Online education is getting a thorough review–one click at a time for 6.9 million clicks.
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There are reams of data telling educators how students learn best online, what to avoid in designing a web-based course, and what needs to be done before students are consistently engaged. Perhaps none of that data is more detailed than the information analyzed in edX’s release of how 100,000 online students viewed course videos in its massive open online courses (MOOCs).
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab [2] (CSAIL) examined the viewing habits of those edX students in what amounted to a second-by-second look at when the online content was most engaging, as first mentioned in MIT News [3].
The lessons learned from studying how students interacted with 6.9 million video lectures were used to optimize CSAIL’s web-based learning platform known as LectureScape, billed as a “YouTube for MOOCs.”
LectureScape was designed with “interaction peaks” in mind. It’s those peaks that show educators when students are most engaged in the class material, and when they’re most confused. Simply getting MOOC registrants to watch even one lecture or interact with fellow students and professors has proven a major challenge for the nascent classes, though some MOOCs have seen overwhelming student satisfaction numbers [4].
CSAIL’s study of the 6.9 million clicks from edX’s classes showed five ways in which colleges and universities can improve web-based courses of all kinds.
(Next page: 5 ways to improve)
- Analysis of the edX data showed the static PowerPoint slides were an engagement killer, while more engaging visuals grabbed and maintained students’ attention.
- Fast-talking professors proved much more engaging than educators who spoke at a decidedly slow pace. MOOC professors with the highest engagement rates said 254 words per minute, according to the CSAIL research.
- Lengthy online videos had low engagement rates, while short videos kept students’ attention. Students typically stopped watching the online lecture after six minutes.
- While fast-talking professors were key, long pauses for students to better digest complicated diagrams were vital in maintaining engagement.
- Videos designed specifically for web-based audiences fared much better than existing videos that were simply chopped up and shown in snippets, according to the research.
At the University of London, where a massive course enjoyed a 90 percent satisfaction rating, around 90,000 of those MOOC students, or 42 percent, were considered “active” students, contributing to video chats and Twitter sessions in which course material was discussed with professors.
An “active” student was also defined as such if they downloaded a video lecture, took an online quiz, or posted to class forums, according to the university.
Even a sky-high satisfaction rate didn’t translate into much more than high marks for the university, however. Four percent of students completed the University of London MOOCs.
Mike Kerrison, director of academic development for the University of London International Programmes, said the school’s first MOOCs “have proven to be very successful. Considering that the courses are free and allow students to do as much or as little work as they like, the number of students engaging in the course materials is considerable.”