The Faculty Senate heard reports Friday on the progress of two campus initiatives, Educational Innovation and changes to university alcohol policy, both of which received criticism from various faculty members.
In February, the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced it would join other peer institutions in partnering with Coursera, an online learning company, to provide free online courses available to the public called Massive Online Open Courses.
The senate heard a short presentation from Dean of the Division of Continuing Studies Jeff Russell, who has been involved in the university’s plans to create four MOCCs that will be made available to the public in the fall and spring.
Russell said the pilot courses are an extension of the campus Educational Innovation strategy, championed by UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward and Provost Paul DeLuca, which aims to identify new and more efficient modes of teaching and learning.
However, Sara Goldrick-Rab, faculty senator and professor of educational policy studies, questioned the university’s plan for assessing the success of the courses, especially given current university revenue constraints.
“Revenue generation and savings seem to be very important,” Goldrick-Rab said. “And as we all know, there’s really no business model for MOOCs.”
Russell said the university does not yet have a complete plan for evaluation and emphasized the intent is not to monetize the courses but to collaborate with peer institutions in learning new teaching strategies from the courses.
Also in the meeting, University Health Services Director Sarah Van Orman presented the findings of the Event Alcohol Sales and Service Task Force, charged with reviewing university alcohol policies following the sexual assault controversy during the 2012 Rose Bowl.
According to Van Ormen, the task force created six recommended policy changes, including a change to the university’s alcohol permit policy that would require an event with alcohol be limited to two hours and 50 attendees, unless the alcohol is provided through a hired catering service.
Multiple faculty senators expressed concern over the constraints this policy would place on social events within departments, including additional financial burdens.
John Sharpless, faculty senator and history professor, said he worries the policy would be a “challenge to tradition,” citing his departments yearly barbeque, among other events.
