In 2013, Richard Saller, dean of Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences, argued that teaching the humanities online was nearly impossible. “The humanities have to deal with ambiguity [and] with multiple answers,” he said, “My hunch is that the kinds of platforms that are available now can provide a forum for exchange among students with different ideas, but I doubt that that will come anywhere near the quality that we have in our introductory seminars.”
He had thrown down the gauntlet. Several professors took up Saller’s challenge and piloted ways to capture small group discussion in an online format.
