Pilot Program: Autonomous Cohorts and Emergent Learning

University Of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa AL

Investigators

Abstract

This project will establish and evaluate an innovative educational approach where a large and diverse group of students develop their general creativity using a web-based, online learning environment. Unique to the proposed learning environment is that it provides automated grading, using proven techniques of computer-based peer review, while engaging students in a discipline-based fine arts curriculum. The environment will be designed to handle very large classes and to move students through the course content autonomously (without an instructor), automatically and asynchronously within a schedule of content delivery and creative assignments. This new approach to education will establish a method of teaching and learning that could completely change, in some instances, the landscape of accessibility and availability of education. All that is required is a community of learners agreeing on participation in a pre-designed and broadly scheduled learning process (thus becoming a cohort). A cohort can be a group of high school seniors, a group of new Army recruits, an online community of home-schooled students, a group of senior citizens (or any life-long learners), or any combination of these. One could envision a variety of open source courses developing around the explosive amount of content now freely available. Autonomous cohort learning is one solution to the burgeoning growth in learners across the globe, and a way to guide large groups of learners to realize their individual creative potentials.