Alex Springer

MISTIx Ambassador

MITx Feedback

• The international MITx student

• Suggestions for improvements

• Future course suggestions

• How to capitalize on MISTIx Ambassadors

Overview

• 23 registered, 9 came• All men, 20-35 years old

• Most have C.S. background, one from life sciences

MITx Meet-Up Group

• Review/relearn material from undergrad at the MIT-level

• Passionate about learning new things

• Like the assignments

• Enjoy helping others as “community TAs”

Reasons for Enrolling

• Video sizes are too large

• Offer lower resolution videos for downloading

• Post video lengths at the top of lecture sequence bars

Course Videos

VideoTime

VideoTime

VideoTime

• Offer class progressions that build upon one another• Ex: 6.002, 6.003, 6.004, etc.

• Synchronize courses•Offer at the same time• Summer courses• Term based course offerings

• Project based courses

Course Offerings

• Students desire advanced and graduate-level courses

• Student collaboration opportunities

• Integrate unsolved real-world problems for students to solve•Crowd source solutions: Poly Math Project

• For pre-reqs, point to resources for students to learn material before the course

Course Offerings

• Announce courses from MIT ASAP, even if a few years off

• Impatient students may resort to starting their own courses if not offered soon enough• 6.003z

Course Announcements

• Special certificates for students who complete multiple courses in a degree track• Ex: 6.002, 6.003, 6.004, etc. – The “Online C.S. Degree”

• Graded certificates in addition to mastery certificates

• Paid certificates with proctored exams• Second offering of 6.002x•Worldwide accessibility to test centers

Course Certificates

• Experiment with courses with strict deadlines and no deadlines•Mixed reactions from students on • Coursera penalty for extended deadlines

• Keep assignment graders open after deadlines

• Always include a weekend for exam periods

• Include local time converter from UTC time

Deadlines

• Flexibility

• Include future directions and applications• Course “Road Map” of future courses

• Provide extension projects and labs• Heavy application focus

• Largest problem for students is retention

Course Content

• Student and Professor interactions

• Include challenge problems or tags•Could even offer an “advanced” certificate for students who complete all advanced problems

• Incorporate a badge system for completing tasks

The Student Experience

• 6.002x• Allow more than one circuit to be saved in circuit building software

• 6.00x•Use only one teacher to teach the entire course

Course Specific Recommendations

• Keep forums like the first 6.002x forum

• Problems with current forum:• Difficult to search for topics• Lots of bugs• No alerts if your thread gets answered or progress

• Maintain upvoting feature of old forum

• Continue competitions from 6.002x • Students were given free textbooks for producing videos or projects

• Create an MITx-type discussion forum for OCW courses

Course Forum

• Breadth of courses

• Advanced subject matter

• Disliked embedded quizzes in videos

• Textbooks must be purchased

• Comprehensive course notes

• Greater interactivity

• Dashboard for all current courses

• Vibrant discussion platform

• Truly free – no need to purchase textbooks

• Greater difficulty in courses

MITx/edX vs. Other MOOCs

• Continuity in courses

• Grad-level course offerings

• Proctored exams

• Earlier course announcements

Primary Concerns

• Any continuation of C.S. courses • 6.003x, 6.004x, 6.006x, etc.

• Math:• 18.06**, 18.03, 18.02, 18.01

• Foreign languages

• Music

• IOS/Android App development

• Bioengineering

Future Course Suggestions

• Meet with university professors or high school teachers

• Give information sessions

• Organize meetups

• Create study groups

• Interact with online students

• Conduct pedagogical research

Utilizing MISTIx Ambassadors

Informational Session

Student Meetups

• Create directed and organized trainings

• Provide support and resources while abroad

• Set specific goals and tasks

• Be open minded about reaching through different cultures

• Provide opportunity to report results

• Utilize MISTIx alumni for mentorship

How to help MISTIx Ambassadors

Thank You!