Towards Collaborative

Learning @ Scale

Towards Collaborative

Learning @ ScaleMarti A. HearstMarti A. Hearst

UC BerkeleyUC Berkeley

Joint work with Bjorn Hartmann, Armando Fox, Derrick Coetzee, Taek Lim

Sponsored in part by a Google Social Interactions Grant

20 million minds foundation

MOOC Drawbacks

Retention

Learning (?)

Isolation (?)

Collaborative Learning

“Quick Thinks” Structured Groups

Active & Peer Learning:

The Evidence (Large Courses) Pausing frequently during lecture for 2 minute

discussions leads to better comprehension (1-2 grade points higher)

[Ruhl et al, Jrnl Teacher Ed. 1987]

A meta-analysis over 60 physics courses and 6,500 students found improvements of almost 2 std.dev.

[Hake, Am. J. Physics, 1998]

Controlled experiment with > 500 physics students found improved attendance, engagement, and more than twice the learning. [Deslauries et al., Science 2011]

Active & Peer Learning:

The Evidence (Large Courses)

Even if no one in the group knows the answer, discussing improves results (genetics)

[Smith et al, Science 323, Jan 2, 2009]

Peer Learning Example

From Deslauries et al: Pre-class reading assignments and quizzes (CQ) In-class clicker questions with student-student

discussion (GT) Small-group active learning tasks

Turn in individual written response (IF) Targeted in-class instructor feedback

Typical schedule for 50-min class: CQ1, 2 min; IF, 4 min. CQ2, 2 min; IF, 4 min; CQ2 (continued), 3 min; IF, 5 min; Revote

CQ2, 1 min. CQ3, 3 min; IF, 6 min. GT1, 6 min; IF with a demonstration, 6 min; GT1 (continued), 4

min; and IF, 3 min.

Results for Controlled Experiment

From Deslauries et al., for a one-week intervention

Peer Learning (Smaller Classes)

Peer Learning Core Ideas

Students learn better by explaining to others

Extended group work must be structured Must promote both: Positive Interdependence Individual Accountability

Group makeup: Best if heterogeneous Groups can change frequently

In-Person Course: Applied NLP

In-Person Course: Applied NLP

In-Person Course: Applied NLP

After 4 Weeks

After 12 Weeks

What Can Be Improved?

More short assignments!

Project goal:MOOCS + Peer LearningHow to do it?

First Step: Try MTurk

Hypothesis: People in groups will get answers right

more often than those working alone Expectations: The chats will be on topic People will try to solve the problems

First Step: Try MTurk

Issues? How to motivate the workers? How to coordinate the workers? What kinds of questions to use? How to structure the conversation?

How To Motivate?

Experimental Manipulation: If entire group gets the right answer,

everyone gets a bonus Control Group: No mention of a bonus (no incentive

for helping others)

MOOC Arrival Times,

First Question, First Lecture

MOOC Arrival Times,

Last Question, Last Lecture

Question Type: GMAT Critical

Reasoning

System Workflow

Real Time Crowdsourcing: Lasecki, et al, CSCW 2013, Bernstein et al, UIST 2011

Interaction: Small-Group Chat

CMC Literature suggests the affordances are appropriate

Video on next slide

Experimental Setup 226 worker sessions lasting on

average 12.8 minutes.

(15.0 minutes excluding solo workers), with 169 solo workers, 25 discussions of size 2, and 73 discussions of size 3.

Each session consisted of 2 questions.

2 minutes alone, 5 minutes in discussion, 20 seconds for final answer choice

56% of the 452 attempts to answer questions were answered correctly.

Results

All hypotheses confirmed

Engaging in discussion leads to more correct answers.

The bonus incentive leads to more correct changed answers.

The participants have substantive discussions.

Of interest, but not a result:

More discussion is correlated with more correct answers

Results

138 workers (61%) kept their original choices unchanged on both questions

74 (33%) changed one answer after the discussion

14 (6%) changed both.

50% of workers who changed their answers improved their score

18% lowered their score;

86% of workers who changed both answers improved their score.

Results

Engaging in Discussion Leads to More Correct Answers

The mean percentage of correct responses is higher in chatrooms with more than one student (Fisher’s exact test, p < 0:01).

Results Bonus Incentive Leads to More Correct Answers:

In the control condition, participants changed 33 out of 121 (27%) In the bonus condition they changed 44 out of 139 answers (32%). No significant difference (Fisher’s exact test, two-tailed p = 0.50 ).

However, among the changed answers, 14 answers (12%) changed from incorrect to correct in the control condition, while 31 (22%) changed from incorrect to correct in the bonus condition, a significant difference (Fisher’s exact test, two-tailed p < 0.04 )

Results Participants have Substantive Discussions

3 independent raters, Scale of 1 to 4

73 of 98 discussions (74%) were rated 4 by all raters

80 (82%) had a median rating of 4. (Spearman’s rho=0.65)

Next Steps

Put this into MOOCs!

We have an experiment underway right now.

Other MOOC Projects

Forum Usage Role of Instructor Untangling Correlation from

Causation

MOOC Instructor Dashboards

Thank you!Thank you!

Marti A. HearstMarti A. HearstUC BerkeleyUC Berkeley

Joint work with Bjorn Hartmann, Armando Fox, Derrick Coetzee, Taek Lim

Sponsored in part by a Google Social Interactions Grant