Posthumanism and the Massive Open Online Course

Jeremy Knox is Lecturer in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where he designed, developed, and taught the pioneering MOOC 'E-learning and Digital Cultures'.

"A much needed critical examination on MOOCs through the lens of humanism and educational philosophy has been conducted and described eloquently by Jeremy Knox. Anyone who wants to have a closer look at the intricate and somewhat paradoxical nature of today’s MOOCs experiment in higher education will greatly appreciate this timely work."--Paul Kim, Chief Technology Officer and Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, USA"Drawing on posthumanist and new materialist approaches, Knox breaks with utopian MOOC narratives, challenging readers to consider not only what it means to educate the masses but also what it means to be a student and what it means to be an educational site—questioning whether most MOOCs, despite the hype, have merely privileged the orthodoxy of established educational frameworks.Knox offers a thorough consideration of the technopedagogical systems that purport to serve a universal community—providing an in-depth exploration of the evolution of educational philosophy and aspirations of MOOC providers—elucidating long standing Western educational ideals and models as a way to better understand the future design and delivery of education to a diverse audience."--Karen J. Head, Ph.D., Director of The Communication Center and Assistant Professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at The Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, and Editor of Southern Discourse in the Center: A Journal of Multiliteracy and Innovation"Jeremy Knox provides a refreshingly critical take on a high-profile area of educational innovation which has been generally under-theorised. He does not shy away from addressing the ‘big questions’ surrounding massive open education, and in doing so he tackles with insight and clarity the shifting terrain of higher education itself."--Siân Bayne, Professor of Digital Education in the Moray House School of Education at the University of Edinburgh, UK

• PrefaceList of FiguresIntroductionThe Massive Open Online CourseMOOC structuresMOOC Reactions: disrupting and ‘making sense’Chapter 1: (Post)Humanism and EducationIntroductionHumanismHumanism and educationCritical PosthumanismNew MaterialismRethinking Educational DualismsPosthuman knowledge and the (non)representationalConclusionsChapter 2: Masters of the Universal: MOOC Education and the GlobeIntroductionHumanism and colonialismThe Corporate World of the MOOCWorld-leaning MOOC researchThe MOOC PlatformConclusionsChapter 3: Colonising Communities and Domesticating DataIntroductionImmunizing communities and the anthropological machineMeasuring MOOC communities Identifying participants and categorising participationConnectivism and communityLurking and the tyranny of participation The Personal Learning Network Individualism in the connectivist MOOCConclusionsChapter 4: Housing the MOOC: Space and Place in ‘ModPo’IntroductionModern and Contemporary American PoetrySpatiality and Mobilities Theory The House of PossibilityThe Kelly Writers House TourOther voices, other rooms: power and potency in the ModPo fora The immutable mobile of MOOC pedagogyConclusionsChapter 5: Monstrous Openings in the EDCMOOCIntroductionThe E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOCThe MonstrousOutside of bounded educational spaceCalls for cohesive communityOutside of the humanist subjectConclusionsConclusionSummarising Posthumanism and the MOOCSuggestions for MOOC practice, pedagogy and researchIn closingIndex