Stanford Faculty Collaborate to Improve Online Education
Several Stanford faculty members are working together to
improve online education at the university by developing new software and
testing it in the classroom.
The collaboration unites three experimental online
education efforts: ClassX,[http://classx.stanford.edu/] a video processing
platform that facilitates lecture recording;
CourseWare,[https://courseware.stanford.edu/] an online course hosting site
with social networking features; and Open
Classroom,[http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/HomePage.php] a web
platform designed to share Stanford lectures freely with the world.
"The researchers are combining the three programs
into one. The unified system should be available to the Stanford community by
the fall quarter, said computer science associate professor Andrew
Ng,[http://ai.stanford.edu/%7Eang/] creator of Open Classroom. The software
will eventually be available to other universities as well," he said.
"We've known for many years what we wanted to do for
online education," Ng said. "We just needed to build the software to
make it work."
Traditionally, a professor delivers one long lecture each
class session. In large classes with hundreds of students, there?s often little
back-and-forth questioning between students and the teacher.
Online courses increase information availability for
students. Prerecorded lectures can free up class time for more interaction
between students and teachers. Students help each other in discussions similar
to a comment thread on a social networking site. And supplemental interactive
lessons can help reduce disparity among students with different educational
backgrounds.
Stanford computer science Professor Daphne Koller
[http://ai.stanford.edu/%7Ekoller/] tested CourseWare and ClassX during a
sophomore-level programming class. She posted recorded lectures online and used
class time to cover problems, host guest lecturers from the tech industry and
review material her students found difficult.
Students watched each lecture in 10- to 15-minute
"chunks." A multiple-choice question followed each chunk to help
reinforce the concepts. Koller posted weekly quizzes online as well. The short
tests require students to think about the material, rather than listening
passively to a lecture. Studies have shown information retrieval enhances
learning.
Koller made attendance at scheduled class time optional,
but students came. She said the audience for these sessions was higher than
typical televised courses she?s taught, where the lecture was presented in one
75-minute video.
After polling her students when the course was over,
Koller said about two-thirds of them told her they preferred the new format
compared to a traditional in-person lecture. Nearly all found the video quizzes
"very helpful."
Koller recorded her classes by videotaping a lecture or drawing on-screen with an LCD tablet while she narrated an explanation.
Software developed by electrical engineering professor
Bernd Girod [http://www.stanford.edu/%7Ebgirod/] and students simplifies
lecture recording. A commercial camcorder captures the lecture. The professor
uploads the video to the ClassX server, which processes the video for interactive
streaming during playback. The viewer needs only a web browser to zoom and pan
around the room while watching the video online. The ClassX team
[http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/june/classx-video-processing-062811.html]
released the code as open source software in April.
Ng developed the tablet-recording program. It displays a
slide from a presentation. Teachers draw on a graphics tablet, an electronic
device used by digital artists, and the drawings appear on screen immediately
as if they were writing on a chalkboard. They narrate the lecture using the
computer?s microphone. A camera looking at the screen over the teacher?s
shoulder records the video.
Ng also created some of the software for the interactive
quizzes in the recorded lectures.
When Koller presented her idea for a new teaching method to her colleagues, computer science professor John Mitchell [http://theory.stanford.edu/people/jcm/] realized he had a web interface that could help her distribute videos to her class and encourage student discussion.
CourseWare is a public website that houses many Stanford
courses. Professors control the visibility of any material placed on their
course pages, restricting access to Stanford students or releasing it to the
world. Many course management systems used at other universities limit any
access to registered students.
CourseWare allows faculty to upload video and handouts,
create interactive quizzes and track discussions among students and teachers.
In Koller?s class, students often helped each other when
a classmate posted a question. The instructor or a teaching assistant confirmed
or clarified the answers.
Mitchell had seen this student interaction early in the
site?s development. "This was one of the biggest indications that we were
on to something," he said.
CourseWare housed 10 courses in spring quarter, including
computer science, political science, education, biochemistry and psychology.
Mitchell plans to make the site available to other universities
over the web. He hopes faculty teaching similar courses at different
universities will use the site to collaborate and share material.
Supplements for introductory courses
Professors around the university are beginning to adopt
portions of this three-pronged technology in their classrooms, especially
instructors in large introductory science, engineering and math courses.
Cammy Huang-DeVoss, course coordinator for the large
introductory biology courses, is using the tablet recording and interactive
quiz technology to develop lessons that enhance the lectures. Before a lecture
on DNA, for example, students will watch an online video about the chemical
bonds in DNA. It?s a way for the instructors to cover extra material, reinforce
concepts from other classes and help unite students with different science
backgrounds.
The biology teachers plan to launch their new online supplements in the middle of the fall quarter. "We hope the use of this technology can help close the gap between students of different backgrounds, and perhaps reduce the dropout rate from these fields, especially for under-represented groups," Koller said.
Online lectures have some advantages over the traditional in-person instruction. They allow students to control the pacing of a lecture ? they can speed it up or instantly replay the material.
A large library of online classes could allow students to
personalize their education, Koller said. Students could combine many different
lecture chunks to create courses tailored to their interests and abilities.
Analytical programs built into the course-hosting system
could allow faculty to monitor a course in real time, tracking student progress
and adjusting their teaching techniques to maximize effectiveness throughout
the quarter.
Ng has found that his colleagues are receptive
to these online teaching methods. "We try to deliver a better education.
Every professor wants to do that," he said.
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