Real dialogue
Although Venkatesh is excited about reaching a broader audience, this is not the only reason the course was made to be trilingual and global. These elements reflect a conscious effort to provide participants with the unique opportunity to engage others with radically different experiences and perspectives.
Venkatesh, who is also a UNESCO Co-Chair in Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism, elaborates. “The course is not simply about delivering ready-made content to students like consumers. That would defeat the purpose,” he says.
“I don’t even like to refer to them as students so much as participants. Participants will have the chance to hear from people with all sorts of unique perspectives, and they will share their own experiences and thoughts as well,” he adds.
“It is an opportunity to practice the very sort of dialogue that we are trying to encourage. The real ‘aha!’ moments of the course are going to come about in conversation.”
Feminist pedagogy and course design
Kathryn Urbaniak, program manager at Project Someone and lead designer of the course, describes the pluralist, feminist pedagogical model behind it.
“Project Someone is committed to gender equality. As part of our basic mandate, we’re invested in giving voice and agency to women and members of minority groups,” she says.
This is seen in the healthy representation of women among the designers and developers of the course. The main team was composed of five women from Concordia.
Although participants in the course may not notice any explicitly feminist component, adds Urbaniak, it is evident in the very design of the course.
“Traditional pedagogies tend to be hierarchical. They’re top-down. Feminist pedagogies aspire to be non-hierarchical. We’ve designed the course such that responsibility for the content and delivery is shared,” she explains.
“Designers, instructors, presenters, interviewees and the participants themselves — who will share their thoughts and experiences with one another — will contribute to the course and help build their understanding together.”
Who needs this course?
“I like to think that the M in MOOC stands for meaningful rather than massive,” Urbaniak says. “The measure of success wouldn’t be that a thousand people have completed the course. We’d be happier if only 100 people completed it but had meaningful interactions and were really affected.”
The online course is geared toward social workers, educators, mental health workers and anyone involved in policy-making. But it’s open to all — which is especially relevant given the extent hate affects all communities and how everyone must take responsibility in addressing it.
Find out how to register for the free Concordia-based massive open online course, From Hate to Hope: Building Understanding and Resilience.