Ken Schenck
April 12, 2022
Courses I Wish They'd Let Me Teach
I have a weakness (sometimes it’s a strength). I’m interested in everything. Fortunately for all the students of the world, there are many courses that the accreditation commissions won’t let me teach. (YouTube of course is a different story.)
One of the things I love about Campus Edu is that we are interested in pretty much everything too. Every once and a while, I get to sit in on our design team as they work with course authors at different universities. How do you take a course that many students don’t think will be interesting and show them it actually can be? That’s the magic Campus aims to work.
So what are three courses I’d love to teach but am forbidden by the steady heads of the academy? Let’s do a little dreaming. How might you take a hard subject–or one that is just “misunderstood”–and grab the attention of minds that need constant stimulation?
1. The Physics of Superheroes
Combining my childhood love of comic books and my quest to know why I keep tripping over things, “The Physics of Superheroes” would teach first semester physics with the Supernerds in an interactive online format. Speedy’s trying to save someone from being crushed by a falling piano in 10 seconds, but she can only get there in time if you get the acceleration right. Oops, you got it wrong. Superjump is trying to squash the Blob, but he has to leap a tall building with the right starting velocity and trajectory. Twisty, Boing, Mr. I-Can’t-Stop-Punching-Things, and Unused Potential could be just some of the cast of characters whose math- and physics-challenged powers need your help to save the day (or cause a catastrophe).
2. Romancraft
Imagine a course on Roman history where your class teams up to build the city of Rome (and key outposts) in a Minecraft fashion. Each week of this 8-week online course, you build together a different time in history. It’s 753BC and Romulus is founding the city. Now Hannibal is coming for Rome on elephants over the mountains. The week ends by setting Carthage on fire. It’s 44BC and you are building the Senate where Julius Caesar is assassinated on the Ides of March. Horse races, the Colosseum–your class builds them all. It is AD64 and Nero is rebuilding after a fire they accuse him of setting. Animations bridge the gap between the things you build, and some of the best models of past students are incorporated. You learn about politics and religion while building the structures where events took place. Because this is a Christian college, key intersections with Christianity are included (Claudius expels Christians. Nero accuses Christians of the fire and puts Peter and Paul to death. Lions in the Colisseum.)
3. The Queen Hates Your English
Join the Red Queen and other figures with British accents as you learn American English online. Dangling participles–off with their heads! Split infinitives, you will be allowed to do so over the vehement protests of Shakespeare. Lady MacBeth will protest but will not be able to stop you from putting the commas and periods inside the quotation marks. On the other hand, they will be quite pleased to berate you if you can’t tell the difference between a direct and indirect object or if you don’t know the past participle of spring.
Obviously, I’m being facetious (or am I?), but I firmly believe that just about anything can be taught online and be taught well. Sometimes we just have a colossal failure of imagination. What about a PE class where everyone is running together at the same time even though they are at different locations. They talk while they run.
There’s an App for that. And when there isn’t, we can make one.
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