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THE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN McHENRY COUNTY
Illustration by R. Scott Helmchen – shelmchen@shawmedia.com
ACCESSIBLE, OPEN EDUCATION MOOC drives MCC professor to teach free course By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com
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RYSTAL LAKE – McHenry County College professor Ted Erski sees himself as more of a director than a teacher when he instructs his Fundamentals of Energy Resources class. That’s because the class is a massive open online course – known as an MOOC in the education world – that drew nearly 1,000 students in August when it was offered for the second time. “I can’t spend as much time with each individual [because] then I’d just be doing the MOOC 24/7 for six months,” Erski said. “You have to remove yourself more than you’re typically comfortable with as a teacher, otherwise you’d just be overwhelmed by the sheer volume.” Erski, however, keeps coming back despite the fact he’s not paid to teach the class. “I like the idea of free, open, accessible education for everybody,” he said. “I think education is key to everything – family development, prosperity, personal enlightenment.” Erski’s class drew students from all over the world, with only 32 percent coming from the U.S. or Canada, according to numbers provided by Raymond Lawson, MCC’s director of online learning and educational technology. Another 28 percent were in southern Asia, and the remainder were scattered across western Europe, South America, southeast Asia, Australia, Africa and eastern Europe.
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I think education is key to everything – family development, prosperity, personal enlightenment.” Ted Erski
McHenry County College professor
Most of the students don’t complete the course – about 20 percent of Erski’s students did. Instead, they often dip in and out of the course, finding the information they need or only completing the sections they need. Despite the lack of pay, the classes can reap their own reward for the professors, Lawson said, pointing to the recognition professors can achieve and the connections and collaborators they can find. Erski said he’s learned a lot about how to make videos, add closed captioning, use new software and adjust his curriculum to a new platform – things he’s found “revealing and satisfying.” Faculty also can use the platform to promote a book they’ve written or delve into topics they normally don’t get to, said Tony Miksa, MCC’s vice president of academic and student affairs. The college would revisit the compensation of professors if the philosophy behind the MOOCs offered changed – for example, if the college decided to require all students to take
an MOOC as a prerequisite, Miksa said. The lack of compensation has kept down the number of MOOCs that MCC offers, but so has the fact its online learning department is a oneman show, Lawson said. Lawson works with each course’s professor to create the course, he said, adding he’s in talks with different faculty members and student services staff, but no new courses are in development. MCC has offered three MOOCs since 2013, when the first – called Online Reputation for Career Success, which was the first such course to be offered by an Illinois community college – was rolled out. The class explored the idea of online reputation and how social media potentially can affect job searches and career success. Another course, called Exploring Chemistry, was created after the deans in the math and health science departments came to Lawson about the number of students who were missing the foundational knowledge they needed to take the upper-level classes, he said. The class only was offered in 2013 because the chemistry teacher who taught it has since left the college, Lawson said. MOOCs can be a way for potential MCC students to prepare to return to school, helping them brush up in some core content areas ahead of placement tests, teaching them study techniques or giving them an idea of what more traditional online classes can be like, Lawson said.
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Filing for primaries complete Lou Bianchi to speak about race Tuesday By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi said he will have more to say Tuesday about the decision by one of his assistants to run for the office. Assistant State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally filed Monday morning to run in the March 15 Republican primary. Monday was the last day for candidates to file for office, and the race is one of many that local voters next year will decide. Bianchi, who filed a week ago to run for a fourth term, declined comment except to stress there is no ongoing internal power struggle. “There is no conflict in the office,” Bianchi said. Former assistant state’s attorney Dan Regna, who worked under Bianchi’s predecessor and unsuccessfully ran in 2008 against Bianchi’s bid for a second term, also filed to run as a Republican.
County races
A number of newcomers, both GOP hopefuls and Democratic challengers, hope to join the Republican-dominated McHenry County Board, four of whom are leaving at the end of next year. In County Board District 1, incumbents Anna May Miller and Yvonne Barnes, both of Cary, will face primary challengers Tom Wilbeck of Cary and Terence Ferenc of Fox River Grove. The two winners will run in November against Democratic challenger Kerri Barber of Cary. The Democratic Party also fielded candidates in three other County Board
On the Web To see a complete list of candidates who filed for the March 15 primary races, visit NWHerald.com.
races. The two winners of the District 2 GOP primary – which pits recently appointed board member Jeff Thorsen, R-Crystal Lake, against challengers John Reinert and Cameron Hubbard – will run against Democratic opponent Dominique Miller. All four candidates live in Crystal Lake. District 2 member Carolyn Schofield, R-Crystal Lake, is running instead for the Illinois House of Representatives. Four Republican candidates – incumbents Nick Provenzano, R-McHenry, and Michael Walkup, R-Crystal Lake, and challengers Cherie Rickert of McHenry and Nancy Gonsiorek of Crystal Lake – are running for the two open seats in District 3. The winners will run against Democratic candidate Kenneth Miller of Crystal Lake. In District 4, incumbent Sue Draffkorn, R-Wonder Lake, will run against Republican challengers Kay Bates and Craig Wilcox, both of McHenry. Board member Robert Martens Sr., R-Spring Grove, is not seeking re-election. In District 5, incumbent Michael Skala, R-Huntley, will run against GOP challengers Joseph Calomino of Lake in the Hills and Andrew Snarski of Crystal Lake. The primary winners
See RACE, page A4
Police shooting of black teen cited in U of Chicago threat THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO – Federal authorities said an online threat that led the University of Chicago to cancel classes Monday targeted whites and was motivated by the police shooting of a black teenager, video of which was released last week and led to protests. Jabari R. Dean, 21, of Chicago, threatened to kill 16 white male students or staff at the school on Chicago’s South Side, according to the criminal complaint. Dean, who is black, was arrested Monday morning. He did not enter a plea later in the day on a charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce in court. The threat was posted Saturday,
just days after the city released a video of Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is white, shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was black, 16 times. Van Dyke is charged with first-degree murder. His bond was set for $1.5 million earlier Monday, and hours later, he paid the $150,000 needed and was released. Authorities said Jason Dean posted online Van Dyke from a phone that he would “execute approximately ... 16 white male students and or staff, which is the same number of time (sic) McDonald was killed” and “will die killing any number of white police-
men that I can in the process.” The criminal complaint said someone tipped off the FBI Sunday to a threat posted on a social media website. The FBI was unable to find the threat online, and was provided a screenshot by the person who reported the threat. That led them to Dean, who admitted to FBI agents that he posted the threat and took it down shortly after posting it, the complaint said. Despite the threat mentioning three guns, a prosecutor told Monday’s hearing that Dean did not appear to pose a threat. The complaint did not say whether Dean possessed any weapons.
See THREAT, page A4
AP photo
Protesters stand Friday on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago as community activists and labor leaders hold a demonstration billed as a “march for justice” in the wake of the release of a video showing an officer fatally shooting Laquan McDonald.
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Crystal Lake resident wins Illinois cities, counties Trampoline and Tumbling demand action amid World Championships / C3 budget impasse / B3
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