HOME PAGE
Welcome to the project webpage. This website was created to serve as a central organizational point for the Gates funded USM and Ithaka S+R project. This website contains: project planning tools, guidelines for the IRB process, information regarding the data collection process, and contact information. Each tab contains links to relevant documents which can also be found in this
public folder.
public folder.
Project Overview
Motivation: In the last year Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have exploded onto the higher education scene. Although MOOCs were originally conceived as a platform to deliver courses directly to students, we see a potential use for these online tools within existing institutions. The purpose of this project is to explore how MOOCs could benefit traditional institutions and the students that attend them. The hope is that we will find ways to increase faculty productivity by improving student outcomes, decreasing cost of course delivery or attaining some combination of the two.
Methodology: In this study we will compare a variety of outcomes between courses taught in traditional (face-to-face) and hybrid (with the use of a MOOC) formats. We are primarily interested in understanding how these different delivery systems impact student outcomes, faculty teaching experiences and cost of delivery. During the fall semester of 2013, participating faculty will deliver a traditional and hybrid section of the same course. The hybrid section will be taught using a local instance of a MOOC . Though the hybrid sections must make extensive use of the MOOC materials, each faculty will be responsible for deciding how they want to use these new technologies.
Ithaka S+R will be responsible for designing the assessment tools and the faculty will help in delivering these various tools. Student outcomes will be assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Surveys will be administered at the start and end of the semester. The surveys will collect data on student experiences as well as demographic data that will allow us to control for selection bias. To further control for selection bias we will also request demographic data from the IR office. In addition, homework and exam grades will be collected and all data will be matched onto one dataset per test case. This dataset will serve as the main quantitative instrument. Survey results will be coupled with a small set of student interviews to complete the qualitative analysis.
In order to assess the experience of teaching a hybrid course we will remain in contact with the faculty throughout the delivery of the course. At the end of the semester we will hold a short interview and ask the faculty to write up a brief report describing their experience.
To assess the cost of delivering each course, we hope to measure inputs from: faculty and TA time, administration, IT, classroom space and material expenditures. The bulk of this information will come from a cost tracking tool that we have developed. We will ask the faculty and TAs to complete this tool three times throughout the semester: at the beginning, middle and end. It will capture the time and resources spent on various activities.
Results: After the fall 2013 semester, the Ithaka S+R team will pull together the various pieces of data and synthesize the findings into a report. The report will be released in the summer of 2014. After the report is released faculty are welcomed and encouraged to analyze their own data and release sub-reports if they so choose.
Methodology: In this study we will compare a variety of outcomes between courses taught in traditional (face-to-face) and hybrid (with the use of a MOOC) formats. We are primarily interested in understanding how these different delivery systems impact student outcomes, faculty teaching experiences and cost of delivery. During the fall semester of 2013, participating faculty will deliver a traditional and hybrid section of the same course. The hybrid section will be taught using a local instance of a MOOC . Though the hybrid sections must make extensive use of the MOOC materials, each faculty will be responsible for deciding how they want to use these new technologies.
Ithaka S+R will be responsible for designing the assessment tools and the faculty will help in delivering these various tools. Student outcomes will be assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Surveys will be administered at the start and end of the semester. The surveys will collect data on student experiences as well as demographic data that will allow us to control for selection bias. To further control for selection bias we will also request demographic data from the IR office. In addition, homework and exam grades will be collected and all data will be matched onto one dataset per test case. This dataset will serve as the main quantitative instrument. Survey results will be coupled with a small set of student interviews to complete the qualitative analysis.
In order to assess the experience of teaching a hybrid course we will remain in contact with the faculty throughout the delivery of the course. At the end of the semester we will hold a short interview and ask the faculty to write up a brief report describing their experience.
To assess the cost of delivering each course, we hope to measure inputs from: faculty and TA time, administration, IT, classroom space and material expenditures. The bulk of this information will come from a cost tracking tool that we have developed. We will ask the faculty and TAs to complete this tool three times throughout the semester: at the beginning, middle and end. It will capture the time and resources spent on various activities.
Results: After the fall 2013 semester, the Ithaka S+R team will pull together the various pieces of data and synthesize the findings into a report. The report will be released in the summer of 2014. After the report is released faculty are welcomed and encouraged to analyze their own data and release sub-reports if they so choose.
Project funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation