A ReMOOCable Experience: Teaching Networking to the Masses

A ReMOOCable Experience: Teaching Computer Networking to the Masses

Nick FeamsterGeorgia Tech

Co-Conspirators:Vrushali Moghe (Course Designer),

Muhammad Shahbaz (TA)

Talk Outline

• Why did I decide to teach a MOOC?

• How the MOOC was developed?

• Who is taking the MOOC?– What does it mean to “take” a MOOC?

• Lessons Learned

• “Suggestions”

Why Did I Decide to Teach a MOOC?

• Develop an informed opinion– Lots of “hype”– Many opinions about MOOCs (most

uninformed)

• Pedagogy– I have long thought that “lecturing is

dead”– Chance to explore new ways of

teaching (forcing function)

• Exposure (“Fame”)– Wanted to plant a stake on “Software

Defined Networking”

My MOOC: Software Defined Networking

• Extremely hot, new topic– No existing “real world” courses on the topic

(yet)– A chance to develop an archetype course

(and material) that others might use in their own courses

– I wanted to be copied. This seemed like a good way.

• Boutique topic means that there were no “set in stone” ways of teaching the course– Easier to think outside the box, since there

was no existing material anywhere

http://blog.sflow.com/2012/05/software-defined-networking.html

What the Instructor Sees

How Was the Course Developed?• Course lesson plan, with learning objectives• Top down design: – Figure out modules, continue subdividing until you

get 10-minute “lectures”• Production– Lecture Filming and Production– Assignments– Syllabus

• Operation– Forums

Filming Take 1: Studio

• Started in a studio at Georgia Tech• This quickly proved intractable– Studio is distracting. Lots of people watching

makes recording nerve-wracking.– Studio time is limited, contentious, and expensive.– Post-production quality was not to my liking.– Faculty members need scheduling autonomy.

• A lot different from a TV interview!

Filming Take 2: Camtasia

• Studio people will claim that quality suffers.• I believe this is bogus, for several reasons.– People can take their time recording, take breaks, record

when they are “in the zone”.– Screen captures from a laptop are easy.– Recording quality from a good laptop is quite fine.– Nobody has ever complained about the quality of the

recordings. Content is what matters most.

• Takes a little getting used to at first (looking at the camera, etc.)

• You have to do your own editing.

Producing Lectures in Camtasia

• General rule: 10-15 minutes of lecture == 2 hours of recording and editing– This does not include time to prep slides, etc.

• This is way different than a usual lecture!– Biggest lesson: Silence is quite easy to edit!– Stumbling is OK: Just say the same thing again– You can also “practice” while the video is rolling

• Need to find a quiet, well-lit location• Takes patience, but it starts to be quite fun

General Lecture Production Process• Determine learning objectives• Research the topic • Write slides– General format: Summary/outline, 7-10 content slides,

wrap-up

• Plan demonstrations– Plan on-screen landscape

• Record (one sitting for consistency…big challenge!)• Edit and export• Upload• Note: You can prepare lectures out-of-order!

New Modes of Lecture Production• On-screen demonstrations

– Videos lend themselves very nicely to on-screen demonstrations

– User can see things in “life size”– User can pause, rewind, etc. Very

helpful tutorials for working through assignments

• Interviews with luminaries in the field– Google “On Air” Hangouts– Can be done anywhere, and people are

willing!– Process: Invite, script questions, send,

revise. Stay roughly on script

Lessons from Lecture Production• Lots of money is not needed. Students want content,

clearly delivered. Camtasia works.• A 45–60-minute lecture is about 15 minutes of well-

polished video. Content distills well.• Lecturer is always “ahead” of the students. This

creates interesting time-shifting effects, with advantages and disadvantages.

• MOOCs are asynchronous and autonomous for the student. This is a big reason for their success. Production should be the same.

• The medium may not replace the lecture hall, but it is way more efficient for certain content.

How Was the Course Developed?• Course lesson plan, with learning objectives• Top down design: – Figure out modules, continue subdividing until you

get 10-minute “lectures”• Production– Lecture Filming and Production– Assignments– Syllabus

• Operation– Forums

Developing Quizzes: Stick to the Basics

• Problem: The platform basically stinks at anything that’s not multiple choice or simple numerical answer.– Short answers become massive regular expressions– …will likely improve as the software gets better

• Stick to multiple choice if possible• Main differences from a normal MC quiz

– Helps to write up explanations for each option– Need to figure out if students can re-take the quiz, and if so, how many

times

Developing Assignments is Hard• Wanted to teach concepts and programming– Not a “heavy-duty” programming course, but

some concepts are best explained and learned through short code exercises.

• Code submission possible, but grading must be done on regular expression evaluation of output

• Problem: How to guarantee uniform programming environments?

Uniform Environment: Virtual Machine

• Asked students to:– Install VirtualBox (or equivalent) virtual machine emulator– Download 64-bit VM image that had everything pre-

packaged (no asking students to install software themselves). Kind of like a lab at home.

• This has generally worked. A few problems– VM is huge (~1 GB), so have to get it right the first time– Not everyone has a 64-bit machine– Certain performance, even when run in an emulator, varies

depending on underlying hardware

How Was the Course Developed?• Course lesson plan, with learning objectives• Top down design: – Figure out modules, continue subdividing until you

get 10-minute “lectures”• Production– Lecture Filming and Production– Assignments– Syllabus

• Operation– Forums

Communicating with 10,000 Students

• I feared absolute disaster– Small glitches in

assignments in a classroom of 50 students create mayhem.

– I feared that I would be spending my life answering minutia in online forums.

• Thankfully, this did not happen!• Lesson: Giving an assignment

to 10,000 students in a MOOC is easier than giving it to 50 in a classroom!

Why Assignments Can Scale• First of all, you do your best to work

out the bugs, mostly out of fear – We attempted everything that

we assigned, sometimes on multiple platforms

• More importantly: Self-selection!– Everyone doing the assignments

wants to be there– This makes a huge difference– People not only fix issues

themselves, they rewrite documentation

• Caveat: Course difficulties vs. platform difficulties are currently hard to tease apart. Some of this is “user error”.

A student’s blog post describing part of the assignment setup in detail…

Who is Taking The Course?

• 50,000 people registered

• 10,000 people active each week

• 1,000-3,000 watching lectures

• 500 turn in programming assignments

Some Feedback

Lesson #1: MOOCs Change the Game for Instruction

• Everyone is watching you– In seven years, never got feedback (or

acknowledgment) about on-campus course– Now, everyone’s eyes are on you– Huge pressure to do a good job

• MOOCs are a “forcing function” for introducing new media into the classroom– I wouldn’t have thought to do “on air” interviews for a

classroom; people would likely decline them anyhow– I will likely re-use some MOOC content in the “real”

classroom

Lesson #2: Time Investment Pays Off• Typical Course Creation (45-minute lecture)

– 1-2 hours to create slides– 1 hour to deliver the lecture– Number of students: 50-100– Total: 3 hours per lecture– … but then you have to do it again! (can’t save an awesome

lecture, students can’t rewatch, etc.)• MOOC Course Creation (10-minute video)

– 1-2 hours to create slides– 2-3 hours to produce the lecture– Total: 3-5 hours per lecture– Number of students: 500-100,000– … but, you have the archive. Can keep improving it, use it to

enhance in-classroom discussion, etc.

Lesson #3: Certain Aspects of MOOCs Scale Surprisingly Well

• Lectures are watchable by thousands– The scale can be a motivator for guest lectures!

• Programming assignments can be graded automatically, if designed well

• Self-motivated, self-selected students fix glitches, help each other out

Some Surprises

• The platform is “bare bones”– Wiki-style editing is not full-featured (e.g., no double-

indented lists)– Regular expression matching does not work well– Responses almost always are “DIY”– UI is horrible… perhaps a good HCI project?

• Copyright considerations appear to be different from normal classroom use (“fair use” may not apply)– People are making this up as they go along

Conclusions

• Much of the focus of MOOCs has been its effects on students, universities, etc.

• But there is also an effect on instruction.• Instructors of MOOCs will also become better

classroom instructors.• Teaching is moving to the forefront of research

universities, too. This is a good thing for everyone involved.