I can’t believe that today is the last day of September! Where does the time go? It was approximately 35 years ago that I came to this country. I arrived in JFK on Sunday, Sep 10th, totally lost. When I was about to leave, a relative of mine asked where in NY I was going to “is it Manhattan island?”. Of course, I knew my Chemistry and Math really well, but not geography! I had no clue. I was waiting at the airport for an Indian grad student from Hunter College to pick me up, except no one was seeking me. After a long wait and nervousness, another Indian person looking for someone else from my flight asked if I saw “a dark Indian guy with glasses”. I said to myself, “that would be three quarters of all Indians in the flight”. Then he asked me who I was waiting for and when I told him, he could not stop laughing “Vasu is happily watching football in his apartment!”. It turns out that the telegram I sent before I left, which was strategically sent just a couple of hours before my flight on Saturday, was addressed to his Hunter College address on a wekend. I later found out that telegrams were not as reliable here as they were in India! Of course, now those who arrive from India are so savvy that they become my GPS! Sometimes I get irritated (sorry) and take an alternate route.

Before I get carried too far… As you may know, Wellesley’s first ever MOOC, Introduction to Human Evolution, taught by Adam van Arsdale,  opened last Wednesday, September 25th. It is an important step for our grand experiment. Adam worked extremely hard to make this happen and edX staff keep telling us how he is a natural and this is one of the courses that have gone through very smoothly, including the opening day. Many of us have been watching some of the early discussions with enthusiasm. I have watched several of the videos and looked at the problem sets etc. They are really cool! The diversity of students in terms of the many dimensions of the data collected – gender, highest degree, the location etc – are fascinating. There will be more to come…

I am enrolled in my third MOOC – “Introduction to Biology – The Secret of Life” by Eric Lander from MIT. It is in its third week. I am thoroughly enjoying the course and am learning a lot. I had to take Biochemistry during my graduate work, but I did not enjoy the class and did not learn a lot from it. This is a pretty intense course and I am spending a lot of my time on weekends listening to the lectures, reading the supplementary materials and of course, doing the problem sets. I am in it to get a certificate too. Of course, I am familiar with many of the fundamentals being taught, which helps. However, that is simply not enough to answer all the questions in problem sets. I have listened to many of the lectures several times over, as well as “Deep Dives” on selected subject matters offered by grad students. The ability to rewind and listen to sections many times over & read the transcription alone is worth it, at least for me! On the other hand, I do know how much time and effort it takes to do all of this.

I am learning about glycolysis and how it is connected to the biochemical synthesis of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The thing that fascinates me is some of the problems are connected to real life – how Roundup disrupts the biosynthesis of some of the amino acids needed by the plants, thereby killing the weeds. I have used Roundup with a vengeance to kill weeds! I was so excited about this that I have told this to many who were polite enough to listen to me :). Also, why in humans, glycolysis produces lactic acid during power exercises. The problem sets have fascinating tools available now, graphical and highly interactive. In one of the exercises in genetics, we use a tool (Virtual Genetics Lab) that allows us to cross species with a click of a couple of buttons and look at the results to determine things like dominant gene vs recessive one. It is pretty cool.

And then we hear interesting stories about the likes of Gregor Mendel, get to read his paper (pretty dense!), and many others. I really pity Mendel, who had to wait years for his experiments on peas to yield results whereas I can do it with a click of a button (like me arriving in JFK 35 years ago vs someone arriving today). And someone correctly pointed out that there is a connection between this class and Adam’s…

But then, there are some questions which remain unanswered – why is Eric Lander always wearing a blue shirt? I know that not all lectures were recorded at once because the students are not wearing the same clothes nor are they seated in the same place , well, except one enthusiastic student always seated in the first row! Finally I asked the question in the discussion forum. We shall see.

MOOCs are expanding – edX now has 72 courses and Coursera has 453, to name a couple of leaders. edX will begin offering a series of connected courses and not a one off course, called the Xseries. In addition, edX has introduced differential certificates for courses. An honor code certificate which is free and a verified certificate that uses a form of ID based verification. Software as a Service from Berkeley provides an ID verified certificate. Verified certificates cost $25 and you are suggested to contribute more if you feel like. As I have mentioned before, this can be a game changer if the employers see value in such a certificate.

Finally, this piece in Washington Post titled “A bachelor’s degree could cost $10,000 — total. Here’s how“, the author outlines key points from a report published by an organization called the Third Way, written by Anya Kamenetz. Anya points out that MOOC is not a replacement for a face to face class, but both the MOOCs and SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) can be leveraged to help reduce the cost of education. This is really worth a read and I am sure it will create a lot of controversy and discussion.

In case you have not sampled a MOOC, I strongly encourage you to try one. There are so many to choose from and unless you are obsessed like me to get a certificate, you can learn at your own pace and enjoy it.