Virtual learning for Management education Dr. Jeyakesavan Veerasamy [email protected] [email protected].

Virtual learning for Management education

Dr. Jeyakesavan [email protected]@utdallas.edu

Agenda

• Who am I?

• Virtual learning: what? why? how?• Why did it become popular?• How is it done?• Technical Architecture• Future of online education

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)

Virtual learning• Other terms: Online courses, web-based courses• 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

• First online course ~20 years ago, likely by for-profit university

• First online degree program?• MBA. Why?

Snippets from history …

• How effective is it? Does it help to get a job?• Online colleges got accreditation• Turning point (my opinion): Traditional

colleges started online degree programs• Possibly “better than traditional classroom”?• Did the student actually do the coursework?• How a traditional university handled it.

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/Research paper: 50%

Typical Grading Scale for virtual course

• DQs/participation: 25%• Quizzes: 10%• Assignments: 30%• Proposal/Paper: 25%• Team assignments: 10%

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.

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.

Compare with

• Self-paced learning• distance learning

Future of virtual learning…

• 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• Augmenting traditional classrooms

Technical architecture

Internet

OLS serverSecurity gateway

Online University

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

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Thanks for listening!

Dr. Jeyakesavan [email protected]@utdallas.edu