Work in Progress:
MOOCs & Online Learning
at Stanford
Larry Lagerstrom
Director of Online Learning
School of Engineering
lagerstrom@stanford.edu
Overview
A. Stanford’s online efforts
B. Stanford’s online priorities
C. Innovative courses (seed grants)
D. Engineering education and online learning
E. The EE Online program
F. Mid-course survey re. online materials
G. Is technology a game changer?
A. Stanford’s online efforts
 The advent of MOOCs circa 2011: Coursera, Udacity, and NovoEd all
Stanford spin-offs.
 Much longer history: Stanford Engineering Everywhere program, the
Stanford Center for Professional Development.
 Creation of the Office of the Vice Provost for Online Learning (VPOL) in
August 2012.
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Instructional Design and Pedagogy Team
Platforms Team (collaboration with the OpenEdX consortium)
Production Team
Seed grant program
 Since 2012, 51 MOOCs and 94 flipped or blended courses.
B. Stanford’s online priorities
 Explore how online technologies and pedagogies can improve the
learning and enhance the experience of our residential students.
 Continue to expand online professional education programs for lifelong
learners seeking degrees and credentials.
 Offer free online courses to the general public:
• MOOCs as a public service.
• MOOCs as a showcase.
• MOOCs as a large-scale learning laboratory (Lytics Lab of the Graduate
School of Education).
 Prepare the next generation of faculty to teach well.
C. Innovative courses (seed grants)
 Using GPS and smart phones to create a worldwide laboratory and
learning experience (Per Enge and Frank Van Diggelen of Aero/Astro)
 Large-scale, realistic programming assignments in a computer
networking course and MOOC (Phillip Levis and Nick McKeown of CS)
 “Lab in a box” virtual labs for MOOCs (Lambertus Hesselink of EE)
 Biology labs at MOOC scale using an ecosystem of microorganisms in a
microfluidic chamber (Ingmar Riedel-Kruse of Bioengineering and Paolo
Blikstein of Education)
 Introduction to databases via mooclets (Jennifer Widom)
 Personalized discovery of educational paths at Stanford (Ramesh Johari
of MS&E, Michael Bernstein of CS, and the Registrar’s Office)
D. Engineering Education & Online Learning
 New course cross-listed with EE and Education (EE396/EDUC391X).
 Learning objectives:
• Evaluate strengths and limitations of various educational technologies.
• Use cognitive task analysis to design and create an online learning module
and explain how it will result in good learning outcomes.
• Synthesize key themes and results of the discipline-based education research
literature and adapt them for practical teaching use.
 Primary resources:
• Susan Ambrose, et al. How Learning Works: Seven Research-based Principles
for Smart Teaching (2010).
• Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer. E-Learning and the Science of
Instruction (3rd ed., 2011).
• National Research Council. Discipline-Based Education Research:
Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and
Engineering (2012).
E. The EE Online Program
 A plan to develop online and/or blended versions of EE master’s-level
courses with large enrollments (80 or more students). Funded by 2012
VPOL program-level grant.
 Motivations:
• Test learning efficacy of online education.
• Develop a set of best practices.
• Provide scheduling flexibility to students (use of “online with tutored
instruction” model).
 Initial four courses:
• Applied Quantum Mechanics (David Miller)
• Digital Signal Processing (Ronald Schafer)
• Convex Optimization (Stephen Boyd)
• Digital Image Processing (Bernd Girod)
E. The EE Online Program
 Evaluating “online with tutored instruction” in the Digital Image
Processing course (EE368/CS232)
E. The EE Online Program
F. Mid-course survey re. online materials
 Offered to engineering instructors in Autumn 2013 and Winter 2014
who were using online videos and quizzes.
 Questions included:
• How are you finding the course so far? Like more of? Less of?
• What do you like/dislike about the online videos?
• What do you like/dislike about the other online components?
• Hours per week spent on: online videos; online quizzes and assignments;
paper-based problem sets.
• When you take an online quiz, are you usually confident of your answers?
• When do you usually start working on the problem sets?
• Anything else you would like us to know?
G. Is technology a game changer?
 An inflection point for the trajectory of higher education (the merging
of political trends, financial pressures, technological opportunities, and
intellectual resources).
 Beware “technological solutionism” (Evgeny Morozov).
 Learning involves change, and change is hard. Online learning does not
necessarily make it easier.
 Key question: What is it that makes the difference in student success?
G. Is technology a game changer?
 What matters to student success (lit review by National Postsecondary
Education Cooperative, 2006):
• “Most students—especially those who start college with two or more
characteristics associated with premature departure—benefit from early
interventions and sustained attention at key transition points.”
• “Students who find something or someone worthwhile to connect to in the
postsecondary environment are more likely to engage in educationally
purposeful activities, persist, and achieve their educational objectives.”
• “Institutions that focus on student success, subscribe to a talent
development philosophy, and create a student-centered culture are better
positioned to help their students attain their educational objectives.”
The End!
A. Stanford’s online efforts
B. Stanford’s online priorities
C. Innovative courses (seed grants)
D. Engineering education and online learning
E. The EE Online program
F. Mid-course survey re. online materials
G. Is technology a game changer?