At Stanford, we recently placed three computer science courses online, using a similar format. Remarkably, in the first four weeks, 300,000 students registered for these courses, with millions of video views and hundreds of thousands of submitted assignments.
What can we learn from these successes? First, we see that video content is engaging to students — many of whom grew up on YouTube — and easy for instructors to produce.
Second, presenting content in short, bite-size chunks, rather than monolithic hourlong lectures, is better suited to students’ attention spans, and provides the flexibility to tailor instruction to individual students. Those with less preparation can dwell longer on background material without feeling uncomfortable about how they might be perceived by classmates or the instructor.
Conversely, students with an aptitude for the topic can move ahead rapidly, avoiding boredom and disengagement. In short, everyone has access to a personalized experience that resembles individual tutoring.
Watching passively is not enough. Engagement through exercises and assessments is a critical component of learning. These exercises are designed not just to evaluate the student’s learning, but also, more important, to enhance understanding by prompting recall and placing ideas in context.
Moreover, testing allows students to move ahead when they master a concept, rather than when they have spent a stipulated amount of time staring at the teacher who is explaining it.
For many types of questions, we now have methods to automatically assess students’ work, allowing them to practice while receiving instant feedback about their performance. With some effort in technology development, our ability to check answers for many types of questions will get closer and closer to that of human graders.
Theron DesRosier on 20 Jan 12This is in Beta but it looks like it could be interesting. "PresentationTube provides a video presentation desktop recorder and sharing network to help instructors, students, virtual presenters, and business professionals record, publish and share quality, accessible, and interactive video presentations from the comfort of home or office. PresentationTube integrates a variety of presentation aids and synchronizes presenter's audio and video, PowerPoint slides, whiteboard, drawing board, and Web content. PresentationTube provides a slide scrollable thumbnail allowing the user to move to the respective video content and control both the time and progress of video presentation. A PresentationTube presentation allows interactivity via scrollable thumbnail, discussion board, and self-assessment quiz, allowing participants to be heard and involved. No need for new or third-party software or hardware. It is free, with no ads, no banners, and unlimited bandwidth and storage space. "
