Four months ago I started as a Project Officer on Royal Holloway’s Heritage Lottery Funded project, Citizens: 800 Years in the Making. At the risk of sounding cliché, time flies when you’re having fun. As I sit and write this, I am left rather bewildered at how these months have flown by. It has felt like the project has been underway mere weeks, rather than the months it actually has.
It’s very rare that you are given the time to reflect upon what has been achieved at work. Even within this relatively short space of time, the project has progressed quickly and, rather pleasingly, we are beginning to see some of that hard work come to fruition.
As you can imagine, with a project as large and as multifaceted as this, one of the major challenges is ensuring that we keep on top of our various commitments. The last thing we want is for one of the project’s plates to stop spinning!
With this in mind, each member of the team has focussed the majority of their time and efforts on certain elements of the project. Since starting in February, one of my main responsibilities has been to assist with the coordination of the Suffrage MOOC (Mass Online Open Course), run in partnership with Parliament, which will launch on Future Learn to coincide with the centenary of the Representation of the People’s Act next February.
Fortunately, I have had some prior experience of working on MOOCs, having assisted the College with the Magna Carta MOOC in 2015.
However, the Magna Carta MOOC, unlike the suffrage MOOC I am currently working on, was a course that I felt much more comfortable with, given it linked directly to my PhD. That said, not having as detailed a subject knowledge has not proved too much of a barrier – in some ways it has been advantageous.
One of the key things I have had to remember throughout the last four months has been that MOOCs are designed for recreational learners. Those enrolled on the course will invariably have done so out of pure interest, rather than need. As such, it’s vital to constantly remember that the course is an introduction to the issues and themes. Given that I myself at the beginning of the project, had no more than a limited knowledge in this area, I feel that I have been able to put myself in the learners’ shoes. By asking myself prompt questions from my own positon of ignorance I feel I have been able to structure the course in a way that I hope will be both enjoyable and coherent for our future students.
A common criticism of most histories designed for public consumption is that the things have been dumbed down and made more digestible for a non-academic audience. As I have already said, the suffrage MOOC will be introductory in its nature. However, despite this, I would say that history for public consumption doesn’t necessarily mean it has been dumbed-down. The MOOC will seek to challenge some pre-conceived myths about the suffrage movement and will draw from a variety of leading experts in the field. Whilst the manner in which the information is presented might be more accessible, I believe that this MOOC will demonstrate that you can introduce a non-academic audience to complex ideas and historical nuances, whilst maintaining a high level of engagement.
Another really exciting aspect of the MOOC is that it is a collaborative endeavour between Parliament and Royal Holloway. It is fantastic that the Citizens Project provides the opportunity for both myself and the College as a whole to build these links to major national institutions outside of the academy. Obviously, the link with the Parliamentary Archives offers students of the MOOC a chance to access to view primary material that many would otherwise not be able to see. We are looking to make the most of this potential and at every opportunity we will be providing students with the ability to assess and critique these sources as part of group discussions and individual assessments.
Over the course of the next three months the majority of the filming and editing for the MOOC will take place. The course site will be built and articles and assessment methods will be devised to enrich the student experience.
There is still a lot to be done, but the next couple of months fill me with a sense of excitement rather than dread!
Steven Franklin
Citizens Project Officer
