Zombies online

Of course, knee deep in my current academic project, I look ahead to the next ones.  Aside from a couple ideas for books, I’m interested in thinking through ways to experiment with the massively online education course stuff.  I’m pretty sure I could get a grant from my school to develop something about this next summer, but I’m not clear what it would be.

So readers, what role do you think online free education materials should play in conjunction with the academy? In particular, I’m wondering if my ZOMBIES IN POPULAR MEDIA course would make a good trial for this kind of work, and if so, what that would be.

Some quick ideas:

• lecture-type modules are easy enough to assemble.  Coordinate with my ZRS colleagues on this.
• Lessons to go with films? Ongoing debates about what films mean and how to understand them?
• Theme based modules — look at zombies through this theme or that one
• Assignment modules — work on your own through key ideas

I tend to think the humanities gets its value in driving students to engage with complex material and guiding them through that.  How does this work with a very small instructor to student ratio?  Do you encourage students themselves to create and rate responses?

Development ideas:

- I may see if I can get a research assistant grant (our school has these) to get a student to help me set this up

- a tech development grant would also be helpful to fund my summer work

Lots to think about.