University of Texas at Austin partners with online learning initiative

When University of Texas at Austin Professor of Philosophy Daniel Bonevac and Ransom Center Senior Research Curator of Photography Roy Flukinger taught the course “Ideas of the Twentieth Century” last fall, they had 100 students.

This fall, they will teach over 20,000.

“Ideas of the Twentieth Century” is one of the courses offered by The University of Texas at Austin as part of the UT System’s partnership with edX, a nonprofit online learning initiative. Launched by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012, edX collaborates with universities across the country to offer massive open online courses (MOOCs).  MOOCs boast unlimited enrollment and are free for all participants.

Of the classes submitted by The University of Texas at Austin for the upcoming school year, four are currently open for registration and will begin September 15. Besides “Ideas of the Twentieth Century,” those interested can also take “Energy 101,” “Age of Globalization,” and “Take Your Medicine: The Impact of Drug Development.”

Bonevac and Flukinger’s course explores the changing mindsets and morals of the past century through the lenses of philosophy, literature, art, and history. Although they have taught this course five times before as one of the University’s Signature Courses for incoming freshmen, the class had to be adapted for an online audience.

“Our time is much more limited in teaching the online course, so each session had to be reduced down to the more basic concepts, trends, and ideas,” Flukinger said. “And, obviously, the other fact that you miss immediately is the interchange of ideas and discussion with your students. The production studio tends to be a much more detached environment than the customary give-and-take of the classroom. But such are always the tradeoffs with any mass media. And, at the same time, I do find it very invigorating to attempt to expand our teaching to a much larger and more diverse global community.”