Good day,

I am relatively new to the IMC in general and this list in particular. I
searched the archives (thanks, Google) to see if there had been any prior
discussion of online courses, but did not find any. So here goes.

Aside from my day-time job as an Oracle DBA with the University, I also
teach an evening class at Parkland (SQL 101, sometimes other DB Admin
classes that are more advanced). I am occasionally asked if these classes
are available online. Unfortunately, they are not yet sculpted for an online
offering, but it got me to wondering. Parkland is charging a pretty decent
price and has many options to transfer your credits to a 4-year institution,
and even offers Associate Degrees and various Certificates of its own. But
what about folks who simply want to learn a new technology? What if a free
online course could be offered? This idea is reinforced by MIT's success
with OCW [linky not provided, as this is my first email to the list - just
google mit ocw].

Has this idea been bridged with the IMC crowd, yet? Just curious. The
challenge of implementing such an idea has several factors. Probably the
most resource intensive is setting up a hosting environment. Another factor
is preparing the course material for online consumption, but I am kinda
tinkering with that anyway.

I read a little on the IMC website about skillshares, and it seems to me
that such a online course is simply an extension of skillshares. You folks
at IMC, and especially in the makerspace, do some awesome things, and I am
excited about getting involved.

Thoughts?

-- 
Charles Schultz
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