virtual learning for management education dr. jeyakesavan veerasamy [email protected]...
TRANSCRIPT
Agenda
• Who am I?
• Virtual learning: what? why? how?• Why did it become popular?• How is it done?• Technical Architecture• Future of online education
Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Academia, Industry & Personal
• Dad was a school teacher• B.E. (ECE) in CEG Guindy, Anna University –
1986-90• UNIX System Software Engineer, HCL Limited,
Chennai, 1990-91• MS Computer Science, University of Texas at
Dallas (UTD), 1991-94
Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Academia, Industry & Personal …
• Telecom Software Engineer, Northern Telecom, Dallas, 1994-97
• Ph.D. Computer Science (part-time), University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), 1994-99
• Technical Lead, Samsung Telecom, 1997-2010• Got married in 1998• Adjunct Faculty, UTD CS department, 1999-2002• Online Adjunct Faculty in several online
universities from 2000
Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Academia, Industry & Personal …
• Adjunct Faculty, Southern Methodist University, 2010
• Sr. Lecturer (full-time), UTD Computer Science, 2010-present
• 2 daughters: Nila (8) and Chinmayee (4)• Passionate about teaching – happy to share
ideas to improve teaching quality in colleges• Challenging teaching environment in US
Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Summary
• 18 years experience as Software Engineer• 12 years of teaching experience
(mostly online)
Virtual learning• Other terms: Online courses, web-based courses• Education through Internet• Anywhere, any time, any device connected to
internet• Asynchronous learning
• Fixed # of weeks• All the work is graded & final grade is assigned• Student evaluation of faculty• Degree certificate
Snippets from history
• First online course ~20 years ago, likely by for-profit university
• First online degree program?• MBA. Why?
Snippets from history …
• How effective is it? Does it help to get a job?• Online colleges got accreditation• Turning point (my opinion): Traditional
colleges started online degree programs• Possibly “better than traditional classroom”?• Did the student actually do the coursework?• How a traditional university handled it.
Typical online course• accessible only to students enrolled in that course
within university OLS (Online Learning System).• has an assignment due every week or every 2
weeks once• Participation in Weekly discussion questions (DQs)
is mandatory.• Courses run for only 5-8 weeks. • Has 10 to 15 students• Has students from multiple time-zones, sometimes
from other countries too.
Grading scale for typical on-ground course
• Class Participation: up to 5%• Quizzes/Attendance: 10%• Assignments/Projects: 40%• Exams/Research paper: 50%
Typical Grading Scale for virtual course
• DQs/participation: 25%• Quizzes: 10%• Assignments: 30%• Proposal/Paper: 25%• Team assignments: 10%
Weekly DQs (Discussion Questions)
• Goal: Come up with most reasonable answers through discussion
• Set difficulty of DQs at 110%• Focus is on discussions, NOT on perfect initial
answers. Wrong answers are perfect discussion starters!
• Faculty should facilitate & shape the discussion little bit, but should NOT kill it.
• Goal: each post should add value to the course, requirement to count towards participation.
Team assignments
• Can it work online?• Can it be better than on-ground?• Potential for higher level of contribution from
each student• More details in separate presentation.
Compare with
• Self-paced learning• distance learning
Future of virtual learning…
• Continuous improvement in action …• Utilize relevant web resources in courses• Develop multimedia lectures to explain tough
concepts• Increase academic rigor – test application of
concepts using weekly quizzes • Improved communication tools• Augmenting traditional classrooms
Technical architecture
Internet
OLS serverSecurity gateway
Online University
Online Learning System (OLS)
• Lots of software applications out there.• Popular ones: Blackboard, Sakai, Moodle, …• In addition to courses, OLS provides network
space accessible to faculty, courses, …• Tons of functionality to run the course
efficiently
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