MoMA Courses Online

MoMA is submitting its first two online courses, which were piloted in Fall 2010.  Both courses proved very successful and reached a global audience. The two ten-week courses, geared to an adult audience,  were a survey course, Modern Art, 1880-1945 and a studio course, The Materials and Techniques of Post-War Abstract Painting.

For obvious reasons, the URL for the course and its content is not public.

The two online courses MoMA offered (four sections, two of each course, now sold-out again for Winter/ Spring 2011), were designed to be asynchronous so that they could accommodate students from different time zones. Students can log in and participate in discussions and watch videos at times convenient for them. The student body was global - from the United States, Brazil, Mexico, France, Greece, Venezuela, Russia, Canada, Spain, and other countries.

Both courses feature MoMA instructors with many years of experience teaching, discussing works of art in MoMA's collection in 5-6 hours of high-quality video shot in MoMA's galleries (with pans and zooms on the works of art, encouraging close looking). The courses also include a video art history lecture, downloadable readings, glossary terms, artist quotes, discussion forums with questions, additional links, and written lecture notes. Both courses rely on strong teacher-presence, and offer many opportunities for student-student and student-teacher interaction. 

In the studio course, students watch video shot in MoMA's galleries of the instructor discussing works of art by the artist discussed that week, then they watch a studio demonstration of the materials and techniques used by that artist, then students create their own works of art based on what they have learned, and take photographs of their work and upload those to a class discussion forum, for an online critique. The course also includes video lectures on different kinds of paint, and stretching a canvas. Combining studio techniques, visual analysis, and art historical insight, the class offers students a unique appreciation of how the materiality of paint and the activity of painting affected the development of abstract art.

In the survey course, students watch "In the Gallery" videos and discover the fascinating stories, key works, and iconic figures of modern art, from its origins in Post-Impressionism to the beginnings of the New York School. Moving chronologically through the Museum's collection, students explore an array of renowned and provocative objects-from paintings that challenged the official Academy and revolutionized the conventions of representation to works that are completely abstract-by such artists as Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, among others. They participate with their classmates and the instructor, in discussions on some of the key issues of modern art.

In the studio course, 88% of students strongly agreed that "The course enhanced my knowledge of Abstract Expressionism" and 91% reported that after taking the course, they were more interested in continuing to paint.In the studio course especially, interaction among students was extremely high. In Modern Art, 1880-1945, 91% of students reported that the course enhanced their knowledge of and appreciated for Modern Art.

The courses were each limited to 30 students, and sold out so quickly, a second sections of each course was opened. The courses use the learning management system Haiku, and took approximately one year to develop.

Images

Screenshot of Online Studio Course, Materials and Techniques of Post-War Abstract Painting - This shows a a paused video of the instructor talking about de Kooning's Woman I in the galleries at MoMA.

Screenshot of Online Studio Course, Materials and Techniques of Post-War Abstract Painting - with the video of the instructor demonstrating the painting techniques of de Kooning

Screenshot of Online Survey Course,Modern Art 1880-1945 - showing course with paused video on Van Gogh painting of the Postman Roulin

Screenshot of Online Survey Course,Modern Art 1880-1945 - showing course with paused video on Van Gogh painting of the Postman Roulin

Screenshot of Online Survey Course,Modern Art 1880-1945