Dec 22, 2015
Agenda
• Who am I?
• What is online education?• Why did it become popular?• How is it done?• Technical Architecture• Future of online education• Potential for online education in India
Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Academia, Industry & Personal
• Dad was a school teacher• B.E. (ECE) in CEG Guindy, Anna University –
1986-90• UNIX System Software Engineer, HCL Limited,
Chennai, 1990-91• MS Computer Science, University of Texas at
Dallas (UTD), 1991-94
Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Academia, Industry & Personal …
• Telecom Software Engineer, Northern Telecom, Dallas, 1994-97
• Ph.D. Computer Science (part-time), University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), 1994-99
• Technical Lead, Samsung Telecom, 1997-2010• Got married in 1998• Adjunct Faculty, UTD CS department, 1999-2002• Online Adjunct Faculty in several online
universities from 2000
Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Academia, Industry & Personal …
• Adjunct Faculty, Southern Methodist University, 2010
• Sr. Lecturer (full-time), UTD Computer Science, 2010-present
• 2 daughters: Nila (8) and Chinmayee (4)• Passionate about teaching – happy to share
ideas to improve teaching quality in colleges• Challenging teaching environment in US
Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Summary
• 18 years experience as Software Engineer• 12 years of teaching experience
(mostly online)
Advertisement:University of Texas at Dallas
• Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science
• Computer Science: ~500 MS students and ~150 PhD students
• Surrounded by 100s of companies in Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex
• Students can get internships right after 2 semesters and continue studies in parallel
• Flyers available – see me after the lecture
Online education
• Education through Internet• Anywhere, any time, any device connected to
internet• Asynchronous learning
• Fixed # of weeks• All the work is graded & final grade is assigned• Student evaluation of faculty• Degree certificate
Snippets from history
• American higher educational system: Public, private non-profit, and private for-profit universities (companies), Regional accreditation agencies, state agencies
• Question: What is #1 priority for private for-profit university? Quality or Money?
• First online course ~20 years ago, likely by for-profit university
• First online degree program?• MBA. Why?
Snippets from history …
• How reliable is online degree? Does it help to get a job?
• Online colleges got accreditation• Turning point (my opinion): Traditional
colleges started online degree programs• Misleading ads: “Point…Click…Degree…”• Reality: online courses require more work.
Who is a typical online student?
• Working adults who have difficulty attending a traditional college
• Hard-working employee who wants to get promoted, but does not have a degree
• Military personnel• Moms with young children at home• Students from rural areas
Online education is NOT for every one!
Who is typical online faculty?
• has full-time job in the industry• works as adjunct faculty• Why?– Additional income– Passion– More interesting than regular job!
• Lot of retired people too. Why?– Flexible, travel & teaching can mix
Typical online course• accessible only to students enrolled in that course
within university OLS (Online Learning System).• has an assignment due every week or every 2
weeks once• Participation in Weekly discussion questions (DQs)
is mandatory.• Courses run for only 5-8 weeks. • Has 10 to 15 students• Has students from multiple time-zones, sometimes
from other countries too.
Grading scale for typical on-ground course
• Class Participation: up to 5%• Quizzes/Attendance: 10%• Assignments/Projects: 40%• Exams: 50%
Typical Grading Scale
• DQs/participation: 25%• Quizzes: 10%• Assignments: 30%• Exams/Projects: 25%• Team assignments: 10%
Compare with on-ground course
• Student-centered vs. Faculty-centered• Lectures optional• Students need to be self-motivated• Forced to participate• Did the student actually do the coursework?
Typical online student
does the following every week:• logs into the course at least once in 2 days• reads the book’s chapter(s) for the first 3 days• makes 4 to 8 posts distributed over the next 4
days• submits other assignments towards the end of
the week.
Typical online faculty
does the following every week:• ensures that weekly material and DQs are setup before
the week starts• grades the previous week’s assignments • comments on DQ responses & offers closing thoughts• responds to “cry for help” posts/emails in timely
manner• makes phone calls if needed.• responds to phone calls during office hours• spends 5 to 15 hours every week for each course
Recent focus
• Continuous improvement in action …• Utilize relevant web resources in courses• Develop multimedia lectures to explain tough
concepts• Increase academic rigor – test application of
concepts using weekly quizzes • Improved communication tools
Major issues?
• Plagiarism in popular assignments• Google-generation has limited no patience • Quality of Faculty?• Students’ preparedness• Time-discipline for both students and faculty• Micro-management from university• Low pay to faculty
Weekly DQs (Discussion Questions)
• Goal: Come up with most reasonable answers through discussion
• Set difficulty of DQs at 110%• Focus is on discussions, NOT on perfect initial
answers. Wrong answers are perfect discussion starters!
• Faculty should facilitate & shape the discussion little bit, but should NOT kill it.
• Goal: each post should add value to the course, requirement to count towards participation.
DQ strategies
• Basic: 2 to 3 questions• Expanded: 5 to 10 questions• Personalized: assign specific question for each
student for posting initial response• Empowered: designate each student as “DQ
lead” for one question
• More details in another presentation…
Team assignments
• Can it work online?• Can it be better than on-ground?• Potential for higher level of contribution from
each student• More details in separate presentation.
Advantages?
• No commute to college• No need for classrooms• No conflict in course/work schedules• Multimedia lectures can be reused• Learning/teaching can happen any where, any
time
Disadvantages?
• Online learning not for every one• Online learning not suitable for all courses– Complex labs hard to do online
Online Learning System (OLS)
• Lots of software applications out there.• Popular ones: Blackboard, Sakai, Moodle, …• In addition to courses, OLS provides network
space accessible to faculty, courses, …• Tons of functionality to run the course
efficiently
Future of Online education?
• High quality online lecture videos– students can view them at any time
• More acceptance at workplaces• Learning experience comparable to traditional
classroom• Unlikely to replace traditional education though
Still not for every one!
Higher education in India
• Attended T4E conference in IIT Chennai, July 14-16 and met several educators.
• Lot of concerns about quality of higher education, but not many answers
• Online course materials:– MIT Open courseware http://ocw.mit.edu– NPTEL National Programme for Technology
Enhanced Learning http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/
Can online education work in India?
• Issues & needs are similar to America• Indra Gandhi Open University runs distance
courses, not clear how close it comes to online courses run in USA
• Does require reliable broadband connection• With some adjustments & planning, I believe
online education may work well here too.
Can online educational materials augment physical classroom?
• Several 3rd tier colleges in Karnataka using NPTEL course materials (including lectures) since local faculty not ready to teach those courses
• It should work in Tamilnadu too.