CHARLES ISBELL SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN

OMS CS: What is it?• oMS CS • Moving from MOOCs to MOODs, from courses to degrees:

Master of Science in Computer Science • …delivered online using MOOC platforms • …equivalent to the MS CS on campus • …for about $6600 (instead of $42,000)

• Collaboration among GT, Udacity & AT&T

• Announced on May 14, 2013

• Program launched Jan. 15, 2014, now in the ninth term

Why a MOOC-delivered MS CS?• Because we can

• Rapidly maturing technology

• Rapidly maturing experience: Georgia Tech has more than a million enrollments in its MOOC efforts, multiple iterations and changes

• Broad interest: Philanthropic entities, governmental entities, students

• CS, MS, CoC are good places to start

• Because we should

• Frankly, we have a mission to educate when we can

• Move away from prestige === saying no

How We Got to a $6,600 Degree• Figure out costs

• Charge what it costs at scale: fixed vs recurring

• Leave a margin

• Gifts from AT&T fund start up costs

• Faculty Governance

• Appointed faculty working group with minimal College leadership

• Final proposal affirmed by 75% of College faculty

• Main concerns: quality, quality, quality

• Timing and coincidence did help

OMS Enrollments• ~4000 enrollments Fall 2016 (~90% yield) • First 18 graduated December, 60 May, expect 200+ this term

• Demographics of enrolled follow applications • Course enrollment melt at any given term: ~20%

• what is normal when taking courses for $ not $$$? • …and visas are not an issue? • …and most of them return?

• All part-time students • First by our necessity, then by their necessity (60% of first

timers enrolled in two courses drop to one) • …but increasingly seeing shift to younger demographics

OMS Applications• 2,361 applicants in first 21 days, two times our on-campus MS CS

• ~12,000 applicants since October 2013, about 55% accepted

• ~100 countries represented & all 50 U.S. states

• Vast majority are degree-holders working in computing/IT

• ~725 have advanced degrees

• ~125 have PhDs

• 80-85% domestic applications: almost complement of on-campus MS CS

• Average age: ~35 (11 years older than on-campus MS CS)

• We are expanding the market

OMS CS Students Seek Community• Students self-organize on social media

• Dozens of pages, groups & communities on Google+ (~60

groups), Facebook, LinkedIn, HipChat, reddit, etc.

• Subdivided by individual OMS courses, student geographic

location, language & interest areas

• Nerdy Bones Google+ group for OMS women w/123 members

• Main Google+ OMS community has ~4,000 members

• Student Facebook group has ~930 members

GT Computing Community

Not Just Their Obvious Demographics• Uniquely qualified students with control improve class for all

• many employed by companies like Google, Amazon & SpaceX

• Ed Tech includes current teachers; Health Informatics includes current physicians; ML enjoys data scientists; and so on

• Research from Harvard shows that OMS addresses a previously unmet demand for flexible mid-career training: • “Access to OMS CS increases the amount of formal education pursued.”

• “Low cost, high quality online education has the potential to improve the stock of STEM-based human capital, in part by meeting the needs of those unable to enroll in traditional, time- and place-constrained coursework.”

• 8%(!) a year

Lessons Learned So Far• It is not difficult to create a quality product

• Scalability is easy… except the parts that are hard

• Day-to-day support mostly scales in courses

• Grading does not scale without a lot of creativity

• Students are extremely engaged—officially & unofficially

• Interacting via self-created social media groups, planning ATL meet-up

• Providing significant peer support across a range of issues

• Not just a collection of courses but a community built around common goals

• They need better program guidance

• Better technology for community support including group projects, and tests

What’s Next?• Now taking year-round applications, and beginning to have to

really deal with our “minimal” requirements

• Ramp up OMS career services

• Virtual Career Fair participation each term

• Virtual Advising

• International outreach (India, China, Africa)

• Targeted marketing to boost female, underrepresented minority enrollment

• Applying lessons beyond MS CS CoC

Different Ways of Providing Content

• Content-focused

• Presentation-focused

• Interaction-focused

• Quizzes/Forums

• Team teaching easier?

• Multiple faculty across multiple institutions

• Multiple perspectives

• Improvised conversational podcasts ≥ lecture?

Different Ways of Providing Content

GEORGIA TECH MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE… ONLINE

Different Ways of Providing Content

• Team teaching easier?

• Multiple faculty across multiple institutions

• Multiple perspectives

• Improvised conversational podcasts ≥ lecture?