thoughts.org

Ideas/thoughts

Surveys

Edx survey/poll tool

con: Doesn’t look very good.

con: Style is weird (json embedded into xml??).

con: Only has aggregated results?

Edx ungraded (quiz) questions

q: When can we get exports from this?

q: Option for “do not show answers” not available in ruql. Add this

functionality and make a pull request?

External tool like Qualtrics

pro: Possibly has integration into edX.

pro: Does have a data format and is included in ruql!!!!

q: Might need to pay. (don’t think so because Berkeley account)

pro: data export available at all times

instructions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fZkZ-EWyQy1q9CF6tOXNllcbddXGcRElcG7lLxnTMRU/edit#heading=h.9itf2oatckgb

and http://sites.cognitivescience.co/qualtrics/linking-to-mturk/openedx

Notes on survey design article (https://zapier.com/learn/ultimate-guide-to-forms-and-surveys/design-analyze-survey/)

“It’s better to send out a few rounds of improving surveys than a huge blast that misses the mark”

Notes on MOOC data collection articles (http://www.edtechresearcher.com/blog-archive/)

Article 1: Student Diversity

Participants (especially those who complete the course) tend to be relatively affluent

Community support structures can help improve participation/success

Article 2: Flexibility and Stickiness

Students get more behind if course is released in phases (as opposed to all at once).

However, they greatly benefit from frequent (i.e. weekly/daily) engagement. How can we encourage this? Piazza? Reminder emails?

Students who do more smaller, spaced out study sessions tend to do better

Article 3: Persistence and Activity

Overall completion rates are poor. However, things look better after

controlling for student intentions. Not all students intend to receive a certificate. This is something we should survey!

Once students start the course, predicting continuation week to week

and completion is fairly easy (people have built successful models). “The more interesting question is whether course teams can partner with researchers to create interventions that actually change a student’s predicted trajectory for the better. At present, for all of our skill at prediction, within MOOCs we have yet to develop instructional approaches for supporting students that take advantage of those predictions to improve student learning.”

Article 4: Helping Busy Students Stick to Plans

Surveys are great, but even if we force enrolled students to take them,

that doesn’t help us with dropouts.

Surveying dropouts can help us proactively help people stay in the course

What can we do for them?

Models exist for guessing if someone is a dropout. Can we send targeted

surveys to these people and find out why they left?

Todo List

Read survey design article

Read MOOC data articles 1-4

Check back for 5-7, probably around July 20, 24, 28

5

6

7

Email Will and Peitian about BJCx stuff

Attempt to set up a qualtrics survey and integrate into edX

Talk to Max about javascript problem for “grading” survey completion

Attempt to implement ^^

Add pretty picture to survey completion page

Get good surveys written - check in with Will and Peitian about their meeting

Add surveys to course - hopefully we can autobuild based on outline.yml

Add Will to the edge.edx course.