Diane Rover

The Online RevolutionFrom e-books to MOOCs: Coping, adapting, embracing

Frank Vahid UC Riverside

Intro

Systems

Research

Experiences

Options

Smita Bakshi Zyante CEO

Diane RoverIowa State Univ.

Yacob AstatkeMorgan State Univ.

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• Online learning and MOOCs are increasingly entwined with the future of STEM education.

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• What can we learn from education research?

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• Selected research on effective strategies for the online classroom, teaching, and learning:

– MIT’s first MOOC, “Circuits and Electronics” (6.002x)

– The Excellent Online Instructor, R. Palloff and K. Pratt

– Teaching Alone, Teaching Together, J. Bess et al.

– Virtual Learning Communities, R. Palloff and K. Pratt

– Peer Instruction, J. Spacco, J. Parris, and B. Simon

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• MIT’s first MOOC, “Circuits and Electronics” (6.002x)

– 6.002 is a required undergraduate course for majors in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

– 6.002x, offered March-June 2012, was the first MOOC developed by edX, the consortium led by MIT and Harvard.

• 54,763 students from 194 countries enrolled in the online course. • 7,157 students completed the course. • Instructional team:

– Lead instructor: an MIT professor who taught the on-campus version of the course for a number of years.

– Three other instructors: two MIT professors and edX’s chief scientist, who were responsible for creating the homework assignments, labs, and tutorials.

– Five teaching assistants and three lab assistants.

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• MIT’s first MOOC (continued)

– 6.002x consisted of video lectures, interactive problems, online laboratories, and a discussion forum.

• Set of videos, called lecture sequences, released weekly; narrated by the lead instructor, averaged less than 10 minutes each, composed of illustrations, text, and equations

• Online exercises to let students practice the concepts covered in the videos

• Tutorials similar to small-group recitations that often accompany MIT lecture courses

• Textbook accessible electronically

• Discussion forum where students can have questions answered by other students or the teaching assistants

• a Wiki to post additional resources

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• MIT’s first MOOC (continued)

– “Studying Learning in the Worldwide Classroom - Research into edX’s First MOOC”

– Research study:

• Students’ use of resources by time spent on each;• How student background and capabilities related to

their achievement and persistence; and• How their interactions with 6.002x’s curricular and

pedagogical components contributed to their level of success in the course.

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• MIT’s first MOOC (continued)

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• MIT’s first MOOC (continued)

– Among the findings:

• On average, with all other predictors being equal, a student who worked offline with someone else in the class or someone who had expertise in the subject had a predicted score almost three points higher than someone working by him or herself.

– This finding reflects what is known about on-campus instruction: that collaborating with another person, whether novice or expert, strengthens learning.

– 2.5% of the students “did collaborate offline” with someone else taking the course, or with “someone who teaches or has expertise in this area.”

• Only 3% of all students participated in the discussion forum.

– Certificate earners used the forum at a much higher rate than other students.

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• The Excellent Online Instructor: – Understands the differences between face-to-face and online teaching and can

effectively implement them into development and facilitation of online classes. – Is committed to this form of teaching and uses the online environment to his or her

advantage in delivering an online class.– Is able to establish presence early in the course and encourages students to do the same.– Is highly motivated and in turn is a good motivator for students.– Understands the importance of community building and devotes time at the start of the

class to that function.– Promotes interactivity between students through development of good discussion

questions that engage them and encourage them to seek out response material on their own.

– Incorporates collaborative work into the design and delivery of an online class.– Respects students as partners in the learning process.– Is active and engaged throughout the course, providing timely, constructive feedback

throughout.– Is open, flexible, compassionate, responsive, and leads by example.

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http://www.onlineteachingandlearning.com/tip-defining-excellent-online-instructor/

Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• Teaching Alone, Teaching Together (2000)– Typical teaching: Instructors independently teach courses

and collaborate intermittently to plan curricula or establish evaluation and accreditation procedures.

– Traditional team teaching:

• Faculty have different disciplinary knowledge and come together to teach a complex subject.

– Bess’ model of team teaching:

• Faculty from the same discipline form teams of specialists based on process knowledge, i.e., the process of teaching.

• Seven major domains in the process of teaching: Pedagogy; Research; Lecturing; Leading discussions; Mentoring; Curricular and co-curricular integration; Assessment.

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Diane Rover

• Teaching Alone, Teaching Together (2000) (continued)– Preparatory Roles

• The Pedagogue: Creating Designs for Teaching

• The Researcher: Generating Knowledge for Team Teaching

– Direct Student Contact Roles in Classroom Settings

• The Lecturer: Working with Large Groups

• The Discussion Leader: Fostering Student Learning in Groups

– Facilitating Roles

• The Mentor: Facilitating Out-of-Class Cognitive and Affective Growth

• The Integrator: Linking Curricular and Co-curricular Experiences

• The Assessor: Appraising Student and Team Performance

Cope, adapt, embrace

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• Virtual Learning Communities

– The learning community is the vehicle through which learning occurs online.

• Online students learn from each other.

• Facilitators help students take responsibility for their own learning through inquiry, collaboration and self-reflection.

– The following outcomes are indications that an online community has formed:

• Active interaction involving course content and personal communication;

• Student-to-student collaborative learning;

• Socially constructed meaning;

• Sharing of resources among students; and

• Students supporting and evaluating the work of others.

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• Virtual Learning Communities (continued)

– Incorporating collaboration in online learning is accomplished through various techniques:

• Developing a shared goal for learning

• Negotiating course guidelines by engaging the group in discussion

• Posting introductions and learning expectations

• Encouraging comment on introductions

• Forming teams and posting guidelines for their performance

• Encouraging a search for real-life examples

• Developing assignments related to real-life situations

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• Virtual Learning Communities (continued)

– Collaboration techniques (continued):

• Facilitating dialogue among students

• Encouraging expansive questioning

• Sharing responsibility for facilitation

• Promoting feedback

• Promoting intergroup collaboration via online technologies, i.e., with groups outside of the course

• Allowing students to share resources

• Allowing students to write collaboratively

– There is a need to focus on creating community, either by virtue of or in spite of technology.

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• Peer Instruction

– Can a CS0 course designed around Peer Instruction (PI) produce greater learning gains than a “traditional” lecture approach covering the same content?

• PI is a student-centric instructional technique developed by Mazur in which students discuss and analyze challenging questions in small groups.

– Students must complete work before class.

– In class, students answer a question individually. Small groups share and discuss answers. Students update their answers. Students participate in a class discussion.

– Finding: Students in a PI-designed offering of a non-majors CS0 course performed statistically significantly better than students in a concurrently offered traditional, lecture-oriented course.

– PI reinforces the value of student-student and expert-student interaction.

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• References to cited resources:

– MIT’s first MOOC, “Circuits and Electronics” (6.002x):

• L. Breslow, D. E. Pritchard, J. DeBoer, G. S. Stump, A. D. Ho, and D. T. Seaton, "Studying Learning in the Worldwide Classroom Research into edX’s First MOOC," Research & Practice in Assessment, vol. 8, Summer 2013, pp. 13-25. URL: http://www.rpajournal.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/SF2.pdf

• edX, MITx: 6.002x – Circuits and Electronics, Spring 2013, https://www.edx.org/course/mit/6-002x/circuits-and-electronics/578

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• References to cited resources (continued):

– The Excellent Online Instructor, R. Palloff and K. Pratt

• R. M. Palloff and K. Pratt, The Excellent Online Instructor: Strategies for Professional Development, Jossey-Bass, 2011.

• R. M. Palloff and K. Pratt, “The Excellent Online Instructor,” Podcast, Oct. 2010. URL: http://www.onlineteachingandlearning.com/podcast-palloff-pratt/

– Approximately 15 minutes

– Available for download from iTunes

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• References to cited resources (continued):

– Teaching Alone, Teaching Together, J. Bess et al.

• J. L. Bess and Associates, Teaching Alone, Teaching Together: Transforming the Structure of Teams for Teaching, Jossey-Bass, 2000.

• D. T. Rover, “Taking Our Own Advice: Team Teaching,” Academic Bookshelf, ASEE Journal of Engineering Education, July 2002, pp. 265-266. URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2002.tb00702.x/abstract

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• References to cited resources (continued):

– Virtual Learning Communities, R. Palloff and K. Pratt

• R. M. Palloff and K. Pratt, Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom, Jossey-Bass, 1999.

– D. T. Rover, “Closing the Distance,” Academic Bookshelf, ASEE Journal of Engineering Education, April 2006, pp. 175-176. URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2006.tb00888.x/abstract

– Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom, 2007(updated revision)

• R. M. Palloff and K. Pratt, Collaborating Online: Learning Together in Community, Jossey-Bass, 2004.

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• References to cited resources (continued):

– Peer Instruction, J. Spacco, J. Parris, and B. Simon

• J. Spacco, J. Parris, and B. Simon, “How We Teach Impacts Student Learning: Peer Instruction vs. Lecture in CS0,” Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '13), 2013, pp. 41-46. URL: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2445196.2445215

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Diane Rover

Cope, adapt, embrace

• Discussion questions

– What aspects of effective teaching and learning are intrinsically supported by online learning?

• From your own classroom experience, what effective strategies do you use that might work well or possibly even better in an online learning environment?

– In what ways does online learning present obstacles to effective teaching and learning?

• From your own classroom experience, what strategies may be difficult to use in an online learning environment? How might you adapt these?

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