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Inside Higher Education
For-Credit MOOC: Best
of Both Worlds at MIT?
By Nick Roll
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s catalog of publicly
available massive open online courses is typically marketed toward the
non-MIT public. Last fall, however, the university experimented by
offering the MOOC version of a popular class for on-campus students,
for credit, in an attempt to help students facing scheduling issues.
A recently released study of the class found students not only
performed well but also -- at an institution known for its rigor --
reported feeling less stress and having more flexibility.
MIT’s circuits and electronics class was offered in a MOOC format,
supplemented by a private discussion forum specifically for enrolled
students, both semesters this academic year. Some professors across the
university use the MOOC format to supplement in-person classes, but
this course was the first of its kind in the sense that the MOOC model
completely replaced the in-person model.
Students in the fall MOOC -- which the study notes was taught by a
different instructor than the in-person course, with “different styles
and/or topics of focus” -- reported the circuits and electronics class
was “significantly less stressful” compared to their various in-person
classes, according to the study. While the study on the spring session
isn’t completed, the study on the fall class has MIT administrators
thinking about what can be done to create a more flexible, digitally
enhanced learning atmosphere for students and professors. The MOOC
pilot came about after students reported frustration with scheduling
conflicts.
“As you can imagine, MIT students are a very active bunch,” said Sheryl
Barnes, director of digital learning in residential education. “And
they expressed frustration they couldn’t resolve scheduling conflicts
by having more flexibility.”
The course itself was a good benchmark to use for an experiment because
of its history at the university and as a MOOC, Barnes said.
“The class itself is quite significant,” she said. “MIT and the faculty
have invested a lot in the class, and it’s been refined through this
[online] delivery. A lot more students have taken it and experienced it
-- that refinement had some benefit.”
The study’s sample size is small -- 31 students started the class, and
27 students completed it -- and there were slight differences in the
homework and exam format compared to the in-person class, but the study
reported that the difference in the distribution of final grades wasn’t
statistically significant between the in-person and MOOC groups. The
MOOC homework sets and exams allowed for multiple tries on a question
if the student got it wrong, although that also meant that questions
were all-or-nothing, with no partial credit. MOOC students were also
unable to review graded exams to figure out where they had strayed off
course.
MOOC students did have opportunities to meet with professors and the
TA, although the study reported “few opted to attend office hours.”
One of the students quoted in the study said the instant feedback of
the homework was a key to lowering stress.
“I really like just getting the instant feedback of knowing that after
the homework is done I know I’m done now, and I don’t have to worry
about, like, ‘Oh, but what if this question was wrong?’ And then you’d
have that in the back of your mind, and so you turn it in,” the student
said. “That’s stressful, and it was nice just getting that feedback.”
The study notes that instant online feedback for homework is available
to students who take in-person classes that use MIT’s MOOC system as a
supplement, so its use is not necessarily unique, although it was a
factor for every student in the circuits and electronics class in this
study.
The same student also identified the instant feedback of the homework
as being helpful for learning. To protect their privacy, students were
anonymous.
“Another thing that I really liked is just getting the answers right
away, so if I tried a question, and I’m like, ‘Oh, whoa, I got that,
but I don’t really know exactly why this worked,’” the student told
researchers. “I could go back instantly when I’m involved with a
question, and it’s still fresh in my mind, and, like, look at the
solution, and be, ‘OK, that’s how they did it.’”
The study comes just after a Brookings Institution report, created with
data from DeVry University, cast doubt on how well less prepared
students do with traditional online classes. The Brookings study and
the MIT study are both full of caveats -- they use data limited to one
university each, and MIT’s study was done on a MOOC course, not a
traditional online course. But MIT’s study seemed to support another
finding in the Brookings study, which was that well-prepared students
don’t suffer the same negative effects from taking online classes that
less well-prepared students do.
As for MIT, the study was conducted primarily because of scheduling
concerns from students, not specifically to look at how much the
university can or should shift the balance of online versus in-person
course work, Barnes said. She said that based on the studies results,
those questions may arise, but any proliferation of MOOC courses on
MIT’s campus would have to come from the bottom up.
“[Expanding MOOC offerings] will be defined by what individual faculty
want to do at MIT, and the faculty committee that determines the
curriculum,” Barnes said.
As for the advantages of the MOOC apparently easing students’ stress?
“Students had reported [in 2014] that flexibility in the curriculum had
been one of the key areas for MIT to explore. That was a broad report,
not just [the Office of Distance Learning], but it’s gratifying to help
be able to meet some of these key areas,” Barnes said, calling the MOOC
“one more tool in the tool box.”
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