Expanding the reach of education through technology

Richard AndersonDepartment of Computer Science and EngineeringUniversity of Washington

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Research in Educational Technology

• How can computing technology enhance education?– Focus on classroom instruction

• Challenges:– Extending reach of education– Increasing interaction– Addressing problems of scale– Facilitating expression of ideas

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Past and Current Research Projects

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Video conferenceddistance education

UW PMP

DISC

ConferenceXP

Center forCollaborativeTechnologies

Presentationsystems

ClassroomPresenter 2.0

Classroom Presenter 3.0

Classroom interaction systems

Classroom FeedbackSystem

CATs for CS1

Structured InteractionPresentations(SIP)

Student submissions with CP

Tutored Video Instruction

UW CC TVI Project

Beihang TVI project

Digital StudyHall

Research Approach

• Deployment driven– Classroom use– Technology development and promotion

• Goals and success criteria– Adoption of technology and

methodology– Influence educational practice

• Target specific deployments– Innovate in some aspect of deployment

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Today’s Talk

Distance Learning and Video Conferenced Classes

Tutored Video Instruction Digital Study Hall Educational Technology for Low

Resource Environments

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Video Conferenced Teaching

• Multi-site internet based audio-video conferencing

• UW Master’s Program– Site-to-site courses between UW and

Microsoft since Winter 1997– www.cs.washington.edu/education/dl/course_ind

ex.html– Master’s level courses– Goal: interaction across sites

• Approximate single classroom

– Various technologies have been used since the program was introducedDec 15, 2008 Microsoft Learning 6

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Distance Classes in UW CSE Master's Program

• Initial phase• Winter 1997 – Winter 2002– Polycom + Netmeeting for

PPT and SmartBoard• MSR DISC Project

– Target: UW, CMU, UCB, Brown graduate class

– Spring 2002• ConferenceXP

– Since Spring 2003– Four way courses, Autumn

2004, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2006• UW, MSR, UCB, UCSD

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ConferenceXP

• High quality, low latency video to support interactive classes

• High bandwidth internet video conferencing– Internet2– Multicast

• Single machine deployment– High end PC– Performance limit: handling multiple high

resolutions video streams• Innovative presentation tools

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Initial Challenges (Spring 2002)

• What went wrong– Technology and systems

failures– Multicast networking – High cost of interruptions– Audio– Loss of trust– Room configuration issues– Lack of control of lecture

room– Production quality

• Meta lesson– Learn more from failures

than from successes

• How to Fail at VideoConferenced Teaching– Microsoft Faculty

Summit 2002– Anderson & Beavers

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Success in distance classes

Goals Real time interaction between sites High quality video

Challenges High bandwidth connections

▪ Multicast vs. Unicast Classroom Audio Establishing a pattern of interaction

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Going International

March 29, 2008, LACCIR Meeting Latin American and

Carribbean Collaboration for ICT Research

Seattle and University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

Seminar presentation October 15, 2008

CXP Unicast reflectorDec 15, 2008 Microsoft Learning 13

Masters class, UW - Pakistan Masters class

University of Washington

Lahore University of Management Science

Microsoft Computing for the

Developing world

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Technical Challenges

Ensuring adequate bandwidth Limited bandwidth to Pakistan Reliability Multicast Ensuring this did not compromise UW-MS

class Limited time to prepare

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Basic PMP setup (2 sites)

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PMP VENUE

Archiver

Video cameras

Audio

Video Displays

Speakers

Video cameras

Audio

Video Displays

Speakers

CP3Instruct

or

CP3Display

CP3Display

Student Tablets Student Tablets

UW Microsoft

CXP

CP3

3-way setup for UW, MS, LUMS

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PMP Venue 1

PMP Venue 2

Archiver

Microsoft LUMS

UW

CP3

CP3Serve

rCP3

CP3

Use of Classroom Presenter Tablet PC based

presentation and classroom interaction system

Ink based presentation

Classroom Activites

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Classroom Presenter

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Student

Student

Instructor

Public Display

Classroom Activities

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Project status

High connectivity for 9 out of 10 classes One lecture originated from Pakistan Only failure was on the UW-Microsoft

Link (which also brought down UW-Pakistan)

Improved audio (microphone issues) Participation of students from

Pakistan Student submissions Questions and discussions

Multiple rounds of audio communication

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Key lessons

Participants must have incentive for a distance course

Instructor need to make an effort to create multisite interaction

Active participants at remote sites help

Time zones and scheduling are major issues

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Tutored Video Instruction• Video recorded lectures shown with facilitator

– Original model: lectures stopped by students for discussion

– Peer tutors• Developed by Jim Gibbons at Stanford University • Positive results reported in Science [1977]

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UW TVI Projects

Introductory programming Address community college articulation Experiment with alternate approaches to

introductory computing instruction UW – Beihang Algorithms course

Offering of UW Algorithms course in China

Digital StudyHall Primary education in rural India

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Tutored Video Instruction

Recorded lecture materials Generally based on live classes

Class model Lecture playback alternating with

facilitator led discussion Facilitation models

▪ Gibbons: Peer instruction▪ Active facilitation

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UW-Beihang Algorithms Class Offer a course in Beijing

based on UW course UW instructor could not

teach the course in China

Scheduling prevented a live course offering 1:30 pm in Seattle is 4:30

am in Beijing Materials captured from

live class Tutored Video Instruction

Slides, talking head, digital ink

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Involvement with Remote Site Set up visit

Met with Teaching Assistants Tested all technology Trained Teaching Assistants in facilitation Gave classes to students to demonstrate technology

and TVI Midterm visit

Observed classes Gave lecture without recorded video

Regular communication with Teaching Assistants

Data collectionDec 15, 2008 Microsoft Learning 27

Course Delivery

Applications displayed Webviewer for video

replay Classroom

Presenter Teaching

Assistants would show video or show CP for inking on slides or classroom interaction

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Summary of Project Results Offering successful

Technology, institutional relationship Cross-cultural issues

English language materials were comprehensible Classroom discussion primarily in Chinese

Facilitation model Significant support for facilitators Classroom activities successful (and popular) Facilitators innovative and reproduced some of

the instruction Interactive and informal classroom atmosphere

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Language Issues

Lectures delivered in English Language exposure consider to be a positive side

effect of the course Teaching assistants facilitated in English

But discussions were generally in Chinese Students reported using lectures outside of class Instructor observations from site visit

Chinese students had substantially more English listening than speaking experience

Recorded lectures did contain some colloquial usage and cultural specific references which were lost

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Facilitation

Support provided for facilitators Lecture notes Activities

Facilitators invested a larger effort in preparation Studying videos Planning how to cover

content Active facilitation

Worked through lecture examples

Led activities Asked questions to students

Example: facilitators working through example from lecture slides

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Instructor Facilitator A

Facilitator CFacilitator B

Classroom Activities

Tablet PC supported activities Student submission

model Used for every lecture

Technology generally successful

Considered very positive by students High rate of

participation Provided a structure

for active learningDec 15, 2008 Microsoft Learning 32

Classroom Environment

Contrast to traditional large lecture class Highly interactive class

Interaction episodes measured by observation logs and videos of Beihang classes

Average of 13 interaction episodes per class, 10 with students speaking

UW class averaged about 20 interaction episodes per equivalent length of time

Beihang episodes averaged a greater number of rounds of communication

Class atmosphere was informalDec 15, 2008 Microsoft Learning 33

Results

• Offering successful– Technology, institutional relationship

• Cross-cultural issues– English language materials were comprehensible– Classroom discussion primarily in Chinese

• Facilitation model– Significant support for facilitators – Classroom activities successful (and popular)– Facilitators innovative and reproduced some of the

instruction– Interactive and informal classroom atmosphere

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Digital StudyHall• Affiliated Project• Collaboration with

Randy Wang in Lucknow

• Tutored Video Instruction for primary education in rural India

• YouTube + Netflix

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Key components

A people’s database Mediation based pedagogy Hub and spoke model Content distribution by DVD

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Status: network of hubs and spokes

• Operational hubs in Lucknow, Calcutta, Pune, and Bangladesh

• Each hub works with a number of poor village or slum schools

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Digital StudyHall Evaluation Study

Classroom study starts July 2009 Two year study

12 schools in Uttar Pradesh 12 DSH Classrooms 12 Traditional Classrooms

Evaluate Learning gains through pretest/posttest

Classroom observations Study impact on teachers

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What we’ve learned from all of this

• Value of electronic materials in the process of classroom instruction

• Tools for teaching– Teacher and students drive the process– Flexible and unpredictable use

• Importance of high reliability– And attention to address issues

• Broader context – interplay of technology and other issues

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Educational Technology for Low Resource Environments

Facilitated Video Instruction Biggest opportunity to enhance expertise

Synchronous Distance Limited applications – but some specific

cases of interest Classroom capture

Classroom Computing Computer lab and individual devices

Computing Education Lack of technical literacy is a limiting factor

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Facilitated Video Instruction Recorded video with a facilitator

Take advantage of expertise Facilitator has very important role

Applicable to a broad range of educational domains Primary and secondary Health Agriculture Vocational College

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Facilitated Video Instruction Applicability for low resource environments

Low cost▪ Replay (TV + DVD)▪ Digital Video + PC based editing

Locally created content Key components

Facilitation methodology Support for facilitator Program structure

▪ Content creation through delivery Technology

Video production tool chain Content distribution Delivery Feedback and monitoring

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Synchronous Distance Education

Bandwidth is a significant issue Low bandwidth + high cost

May be relevant for institutional outreach programs Arvind Eye Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India International medical education

Positive side effect: classroom capture

Risk: Driven by need to justify infrastructure – not for educational needs

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Classroom Computing

School based computing Risk: deployments leading educational goals Challenge: maximize benefits of “computers

for schools initiatives” Models

Low cost educational devices ▪ Classmate, OLPC, Asus eee, …

Shared use▪ Multipoint

School server

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Computing Education

Shortage of trained professionals Hostile Computing Ecosystem

Very high virus infection Poorly administered machines Solutions

▪ Computing practices and maintenance

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For more information

• Richard Anderson– anderson@cs.washington.edu

• Classroom Presenter– http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/dl/pre

senter/• Center for Collaborative Technologies

at UW– http://cct.cs.washington.edu/

• Digital StudyHall– http://dsh.cs.washington.edu/

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Acknowledgements

• Support from Microsoft Research, National Science Foundation, HP, Ford, UW CSE

• Jay Beavers, Jane Prey, Randy Hinrichs, Chris Moffatt, Jason Van Eaton, Paul Oka, Steve Wolfman, Ken Yasuhara, Andrew Whitaker, Ruth Anderson, Craig Prince, Valentin Razmov, Natalie Linnell, Krista Davis, Jonathon Su, Sara Su, Peter Davis, Tammy VanDeGrift, Joe Tront, Alon Halevy, Gaetano Borriello, Ed Lazowska, Hal Perkins, Susan Eggers, Fred Videon, Rod Prieto, Oliver Chung, Crystal Hoyer, Beth Simon, Eitan Feinberg, Julia Schwarz, Jim Fridley, Tom Hinkley, Ning Li, Jing Li, Luo Jie, Jiangfeng Chen, Melody Kadenko, Julie Svendsen, Shannon Gillmore

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