Why are there so few MOOCs for the core college curriculum for a BS in Math?











up vote
5
down vote

favorite












I've noticed that there are very few MOOCs that cover the core college math curriculum, for example




  • Basic integral and differential calculus

  • ODE

  • PDE

  • Linear Algebra

  • Abstract Algebra

  • Probability

  • Statistics

  • Combinatorics

  • Symbolic logic

  • Complex Variables

  • Real Analysis


Anyone care to speculate what are the factors involved that make these bread-and-butter topics so much harder to MOOC-size or less easier to motivate professors to produce than Introduction to Water and Climate or Cybersecurity Fundamentals? I.e. it seems that specialized niche topics receive far more pedagogical energy than basic ones. But I know as a student that I would very much appreciate having the core fundamental topics available in MOOC form.









share






















  • nptel.ac.in in India, it has a lot. It's in English, you can try
    – Milind Singh
    6 hours ago








  • 5




    for the confused: MOOC = Massive Online Open Course
    – cag51
    6 hours ago










  • mooculus.osu.edu
    – henning
    3 hours ago















up vote
5
down vote

favorite












I've noticed that there are very few MOOCs that cover the core college math curriculum, for example




  • Basic integral and differential calculus

  • ODE

  • PDE

  • Linear Algebra

  • Abstract Algebra

  • Probability

  • Statistics

  • Combinatorics

  • Symbolic logic

  • Complex Variables

  • Real Analysis


Anyone care to speculate what are the factors involved that make these bread-and-butter topics so much harder to MOOC-size or less easier to motivate professors to produce than Introduction to Water and Climate or Cybersecurity Fundamentals? I.e. it seems that specialized niche topics receive far more pedagogical energy than basic ones. But I know as a student that I would very much appreciate having the core fundamental topics available in MOOC form.









share






















  • nptel.ac.in in India, it has a lot. It's in English, you can try
    – Milind Singh
    6 hours ago








  • 5




    for the confused: MOOC = Massive Online Open Course
    – cag51
    6 hours ago










  • mooculus.osu.edu
    – henning
    3 hours ago













up vote
5
down vote

favorite









up vote
5
down vote

favorite











I've noticed that there are very few MOOCs that cover the core college math curriculum, for example




  • Basic integral and differential calculus

  • ODE

  • PDE

  • Linear Algebra

  • Abstract Algebra

  • Probability

  • Statistics

  • Combinatorics

  • Symbolic logic

  • Complex Variables

  • Real Analysis


Anyone care to speculate what are the factors involved that make these bread-and-butter topics so much harder to MOOC-size or less easier to motivate professors to produce than Introduction to Water and Climate or Cybersecurity Fundamentals? I.e. it seems that specialized niche topics receive far more pedagogical energy than basic ones. But I know as a student that I would very much appreciate having the core fundamental topics available in MOOC form.









share













I've noticed that there are very few MOOCs that cover the core college math curriculum, for example




  • Basic integral and differential calculus

  • ODE

  • PDE

  • Linear Algebra

  • Abstract Algebra

  • Probability

  • Statistics

  • Combinatorics

  • Symbolic logic

  • Complex Variables

  • Real Analysis


Anyone care to speculate what are the factors involved that make these bread-and-butter topics so much harder to MOOC-size or less easier to motivate professors to produce than Introduction to Water and Climate or Cybersecurity Fundamentals? I.e. it seems that specialized niche topics receive far more pedagogical energy than basic ones. But I know as a student that I would very much appreciate having the core fundamental topics available in MOOC form.







mathematics mooc





share












share










share



share










asked 6 hours ago









Lars Ericson

1453




1453












  • nptel.ac.in in India, it has a lot. It's in English, you can try
    – Milind Singh
    6 hours ago








  • 5




    for the confused: MOOC = Massive Online Open Course
    – cag51
    6 hours ago










  • mooculus.osu.edu
    – henning
    3 hours ago


















  • nptel.ac.in in India, it has a lot. It's in English, you can try
    – Milind Singh
    6 hours ago








  • 5




    for the confused: MOOC = Massive Online Open Course
    – cag51
    6 hours ago










  • mooculus.osu.edu
    – henning
    3 hours ago
















nptel.ac.in in India, it has a lot. It's in English, you can try
– Milind Singh
6 hours ago






nptel.ac.in in India, it has a lot. It's in English, you can try
– Milind Singh
6 hours ago






5




5




for the confused: MOOC = Massive Online Open Course
– cag51
6 hours ago




for the confused: MOOC = Massive Online Open Course
– cag51
6 hours ago












mooculus.osu.edu
– henning
3 hours ago




mooculus.osu.edu
– henning
3 hours ago










2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
8
down vote













I feel that this is heavily driven by the job-market. Topics in academic mathematics do not possess the necessary buzzword status to make MOOCs profitable. Very few job postings ever ask for competency in abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, basic calculus, etc. Many job postings want machine learning, "big data," "artificial intelligence," virtual reality, etc.



When a MOOC advertises its wares, very few people are going to click on an ad that tells them they can learn abstract algebra and category theory. A MOOC teaching Python and "data science" intrigues a number of people who believe that if they can just learn a little Python, all of the sudden Facebook will pay them $150k a year to do data science.






share|improve this answer




























    up vote
    3
    down vote













    First, as @DC 541 has already pointed out, the audience for relatively advanced math courses is much smaller than the audience for business and software courses, so why would somebody go to the effort?



    Second, while having the lectures available for streaming is very nice, the real meat of any upper division math course is going to be the homework and exam problems. For more computational courses it's possible to set up sophisticated automated graders that essentially run a bunch of unit tests on the submitted code. I don't think grading proofs can be automated in the same way.



    That means grading the homework is going to be a bottleneck. If you were to employ an army of TAs to grade a thousand real analysis homework assignments it would cost a fortune. MOOCS have tried to get around this for some subjects using a published rubric and grading by peers. I'm not convinced it works very well, and I've never seen it used for a math course.






    share|improve this answer























    • I've been in advanced MOOCs with peer grading and it actually is fun and works rather well.
      – Lars Ericson
      3 hours ago










    • Also I don't think grad schools for example do a very good job of screening people's math skills (for remedial purposes, not acceptance). I think it would be an interesting and fun challenge to write an automated grading system that "interviewed" a person and posed various problems to automatically assess their competency in a variety of math skills.
      – Lars Ericson
      3 hours ago










    • I happen to work in a quantitative area and we have to do this every other day: assess the math skills of job candidates. If you can do that online automatically, you can teach core advanced math skills online automatically.
      – Lars Ericson
      3 hours ago










    • @LarsEricson: The upper division math courses aren't quantitative courses at all. They are courses fundamentally about logic, not about quantities.
      – Alexander Woo
      55 mins ago











    Your Answer








    StackExchange.ready(function() {
    var channelOptions = {
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "415"
    };
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
    createEditor();
    });
    }
    else {
    createEditor();
    }
    });

    function createEditor() {
    StackExchange.prepareEditor({
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
    convertImagesToLinks: true,
    noModals: true,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: 10,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    imageUploader: {
    brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
    contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
    allowUrls: true
    },
    noCode: true, onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    });


    }
    });














    draft saved

    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function () {
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2facademia.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f121812%2fwhy-are-there-so-few-moocs-for-the-core-college-curriculum-for-a-bs-in-math%23new-answer', 'question_page');
    }
    );

    Post as a guest















    Required, but never shown

























    2 Answers
    2






    active

    oldest

    votes








    2 Answers
    2






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes








    up vote
    8
    down vote













    I feel that this is heavily driven by the job-market. Topics in academic mathematics do not possess the necessary buzzword status to make MOOCs profitable. Very few job postings ever ask for competency in abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, basic calculus, etc. Many job postings want machine learning, "big data," "artificial intelligence," virtual reality, etc.



    When a MOOC advertises its wares, very few people are going to click on an ad that tells them they can learn abstract algebra and category theory. A MOOC teaching Python and "data science" intrigues a number of people who believe that if they can just learn a little Python, all of the sudden Facebook will pay them $150k a year to do data science.






    share|improve this answer

























      up vote
      8
      down vote













      I feel that this is heavily driven by the job-market. Topics in academic mathematics do not possess the necessary buzzword status to make MOOCs profitable. Very few job postings ever ask for competency in abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, basic calculus, etc. Many job postings want machine learning, "big data," "artificial intelligence," virtual reality, etc.



      When a MOOC advertises its wares, very few people are going to click on an ad that tells them they can learn abstract algebra and category theory. A MOOC teaching Python and "data science" intrigues a number of people who believe that if they can just learn a little Python, all of the sudden Facebook will pay them $150k a year to do data science.






      share|improve this answer























        up vote
        8
        down vote










        up vote
        8
        down vote









        I feel that this is heavily driven by the job-market. Topics in academic mathematics do not possess the necessary buzzword status to make MOOCs profitable. Very few job postings ever ask for competency in abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, basic calculus, etc. Many job postings want machine learning, "big data," "artificial intelligence," virtual reality, etc.



        When a MOOC advertises its wares, very few people are going to click on an ad that tells them they can learn abstract algebra and category theory. A MOOC teaching Python and "data science" intrigues a number of people who believe that if they can just learn a little Python, all of the sudden Facebook will pay them $150k a year to do data science.






        share|improve this answer












        I feel that this is heavily driven by the job-market. Topics in academic mathematics do not possess the necessary buzzword status to make MOOCs profitable. Very few job postings ever ask for competency in abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, basic calculus, etc. Many job postings want machine learning, "big data," "artificial intelligence," virtual reality, etc.



        When a MOOC advertises its wares, very few people are going to click on an ad that tells them they can learn abstract algebra and category theory. A MOOC teaching Python and "data science" intrigues a number of people who believe that if they can just learn a little Python, all of the sudden Facebook will pay them $150k a year to do data science.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered 6 hours ago









        DC 541

        543412




        543412






















            up vote
            3
            down vote













            First, as @DC 541 has already pointed out, the audience for relatively advanced math courses is much smaller than the audience for business and software courses, so why would somebody go to the effort?



            Second, while having the lectures available for streaming is very nice, the real meat of any upper division math course is going to be the homework and exam problems. For more computational courses it's possible to set up sophisticated automated graders that essentially run a bunch of unit tests on the submitted code. I don't think grading proofs can be automated in the same way.



            That means grading the homework is going to be a bottleneck. If you were to employ an army of TAs to grade a thousand real analysis homework assignments it would cost a fortune. MOOCS have tried to get around this for some subjects using a published rubric and grading by peers. I'm not convinced it works very well, and I've never seen it used for a math course.






            share|improve this answer























            • I've been in advanced MOOCs with peer grading and it actually is fun and works rather well.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • Also I don't think grad schools for example do a very good job of screening people's math skills (for remedial purposes, not acceptance). I think it would be an interesting and fun challenge to write an automated grading system that "interviewed" a person and posed various problems to automatically assess their competency in a variety of math skills.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • I happen to work in a quantitative area and we have to do this every other day: assess the math skills of job candidates. If you can do that online automatically, you can teach core advanced math skills online automatically.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • @LarsEricson: The upper division math courses aren't quantitative courses at all. They are courses fundamentally about logic, not about quantities.
              – Alexander Woo
              55 mins ago















            up vote
            3
            down vote













            First, as @DC 541 has already pointed out, the audience for relatively advanced math courses is much smaller than the audience for business and software courses, so why would somebody go to the effort?



            Second, while having the lectures available for streaming is very nice, the real meat of any upper division math course is going to be the homework and exam problems. For more computational courses it's possible to set up sophisticated automated graders that essentially run a bunch of unit tests on the submitted code. I don't think grading proofs can be automated in the same way.



            That means grading the homework is going to be a bottleneck. If you were to employ an army of TAs to grade a thousand real analysis homework assignments it would cost a fortune. MOOCS have tried to get around this for some subjects using a published rubric and grading by peers. I'm not convinced it works very well, and I've never seen it used for a math course.






            share|improve this answer























            • I've been in advanced MOOCs with peer grading and it actually is fun and works rather well.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • Also I don't think grad schools for example do a very good job of screening people's math skills (for remedial purposes, not acceptance). I think it would be an interesting and fun challenge to write an automated grading system that "interviewed" a person and posed various problems to automatically assess their competency in a variety of math skills.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • I happen to work in a quantitative area and we have to do this every other day: assess the math skills of job candidates. If you can do that online automatically, you can teach core advanced math skills online automatically.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • @LarsEricson: The upper division math courses aren't quantitative courses at all. They are courses fundamentally about logic, not about quantities.
              – Alexander Woo
              55 mins ago













            up vote
            3
            down vote










            up vote
            3
            down vote









            First, as @DC 541 has already pointed out, the audience for relatively advanced math courses is much smaller than the audience for business and software courses, so why would somebody go to the effort?



            Second, while having the lectures available for streaming is very nice, the real meat of any upper division math course is going to be the homework and exam problems. For more computational courses it's possible to set up sophisticated automated graders that essentially run a bunch of unit tests on the submitted code. I don't think grading proofs can be automated in the same way.



            That means grading the homework is going to be a bottleneck. If you were to employ an army of TAs to grade a thousand real analysis homework assignments it would cost a fortune. MOOCS have tried to get around this for some subjects using a published rubric and grading by peers. I'm not convinced it works very well, and I've never seen it used for a math course.






            share|improve this answer














            First, as @DC 541 has already pointed out, the audience for relatively advanced math courses is much smaller than the audience for business and software courses, so why would somebody go to the effort?



            Second, while having the lectures available for streaming is very nice, the real meat of any upper division math course is going to be the homework and exam problems. For more computational courses it's possible to set up sophisticated automated graders that essentially run a bunch of unit tests on the submitted code. I don't think grading proofs can be automated in the same way.



            That means grading the homework is going to be a bottleneck. If you were to employ an army of TAs to grade a thousand real analysis homework assignments it would cost a fortune. MOOCS have tried to get around this for some subjects using a published rubric and grading by peers. I'm not convinced it works very well, and I've never seen it used for a math course.







            share|improve this answer














            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer








            edited 4 hours ago

























            answered 4 hours ago









            Charles E. Grant

            85389




            85389












            • I've been in advanced MOOCs with peer grading and it actually is fun and works rather well.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • Also I don't think grad schools for example do a very good job of screening people's math skills (for remedial purposes, not acceptance). I think it would be an interesting and fun challenge to write an automated grading system that "interviewed" a person and posed various problems to automatically assess their competency in a variety of math skills.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • I happen to work in a quantitative area and we have to do this every other day: assess the math skills of job candidates. If you can do that online automatically, you can teach core advanced math skills online automatically.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • @LarsEricson: The upper division math courses aren't quantitative courses at all. They are courses fundamentally about logic, not about quantities.
              – Alexander Woo
              55 mins ago


















            • I've been in advanced MOOCs with peer grading and it actually is fun and works rather well.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • Also I don't think grad schools for example do a very good job of screening people's math skills (for remedial purposes, not acceptance). I think it would be an interesting and fun challenge to write an automated grading system that "interviewed" a person and posed various problems to automatically assess their competency in a variety of math skills.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • I happen to work in a quantitative area and we have to do this every other day: assess the math skills of job candidates. If you can do that online automatically, you can teach core advanced math skills online automatically.
              – Lars Ericson
              3 hours ago










            • @LarsEricson: The upper division math courses aren't quantitative courses at all. They are courses fundamentally about logic, not about quantities.
              – Alexander Woo
              55 mins ago
















            I've been in advanced MOOCs with peer grading and it actually is fun and works rather well.
            – Lars Ericson
            3 hours ago




            I've been in advanced MOOCs with peer grading and it actually is fun and works rather well.
            – Lars Ericson
            3 hours ago












            Also I don't think grad schools for example do a very good job of screening people's math skills (for remedial purposes, not acceptance). I think it would be an interesting and fun challenge to write an automated grading system that "interviewed" a person and posed various problems to automatically assess their competency in a variety of math skills.
            – Lars Ericson
            3 hours ago




            Also I don't think grad schools for example do a very good job of screening people's math skills (for remedial purposes, not acceptance). I think it would be an interesting and fun challenge to write an automated grading system that "interviewed" a person and posed various problems to automatically assess their competency in a variety of math skills.
            – Lars Ericson
            3 hours ago












            I happen to work in a quantitative area and we have to do this every other day: assess the math skills of job candidates. If you can do that online automatically, you can teach core advanced math skills online automatically.
            – Lars Ericson
            3 hours ago




            I happen to work in a quantitative area and we have to do this every other day: assess the math skills of job candidates. If you can do that online automatically, you can teach core advanced math skills online automatically.
            – Lars Ericson
            3 hours ago












            @LarsEricson: The upper division math courses aren't quantitative courses at all. They are courses fundamentally about logic, not about quantities.
            – Alexander Woo
            55 mins ago




            @LarsEricson: The upper division math courses aren't quantitative courses at all. They are courses fundamentally about logic, not about quantities.
            – Alexander Woo
            55 mins ago


















            draft saved

            draft discarded




















































            Thanks for contributing an answer to Academia Stack Exchange!


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid



            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.





            Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.


            Please pay close attention to the following guidance:


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid



            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function () {
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2facademia.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f121812%2fwhy-are-there-so-few-moocs-for-the-core-college-curriculum-for-a-bs-in-math%23new-answer', 'question_page');
            }
            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown





















































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown

































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown







            Popular posts from this blog

            List directoties down one level, excluding some named directories and files

            list processes belonging to a network namespace

            list systemd RuntimeDirectory mounts