An iMOOC experience
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BuzzEd 2014 iMOOC – Essentials of Clear Writing Susan Tan Jeffrey Mok CELC
description
By Susan Tan and Jeffrey Mok. In this presentation, we will share our experiences in putting together a MOOC for NUS. The MOOC - Essentials for Clear Writing - is a five-week course piloted as an internal MOOC (iMOOC) from 30 September to 1 November 2013. Four topics on the basics of writing were introduced: Structure of an essay, Language accuracy, Idiomatic expressions, coherence, conciseness and clarity. The course was delivered by four staff members who each focused on one topic. The course was aimed at English language learners who are between the elementary and intermediate levels of proficiency and could be helpful as a refresher course in academic writing for NS men who are soon to matriculate as undergraduates. At this presentation we will share the lessons learned in putting together the MOOC that could help others who will be preparing to do so. We also share some pertinent observations we gathered from students who participated in the MOOC to draw some preliminary conclusions on the effectiveness of this mode of delivery of a skills-based course.
Transcript of An iMOOC experience
BuzzEd 2014iMOOC – Essentials of Clear
Writing
Susan TanJeffrey Mok
CELC
Background
• Internal iMOOC • Non credit bearing• Five-week long course • From 30 Sept to 1 Nov 2013• Opened to students and staff at NUS• Aim: level up the writing skills
PreparationConceptualization (May-Jun 2013)– 4 discussion sessions of two hours each (8 hr)
Promo video – each drafted script was edited by Kenneth (2 hr)
Each topic– materials, writing script, preparing slides (12 hr)– recording (between 6-12 hr)– writing exercises (8 hr)
Content
Four topics:• Structure of an essay• Language accuracy• Idiomatic expressions• Coherence, conciseness and clarity
Delivery
• Each week, one topic; last week was wrap-up• Had three 30-minute segments• 10 to 12-minute lecture (included in-video
quizzes)• 20 minutes of practice exercises• Discussion forum• https://nus.coursera.org/clearwriting-001/wik
i/orientation
Statistics
Registration and participation• Weekly– “registrant” refers to those who registered– “participant” refers to those who registered and
viewed and/or attempted exercises.
Pre and post survey• Profile• Motivation• Satisfaction
Results of surveys
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Total784 94 81 42 36 1096
Table 1. Registration numbers over five weeks
Total Number of active participants: 9098.3% did nothing after registration
level of participation: video
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Total Lecture view
759 616 456 390 636
Total Lecture unique view
309 159 109 99 112
Table 2. No. of participants who viewed video (cumulative)
level of participation: in-video quizzes
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Total In-video Quiz
1203 997 681 598 840 11
Total unique In-video Quiz
136 107 61 60 59 1
Table 3. No. of participants who attempted in-video quizzes (cumulative)
level of participation: exercises
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Total exercises169 275 249 277 339
Total unique exercises
56 57 46 44 41
Table 4. No. of participants who attempted exercises (cumulative)
rate of change of lectures viewed
Figure 1. Number of participants who viewed lecture videos by topic
participants who viewed lecture videosWeek Lesson/Segment Participant % Viewed
1 1.1 Introduction 567 100%1.2 Body Paragraphs 350 62%1.3 Conclusion 260 46%
2 2.1 Tense Shifts 240 42%2.2 Subject Verb Agreement 195 34%2.3 Nominalistaion 182 32%
3 3.1 Agree – with, to, on 137 24%3.2 Whereby 122 22%3.3 In addition, Moreover 117 21%
4 4.1 Coherence 108 19%4.2 Clarity 95 17%4.3 Conciseness 96 17%
5 5.1 Structure of Essay 86 15%5.2 Language Focus 71 13%5.3 Idiomatic Expressions 73 13%5.4 Coherence, Clarity, Conciseness 70 12%
participants who attempted quizzes
Figure 2. Number of participants who attempted quizzes
pre-course surveys findings (N=418)
motivation of doing the course? • almost all wants to improve their writing skills• a few hope to use the skills learned to handle
the Qualifying English Test• a few mentioned to handle English for
Academic Purposes module ES1102
post-course surveys findings (N=25)
persistence in doing the course? • desire to test their knowledge• consolidate the skills learned• All agreed that the course had met its
objectives• 23 said that their experience has been very
positive or positive
post-course surveys findings (N=25)
• 9 reported feeling confident of the ability in the four targeted areas
• 19 reported that they were somewhat confident
• 22 respondents said that they would consider taking another MOOC
Conclusions
• As the number of participants is small (namely 1096 registrants and 909 active registrants) and this is a short course, the statistics presented in this report may not be conclusive.
• Nonetheless, they do reflect the general trend observed in MOOCs.
• Most importantly, results of the Post-course survey (though small) are encouraging.
• Further analysis will have to be done for better insights and learning points.
