This update deals with online courses and e-teaching. The following is a summary of existing activities at the Hebrew University:

1. Videoing courses and airing them (either live or via recording). This is meant to help students who cannot physically participate in a class and to allow students from other campuses to participate in the course. Many “Cornerstone” courses have been taped and are available to watch.

2. Educational Software. We provide educational software in areas that concern teaching and research (for example: prevention of sexual harassment, ethics in research).

3. Online courses with academic credit. Courses that are developed specifically for online learning (rather than merely taping the lecture). This form of online teaching is different from regular courses and is produced with professional help who specialize in its production. We offer online courses in two main frameworks: The first is a Master’s Degree that is based partially on online courses, at the Melton Centre for Jewish Education, where the courses are taught for students abroad (who consequently finish their studies during the summer semester by participating in in-class courses). The second are courses for university students, most of who are studying in the framework of the Cornerstone Program.

4. Online courses without academic credit. For several years we have been part of an agreement with “Coursera.” In this framework we offer seven courses (most of which are taught in English) by Faculty members. Recently the Israeli Government has decided to use another company, edX, and from now on our online courses that are available to the public will be produced with them.

5. Online teaching of Languages. The Faculty of Humanities has been offering for a few years online courses to teach languages (Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic and Yiddish, on various levels) with the E-Teacher Company.

6. The Use of Technology in Teaching. The University has purchased (or is in the midst of purchasing) several methods for e-teaching. Among these: ParticiPoll (for getting immediate feedback in a class); we are negotiating purchasing an exam scanner that will allow computerized checking of exams; we are working to expand the existing initiative of computerized exams, the University is evaluating a system that will check the authenticity of papers, student pictures will soon be uploaded to their personal profile in the Moodle system, and more.

Critical assessment of the existing situation and future development directions:

1. Developing Online Courses. There is much importance placed on the interaction between students among themselves and between students and teachers, and at least in the foreseeable future we do not plan to widely move over to online teaching. At the same time, there are many advantages to increasing the number of online courses. Firstly, producing an online course allows the course to be available to the public at large within the University (for example Cornerstone courses) and outside the University (the number of people watching these online Coursera courses from our faculty members exceeds 300K). Thus there is an important contribution to further our public and academic standing in Israel and worldwide. Second, Producing an online course allows the teacher to receive pedagogic, academic and technical feedback from professional sources. As a result, the final product is a course on a higher academic level than a regular course. The final product, like the work process for the course, has the advantage of improving the level of teaching in regular courses as well. Therefore, we are encouraging the production of online courses with funding and proper professional help for double credit in the teaching load for the year in which the course is produced (and one-half of the credit for every year that the course is available and updated regularly). I turn to you to submit proposals for new internal and external online courses by referring them to Vice-Rector Assaf Friedler.

2. Producing taped Preparatory Courses. Expanding availability to higher education and reducing drop-outs requires us to integrate taped preparatory courses, in order to better prepare our students prior to the beginning of the academic year and to afford students who failed mandatory classes a second chance.

3. Integrating Technology and Teaching. It is recommended to participate in workshops on this subject organized by the Teaching and Learning Center (beginning this year participation in workshops is a criteria for receiving an academic grant). Faculty members are also invited to submit proposals for necessary developments in this field by referring them to Roy Shenhar, Head of computerized technological teaching at the Teaching and Learning Center.

 

Many thanks to all who are involved in these projects.

Sincerely,

Barak Medina