Promoting Active Learning & Leveraging Dashboards for … · 2014-04-07 · Promoting Active...
1
Promoting Active Learning & Leveraging Dashboards for Curriculum Assessment in an OpenEdX Introductory CS Course for Middle School Shuchi Grover 1 , Roy Pea 1 & Stephen Cooper 2 1 Graduate School of Education, 2 Computer Science Department, Stanford University, CA Acknowledgment: Work supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (#1343227) Lack of teachers to teach computer science (CS) and pedagogically sound introductory CS curricula remain a significant challenge facing secondary schools attempting to teach CS. This paper describes our work-in-progress to design and pilot an online 7-week middle school course using Stanford's OpenEdX platform. Given the crucial shortage of K-12 CS teachers and curricula, well-designed online courses deployed on MOOC platforms could serve a crucial need in K-12 as well, especially in blended learning settings. [1] Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., and Cocking, R. (2000). How People Learn, National Academies Press, Washington, DC. [2] Pellegrino, J. W. & Hilton, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Education for life and work: Developing transferable knowledge and skills in the 21st century. National Academies Press. [3] Rivard, R. Three’s Company. Inside Higher Ed (2013), http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/04/03/stanford-teams-edx . [4] The Design-Based Research Collective (2003). Design-based research: An emerging paradigm for educational inquiry. Educational Researcher, 5-8. Leveraging OpenEdX Dashboards for Curricular Assessment & Refinement Core Learning Mechanic Demo/Lesson video varying between 1 and 5 mins in length Scratch or discussion prompts or activity below video Thought questions or surveys iframe-d below video Scratch Assignments (to be submitted on school LMS) Quizzes with automated grading and explanations Extra activities for students farther ahead than others OpenEdX’s modular course design architecture affords various types of “elements” that can be added to a page. This aids use of – Contextual “anchored” discussion prompts below instructional videos. HTML code to “iframe” links to activities for students to engage in. For example, in addition to the video on a page, we iframe-d: http://scratch.mit.edu so students could try out–and build on– programming ideas discussed in the video; Qualtrics surveys to obtain student feedback (for design-based research [4]) and responses to open-ended “thought questions”. “Low stakes – high frequency” multiple-choice quizzes (of various types); provide immediate feedback; push understanding; expose gaps. MOTIVATION ‘Foundations for Advancing Computational Thinking’ (FACT)- an Exploring CS’-lite’ course for middle school was designed and deployed on Stanford’s OpenEdX platform. FACT aims to help learners appreciate the pervasive nature of computing while engaging in algorithmic problem-solving and concepts such as serial execution, loops, and conditionals (using Scratch). We piloted FACT as a SPOC[3] in blended mode over 7 weeks to study its use in a “Computers” elective class that met four times a week for 55-minute periods at a public middle school. METHODS Instruments measuring computational learning showed significant learning gains for all students after the FACT SPOC. Students on OpenEdX FACT performed as well or better on post-tests than students in an earlier face- to-face iteration of the course. Post-course student feedback has been encouraging. Future plans include making the course broadly available as a MOOC, especially for use in diverse classroom settings by teachers. DISCUSSION REFERENCES Leveraging OpenEdX Modular Architecture for Active ‘Deeper’ Learning Additional Designs for Active Learning While a primary goal of automated assessments is to assess student learning, data and metrics generated by MOOC platforms are useful as aids to curriculum evaluation as well. Actively used instructor dashboards on quiz data provided by OpenEdX to ascertain targets of difficulty and prompt course revision. Figuring out the incorrect option that students most often chose for a wrong answer also helped better understand student misconceptions. Figure 1 shows a screenshot of the dashboard that clearly points to gaps in student understanding of the topic. This prompted (mid-course) course correction to aid better understanding. Inspired by research on learning for transfer [1, 2] and intro CS education. Several hands-on programming activities and assignments in Scratch. Activities involving elbow partner / Pair projects / Open programming day / Students helping students catch up Final Project – Whole-class demo day / Online showcase of games [Table above and left demos “active” learning sequence for a week (4 periods).] Figure 1. Screenshot of OpenEdX instructor dashboard giving feedback on gaps in student understanding
Transcript of Promoting Active Learning & Leveraging Dashboards for … · 2014-04-07 · Promoting Active...
Promoting Active Learning & Leveraging Dashboards for Curriculum Assessment in an OpenEdX Introductory CS
Course for Middle School
Shuchi Grover1, Roy Pea1 & Stephen Cooper2 1Graduate School of Education, 2Computer Science Department, Stanford University, CA
Acknowledgment: Work supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (#1343227)
Lack of teachers to teach computer science (CS) and pedagogically sound introductory CS curricula remain a significant challenge facing secondary schools attempting to teach CS. This paper describes our work-in-progress to design and pilot an online 7-week middle school course using Stanford's OpenEdX platform. Given the crucial shortage of K-12 CS teachers and curricula, well-designed online courses deployed on MOOC platforms could serve a crucial need in K-12 as well, especially in blended learning settings.
[1] Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., and Cocking, R. (2000). How People Learn, National Academies Press, Washington, DC. [2] Pellegrino, J. W. & Hilton, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Education for life and work: Developing transferable knowledge and skills in the 21st century. National Academies Press. [3] Rivard, R. Three’s Company. Inside Higher Ed (2013), http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/04/03/stanford-teams-edx. [4] The Design-Based Research Collective (2003). Design-based research: An emerging paradigm for educational inquiry. Educational Researcher, 5-8.
Leveraging OpenEdX Dashboards for Curricular Assessment & Refinement
Core Learning Mechanic Demo/Lesson video varying between 1 and 5 mins in length Scratch or discussion prompts or activity below video Thought questions or surveys iframe-d below video Scratch Assignments (to be submitted on school LMS) Quizzes with automated grading and explanations Extra activities for students farther ahead than others
OpenEdX’s modular course design architecture affords various types of “elements” that can be added to a page. This aids use of – § Contextual “anchored” discussion prompts below instructional videos. § HTML code to “iframe” links to activities for students to engage in. § For example, in addition to the video on a page, we iframe-d:
§ http://scratch.mit.edu so students could try out–and build on–programming ideas discussed in the video;
§ Qualtrics surveys to obtain student feedback (for design-based research [4]) and responses to open-ended “thought questions”.
§ “Low stakes – high frequency” multiple-choice quizzes (of various types); provide immediate feedback; push understanding; expose gaps.
MOTIVATION ‘Foundations for Advancing Computational Thinking’ (FACT)- an Exploring CS’-lite’ course for middle school was designed and deployed on Stanford’s OpenEdX platform. FACT aims to help learners appreciate the pervasive nature of computing while engaging in algorithmic problem-solving and concepts such as serial execution, loops, and conditionals (using Scratch). We piloted FACT as a SPOC[3] in blended mode over 7 weeks to study its use in a “Computers” elective class that met four times a week for 55-minute periods at a public middle school.
METHODS
Instruments measuring computational learning showed significant learning gains for all students after the FACT SPOC. Students on OpenEdX FACT performed as well or better on post-tests than students in an earlier face-to-face iteration of the course. Post-course student feedback has been encouraging. Future plans include making the course broadly available as a MOOC, especially for use in diverse classroom settings by teachers.
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
Leveraging OpenEdX Modular Architecture for Active ‘Deeper’ Learning
Additional Designs for Active Learning
While a primary goal of automated assessments is to assess student learning, data and metrics generated by MOOC platforms are useful as aids to curriculum evaluation as well. § Actively used instructor dashboards on quiz data provided by OpenEdX
to ascertain targets of difficulty and prompt course revision. § Figuring out the incorrect option that students most often chose for a
wrong answer also helped better understand student misconceptions. § Figure 1 shows a screenshot of the dashboard that clearly points to gaps
in student understanding of the topic. This prompted (mid-course) course correction to aid better understanding.
Inspired by research on learning for transfer [1, 2] and intro CS education. § Several hands-on programming activities and assignments in Scratch. § Activities involving elbow partner / Pair projects / Open programming day /
Students helping students catch up § Final Project – Whole-class demo day / Online showcase of games
[Table above and left demos “active” learning sequence for a week (4 periods).]
Figure 1. Screenshot of OpenEdX instructor dashboard giving feedback on gaps in student understanding
