Dr Shreeharsh Kelkar from UC Berkeley on to discuss massive online open courses or “MOOCs” and other varieties of education technology. Are they destined to displace the traditional university, or are (were) they just a fad? How do they compare with more general online platforms that host educational content, like YouTube? What sort of people start these ventures? Can they be trusted? Dr Kelkar is extremely well placed to answer these questions, combining a background in electrical engineering and computer science with a PhD in the anthropology of computing, expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methods, and access to some of the leading actors in this space, his research provides a fascinating perspective on one of the oldest sectors in our world – higher education – and the effect technology and commerce is having on it.

Shreeharsh’s website: 

https://shreeharshkelkar.net/writing/ 

Selected publications from Shreeharsh: 

2014. Anthropology in and of MOOCs. American Anthropologist 116 (4): 829–38. [pdf]  [Co-authored with Rachel Flamenbaum, Manduhai Buyandelger, Greg Downey, Orin Starn, Graham Jones, Catalina Laserna, Shreeharsh Kelkar, Carolyn Rouse, and Tom Looser]

2018. On the “neutrality” of platforms: How the platform shapes pedagogy in MOOCs. Anthropology Now 10 (3), 70-83.

Open letter from San Jose State University to Michael Sandel at Harvard:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/695245-san-jose-state-u-open-letter/