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Ted O'Neill

Citing disappointing student outcomes, San Jose State pauses work with Udacity | Inside... - 0 views

  • After six months of high-profile experimentation, San Jose State University plans to “pause” its work with Udacity, a company that promises to deliver low-cost, high-quality online education to the masses.
    • Ted O'Neill
       
      "Promises" but has now demonstrably failed to deliver.
  • San Jose State Provost Ellen Junn said disappointing student performance will prompt the university to stop offering online classes with Udacity this fall as part of a "short breather." Junn wants to spend the fall going over the results and talking with faculty members about the university’s online experimentation, which extends beyond the Udacity partnership and has proved somewhat controversial. She said the plan is to start working with Udacity again in spring 2014.
    • Ted O'Neill
       
      Let's see how that reboot works. I doubt it comes back at the IIRC 150USD per pupil mark.
  • Preliminary findings from the spring semester suggest students in the online Udacity courses, which were developed jointly with San Jose State faculty, do not fare as well as students who attended normal classes -- though Junn cautioned against reading too much into the comparison, given the significant differences in the student populations.
    • Ted O'Neill
       
      Right. Bad planning in selection of student groups for this program. MOOCs require autonomous, skilled learners.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • A copy of that internal presentation, which Junn repeatedly emphasized was preliminary, was obtained this week by Inside Higher Ed from the California Faculty Association. According to the preliminary presentation, 74 percent or more of the students in traditional classes passed, while no more than 51 percent of Udacity students passed any of the three courses.
    • Ted O'Neill
       
      Pretty stark difference.
  • The courses were also put together in a rush. That’s apparently because of the timing of the deal with Udacity. The pilot project was announced a fortnight before classes started. (Like other similar deals, it was also the result of a no-bid contract.) The deal came together at the highest levels: On June 16, 2012, Brown e-mailed and called Thrun to talk about how Udacity could help California's higher education systems. “We need your help,” Brown said, according to Thrun. But, because of the haste, faculty were building the courses on the fly. Not only was this a “recipe for insanity,” Junn said, but faculty did not have a lot of time to watch how students were doing in the courses because the faculty were busy trying to finish them. It took about 400 hours to build a course, though the courses are designed to be reused.
    • Ted O'Neill
       
      Incredibly bad pedagogy. That's what one gets when you allow the edtech bubble to drive educational decisions and take teaching out of the hands of faculty.
  • Another factor in the disappointing outcomes may have been the students themselves. The courses included at-risk students, high school students and San Jose State students who had already failed a remedial math course.
    • Ted O'Neill
       
      Duh.
  • Student performance data from the San Jose State/Udacity courses are expected to be released in coming weeks.
    • Ted O'Neill
       
      That original report leaked to IHED must be pretty damning if it will take weeks to edit it for release
Ted O'Neill

How NOT to Design a MOOC: The Disaster at Coursera and How to Fix it | online learning ... - 0 views

  • there is no way to put a positive spin on my experience with the MOOC I’m enrolled in through Coursera, Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application
  • Group work can provide meaningful learning, in the right context with the support of a sound instructional strategy. The example here from the class, Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application demonstrates why a sound strategy is needed, and what happens when one is lacking. MOOCs require a unique instructional strategy, one that is different from small online courses. What exactly the strategy to follow is under discussion. It is through the courses, such as this one that institutions can learn what works and does not. I give the instructor credit for trying something new, and investing the time and energy she has done which is considerable.
Ted O'Neill

Twitter / gsiemens: This is why MOOCs have to be ... - 0 views

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    Siemens' image of the drop off in participation misses the point. The completers were there all along. Start a mooc with a community fo completers and it doesn't have to ve so large. How? Start with an existing community or "horrors" charge a small one-time fee like Metafilter.
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