As part of my efforts to make science fiction scholarship more accessible, I have begun the journey into online course development and created a mini-course called “Dune 101” based on my years of research into Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic Dune. I know the demand for audio-visual content is increasing and not everyone has the time or interest to read books and articles (especially academic ones), so even though I am more comfortable with writing, I wanted to give this new format a try. Creating content was at times a challenge, and video has its own demands, but in the end I enjoyed putting together images and visuals to accompany the analytical content. Text is not the only way to reach people, even though it is often the only recognized mode in academia. We owe it to students to give them more opportunities to build a diverse skillset, rather than relying on the same old assignment types.
With one course now under my belt, I’m already at work on other ideas and hope the development process will become more streamlined as I get further down the track.