WEBVTT

00:00:16.618 --> 00:00:18.910
PHILIP PEARCE: Yes, so I
think that the real difference

00:00:18.910 --> 00:00:21.610
between when you guys first
ran the course, which I think

00:00:21.610 --> 00:00:24.890
was in 2015, and now
when I run the course,

00:00:24.890 --> 00:00:29.440
is that Jen has helped to
develop this online MITx

00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:30.250
platform.

00:00:30.250 --> 00:00:32.119
Now it's really a
flipped classroom course.

00:00:32.119 --> 00:00:34.120
So it has this blended
learning aspect to it

00:00:34.120 --> 00:00:36.760
where the students complete
online reading before they

00:00:36.760 --> 00:00:38.380
attend the classroom hours.

00:00:38.380 --> 00:00:41.080
And then in the classroom, we
really go through examples,

00:00:41.080 --> 00:00:42.550
worked examples,
where the students

00:00:42.550 --> 00:00:44.740
can apply the theory that
they've learned while they

00:00:44.740 --> 00:00:45.820
did the online reading.

00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:50.770
I think this is the key
thing that you guys and Jen

00:00:50.770 --> 00:00:53.680
and myself really
saw the course being

00:00:53.680 --> 00:00:54.820
when I started teaching it.

00:00:54.820 --> 00:00:56.350
JEREMY ORLOFF: So how
do you ensure that they

00:00:56.350 --> 00:00:57.520
do the online reading?

00:00:57.520 --> 00:00:59.440
PHILIP PEARCE: So
the online reading

00:00:59.440 --> 00:01:03.160
has many examples where the
students can attempt something,

00:01:03.160 --> 00:01:04.209
attempt a question.

00:01:04.209 --> 00:01:06.800
And 10% of the grade
for the course,

00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:09.100
is given to them for getting
these questions right.

00:01:09.100 --> 00:01:11.500
It's a small incentive,
just to make sure that they

00:01:11.500 --> 00:01:13.160
complete the online questions.

00:01:13.160 --> 00:01:16.300
And of course, we
get feedback data

00:01:16.300 --> 00:01:18.550
to know how many students
do those questions.

00:01:18.550 --> 00:01:20.650
And it's relatively easy
to check to make sure

00:01:20.650 --> 00:01:22.630
that student do them.

00:01:22.630 --> 00:01:25.120
JENNIFER FRENCH: So that the
way that the online notes are

00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:27.970
structured is that they
are hosted on the MITx

00:01:27.970 --> 00:01:29.630
residential platform.

00:01:29.630 --> 00:01:32.020
And so all of the reading,
there is no text book.

00:01:32.020 --> 00:01:34.000
All of the reading is online.

00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.660
And there are questions
interspersed between the text.

00:01:37.660 --> 00:01:40.570
And so it's these
questions that are really

00:01:40.570 --> 00:01:42.640
depending on the text
before IT, which tell us

00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:45.223
if the students have been doing
the reading because they can't

00:01:45.223 --> 00:01:48.040
answer these questions without
actually attempting this work.

00:01:52.510 --> 00:01:56.810
I think some of the parts that
were really useful about using

00:01:56.810 --> 00:02:01.790
digital tools in having students
interact with the content were,

00:02:01.790 --> 00:02:03.740
one, is that we use the
sketch response tool,

00:02:03.740 --> 00:02:07.550
so we could actually have
students draw pull diagrams

00:02:07.550 --> 00:02:09.350
and pull zero diagrams.

00:02:09.350 --> 00:02:11.960
And they could get automatic
feedback on whether or not

00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:13.970
that was correct.

00:02:13.970 --> 00:02:18.800
We could also have them
sketch responses to a system

00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:21.270
and get feedback on that.

00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:24.470
The other thing that's
nice is that it really

00:02:24.470 --> 00:02:26.810
makes some of those
simple examples

00:02:26.810 --> 00:02:29.750
that you often have to spend
a lot of time in class doing,

00:02:29.750 --> 00:02:32.420
we can now do those
online, and have

00:02:32.420 --> 00:02:35.180
the student get immediate
feedback, see the answers.

00:02:35.180 --> 00:02:38.210
These are things that maybe
it's not worth doing in class

00:02:38.210 --> 00:02:40.130
when you have someone
like Philip who's there.

00:02:40.130 --> 00:02:42.320
And instead now he
can spend his time

00:02:42.320 --> 00:02:44.840
working through the really
complicated examples

00:02:44.840 --> 00:02:46.760
and giving the
scaffolding and fading

00:02:46.760 --> 00:02:49.070
to help them do much
more interesting problems

00:02:49.070 --> 00:02:50.240
than on the homework.

00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:51.170
PHILIP PEARCE: Yeah,
I agree actually

00:02:51.170 --> 00:02:52.670
and that's another
way that I really

00:02:52.670 --> 00:02:56.210
see this course as maximizing
the kind of utility at the time

00:02:56.210 --> 00:02:58.565
that the students spend
with me and with each other.

00:02:58.565 --> 00:03:00.440
So we go through more
involved examples where

00:03:00.440 --> 00:03:02.930
they have to really stop
and think about things,

00:03:02.930 --> 00:03:07.130
rather than the kind of rote
examples, where you just

00:03:07.130 --> 00:03:08.630
really make sure
that you understand

00:03:08.630 --> 00:03:09.860
a specific little concept.

00:03:14.515 --> 00:03:15.640
JEREMY ORLOFF: So do they--

00:03:15.640 --> 00:03:18.050
do the students turn in
homework in this course?

00:03:18.050 --> 00:03:18.842
PHILIP PEARCE: Yes.

00:03:18.842 --> 00:03:21.460
So the way it works is
in terms of them getting

00:03:21.460 --> 00:03:24.790
a grade is we have the
online lectures in which they

00:03:24.790 --> 00:03:26.360
have to answer questions.

00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:29.200
And we give that a small--

00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:32.050
10% of their grade is
from the online examples.

00:03:32.050 --> 00:03:33.670
And then we have
problem sets in which

00:03:33.670 --> 00:03:36.550
they have to answer slightly
more involved questions.

00:03:36.550 --> 00:03:38.830
And they're handed
in once every week.

00:03:38.830 --> 00:03:42.020
And then we also have a
midterm and a final exam.

00:03:42.020 --> 00:03:44.020
JEREMY ORLOFF: So one
of the great virtues

00:03:44.020 --> 00:03:46.360
of having online
questions, in my opinion,

00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:50.860
is students get immediate
response to their answers

00:03:50.860 --> 00:03:52.922
as opposed to waiting
a week or something

00:03:52.922 --> 00:03:54.880
and getting their homework
turned back to them.

00:03:54.880 --> 00:03:57.230
And, of course, who needs
to get the bad news.

00:03:57.230 --> 00:04:01.183
They don't the sheet to see
where their mistakes were.

00:04:01.183 --> 00:04:03.475
And with an online setting,
one of the great advantages

00:04:03.475 --> 00:04:05.740
is students see right
away whether they

00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:07.658
understand something or not.

00:04:07.658 --> 00:04:08.950
JENNIFER FRENCH: Yeah, I agree.

00:04:08.950 --> 00:04:11.140
And then I think also
a lot of the literature

00:04:11.140 --> 00:04:13.270
shows that it's actually
when you're first

00:04:13.270 --> 00:04:15.640
learning something, that
that immediate feedback

00:04:15.640 --> 00:04:16.540
is the most useful.

00:04:16.540 --> 00:04:18.832
And actually when you're
doing more complicated things,

00:04:18.832 --> 00:04:21.399
sometimes then the immediate
feedback is less helpful.

00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:24.520
And so that actually really
is built into the way

00:04:24.520 --> 00:04:26.170
the course is run.

00:04:26.170 --> 00:04:28.150
One thing also that we
do is that we actually

00:04:28.150 --> 00:04:31.450
have a problem set
checker for the homework.

00:04:31.450 --> 00:04:34.570
So they actually know
before they even turn it in

00:04:34.570 --> 00:04:36.520
if their answers are right.

00:04:36.520 --> 00:04:37.978
PHILIP PEARCE: And
that's something

00:04:37.978 --> 00:04:39.465
that we decided to
add in this time

00:04:39.465 --> 00:04:41.840
that we taught the course,
this time I taught the course.

00:04:41.840 --> 00:04:43.777
So in the previous
times I taught

00:04:43.777 --> 00:04:46.360
the course, some of the feedback
that we got from the students

00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:49.240
was that they would like to
have even more online examples.

00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:50.860
And one of the
things that we did

00:04:50.860 --> 00:04:54.160
to rectify that is that we
made this-- or Jen implemented

00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:56.818
this problem set checker, so
that the students at the end

00:04:56.818 --> 00:04:58.360
of each lecture
could see the problem

00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:01.250
set and answer the questions
and get some immediate feedback

00:05:01.250 --> 00:05:01.750
on them.

00:05:01.750 --> 00:05:02.690
JEREMY ORLOFF: And
by the lecture,

00:05:02.690 --> 00:05:04.600
you mean the online unit
that they were going through?

00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:05.910
PHILIP PEARCE: Yes,
exactly, exactly.

00:05:05.910 --> 00:05:07.550
So after they've done
the online reading,

00:05:07.550 --> 00:05:10.000
they can also see the problem
set and answer the questions

00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:10.875
and get them checked.

00:05:15.610 --> 00:05:18.760
JEREMY ORLOFF: Another great I
think about the online version

00:05:18.760 --> 00:05:22.400
is the way the Mathlets get
integrated into the course,

00:05:22.400 --> 00:05:24.753
very seamlessly
integrated into the text.

00:05:24.753 --> 00:05:26.170
JENNIFER FRENCH:
I agree because I

00:05:26.170 --> 00:05:27.730
think that one of
the things that

00:05:27.730 --> 00:05:32.200
is hard for novice students is
to interact with the Mathlets

00:05:32.200 --> 00:05:33.820
because they were
really designed

00:05:33.820 --> 00:05:35.650
both as a student-facing
tool, but also

00:05:35.650 --> 00:05:38.860
an instructor-facing tool,
really to demonstrate things

00:05:38.860 --> 00:05:39.580
in lecture.

00:05:39.580 --> 00:05:42.033
And so for a student who
doesn't know what's going on,

00:05:42.033 --> 00:05:43.450
sometimes it can
feel like there's

00:05:43.450 --> 00:05:46.390
just too much going on, too
many sliders, too many buttons.

00:05:46.390 --> 00:05:50.170
And so instead, we can
embed it in the web page,

00:05:50.170 --> 00:05:54.010
and then have really guided
problems and guided activities

00:05:54.010 --> 00:05:56.440
that help them understand
how to interact with it,

00:05:56.440 --> 00:05:59.110
and to help them figure out
what they should be looking for,

00:05:59.110 --> 00:06:02.370
and what are the real
responses of interest.