MOOC as an all-in-one platform for teaching and research

masato-avatarDr. Masato Kajimoto is an Assistant Professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. Masato specializes in news literacy education, multimedia storytelling, and social media in journalism. His MOOC, “Making Sense of News”, started on May 19, 2015.
We are delighted to have read Dr. Masato Kajimoto’s blog piece in Comunicar Journal about the data collected from his MOOC HKU04x Making Sense of News (ran between May 19 and June 23, 2015). MOOCs are definitely “the New World” for researchers. Enjoy the article.

I’ve recently finished teaching my first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on news literacy for the public on edX, the non-profit education portal founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The six-week course, titled Making Sense of News, attracted thousands of students from 147 countries. It comprised 63 short lecture video clips (mostly between 2 to 4 minutes), exercises, readings, five graded assignments (two of which were peer-reviewed) and discussion forums (964 comment entries were made by the final week).

Making Sense of News: Geographical data
More than 7,500 students from all over the world signed up for the course.

The massive collection of students’ behavioral data aggregated at the end of the course made me realize the potential of online-based media education research.

The following blog post sketches out some of the many possibilities this emerging form of teaching and learning can be used.

The big data gathered through MOOCs, in my view, would shed light on certain elements that could have not been examined through the conventional research methods.

1. Correlations, correlations, correlations.

The MOOC provides an all-in-one platform for media education research whereby the researchers can gather everything — from entrance/exit surveys to demographic information to learning patterns (access time, clicking behaviors, etc) to the results of knowledge tests to commentaries in the class discussions (forums) to academic performance (assignment grades).

MOOC Data: Education
The data indicate that obtaining higher degrees do not necessarily make people smarter news consumers.

This gives the researchers the dataset that can be examined in a wide variety of ways to explore whether there is a correlation among different variables. For example, the relationships between two of the followings can be examined.

  • Selected demographic variables
  • News literacy skills (assessed by the assignment results)
  • Frequency of forum posts
  • Forum engagements
  • Video playback patterns
  • Click-through behaviors

2. Control group recruitment? A/B testing? Double-Blind test? Not so difficult.

The online platform makes it possible and easy to test different instructional designs, a variety of video-based communications and other pedagogical methods to teach news literacy.

For example, a researcher could produce two or three different instructional video clips with the same script – one with the instructor talking with his/her face shown, one with an avatar replacing the instructor’s face, and one with a professional TV talent taking the role of the instructor.

The three clips can be randomly assigned to different students. Later, the effectiveness of each clip could be measured by the results of quizzes that follow immediately after the video. Such A/B testing normally won’t work in a lab setting as standardizing the test-takers’ individual abilities would be next to impossible, but the whopping sample size that a MOOC can provide could possibly alleviate such concerns greatly.

With the same method, two different news articles can be given to the students with only one word changed. It would be interesting to see if the choice of one word over the other would affect the ways students detect and evaluate media biases. The possibilities of using the online platform for both teaching and research at the same time are limitless here.

3. Who is communicating with whom? Qualitative insights into the minds of students and their learning behaviors.

MOOC: Data visualization
Every single communication can be mapped on MOOC.

The written communications among the students can be tracked down, mapped and combined with other variables, which could form a foundation for qualitative research.

The dataset allows researchers to see how each student engages with one another through peer-reviewed assessments and forum discussions easily.

Once certain patterns are identified, researchers can delve into the content of their written communication.

Say, for example, let’s suppose there are two clusters of engagements among high news literacy skill students (group A) and low news literacy skill students (group B) that were organically formed. If the data shows that they (the group A and B) are not communicating with each other, we can qualitatively analyze their digital conversations and possibly distinguish some key elements that might tell us why certain instruction works for some students and not others.

4. What works? What doesn’t? Improving our teaching.

The detailed video playback data reveals many things. For instance, the learning analytics system developed at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology called VisMOOC can let us visually see each video clip’s “forward seeks” and “backward seeks.”

VisMOOC
VisMOOC visualizes video playback data.

We could see the exact points where students paused, fast-forwarded and rewound the clip, which indicates not only how students interacted with the video lectures but also what visual cues disappeared too hastily for them (pause), which parts seemed to have been considered redundant or unnecessary (fast-forward or “forward seeks”), and what concepts and explanations were difficult to understand (rewind or “backward seeks”).

The click through data and other web analytics data also reveal many other factors that would inform us of the students’ learning: say, for instance, which reading assignments students tried to read (click), how much time students spent to complete different exercises and assignments, what time/day they accessed the teaching materials and so much more, all of which could provide valuable information for us to improve our teaching.

Possibilities endless

The above four ideas are only a fraction of what we can do with the online-based news literacy education and research. By taking advantage of the detailed behavioral data with a large sample size, researchers can now track down, aggregate, and investigate the varying patterns of news literacy skill acquisition. The implications and possible future directions of internet-based teaching and research are, I dare to say it, endless.

Ultimately, this kind of research could evolve into a computer modeling that pinpoints specific variables as predictors. We could measure the effectiveness of educational intervention in the field of news and media literacy and improve our teaching strategies accordingly, as our goals are to nurture the future generation of discerning media consumers who also produce and distribute content.

In today’s technologically interconnected societies, I believe the computer modeling would give great insight into the design of effective online pedagogy while presenting opportunities for news literacy scholars to test a multitude of pedagogical designs, teaching methods and research hypotheses in a large scale.

“My students are falling asleep.” – Interactive ways to incorporate active learning activities into a typical lecture and classroom

“My students are falling asleep.” – Interactive ways to incorporate active learning activities into a typical lecture and classroom

Organized by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Facilitator: Dr Cecilia Chan, Head of Professional Development, Associate Professor, CETL
Date : 9 September, 2015 (Wednesday)
Time : 12:30 pm – 2:15 pm [Sandwiches will be served with coffee and tea.] Venue : Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building

Abstract:

In this workshop, we will discuss how a lecture environment can be changed so that there are more interaction between students and teachers, and students and students. Practical examples and methods will be shared and demonstrated to motivate students in a lecture and classroom.

Dr Wilton Fok, Assistant Dean of Engineering, HKU, will also demonstrate the iClass mobile apps which was developed in HKU on how to facilitate teaching and learning in classroom.

About the Speaker:

Dr Cecilia Chan from CETL has been involved in the implementation of outcomes-based approach to student learning, assessment, feedback and technology enhanced learning pedagogies and tools. She provides consultations to faculty regarding the design and assessment of innovative educational research projects, grants and initiatives. She also leads, builds and supports faculty efforts to incorporate community to develop skills and knowledge related to the scholarship and assessment of teaching and learning.

Dr Wilton Fok from Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering received his B.Eng degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Hong Kong in 1993. Dr Fok also received two other M.Sc. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Environmental Management from this University in 1996 and 1999 respectively. In 1998 and 2007, he also awarded a MBA degree and a PhD degree from the University of Cambridge and Renmin University of China respectively. Before joining the department, Dr Fok was the e-Business Development Manager of the E-Business Technology Institute (ETI) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Senior Business Development Manager of the ETI Consulting Limited (ETIC). He led a team to commercialize and transfer technologies in the area of IT and e-Business and other emerging technologies developed in the HKU to the industries.


For enquiries, please contact Ms Ivy Lai by email laichun2@hku.hk.

ITS Orientations for New Staff

Message from Information Technology Services

ITS Orientations for New Staff

Dear colleagues,

To provide new University staff with useful information about the wide range of services offered by Information Technology Services (ITS), a series of orientation activities will be conducted between late August and mid-September. All new University members are welcome to join.

1. Use of AV/IT Equipment in Central Classrooms

To familiarize themselves with the classroom facility, new teachers and class instructors are encouraged to join one of the training sessions on the use of AV/IT equipment in central classrooms. Through this session, they will be able to learn how to use the control panel, visualizer and other AV/IT equipment in the centrally timetabled classrooms.

For the class schedule and registration, please visit http://www.its.hku.hk/documentation/handbook/its-guide/2015-2016/orientation-seminars#classrooms.

2. Orientation Seminars

The seminar on “Introduction to Information Technology Services (ITS)” gives an introduction of the comprehensive range of central IT and network services offered by ITS.

On top of the introductory session, the following parallel sessions will be arranged on the same dates. They are-

  • About the University’s Research Support Computing Environment and the HPC/HTC Facilities
  • Introduction to IP Telephony and Video Conferencing Services
  • Chi Wah Learning Commons guided tour

Another series of training on “Introduction to Moodle Learning Management System and Panopto Lecture Capture System” specifically for new colleagues will also be conducted.

For the schedule of the orientation seminars and registration, please visit http://www.its.hku.hk/documentation/handbook/its-guide/2015-2016/orientation-seminars#seminars.

3. Exhibition Booth

An exhibition booth will be arranged in the first two weeks of the first semester (September 1 – 11, 2015) with display boards showing the core IT Services, in particular the support for teaching and learning and research with University.

Date: September 1, 2015 (12:00 noon) to September 11, 2015 (5:00 pm)
Venue: G/F, Chi Wah Learning Commons, Central Podium Level, Centennial Campus

Veronica Yick
User Services
Information Technology Services