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.




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




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.

Technology

A ReMOOCable Experience: Teaching Networking to the Masses