Rapid Authoring of MOOClets/Lessons/Exercises

Contents

tiny.cc/createmooclets is a shortcut to this document.

Learning Objectives:

Know what you can do today to start authoring blended/online lessons & learning activities using Qualtrics (without programming experience)
Know how to use Mechanical Turk to cheaply and quickly recruit people to explore how people respond to and learn from online resources
Have a digital link to useful resources for making progress on the above objectives – tiny.cc/createmooclets or email josephjaywilliams@stanford.edu
Know about the “MOOClets Group” meeting Tuesdays 12-1 PDT: www.josephjaywilliams.com/mooclets and join mailing at list at tiny.cc/joinmooclets

There are advantages to creating online modules – “MOOClets” – which serve as blended resources or the components of MOOCs. (www.josephjaywilliams.com/mooclets)
A key Technological Innovation in last five years is the creation of software for creating educational software.

This removes many barriers between designing and implementing digital educational resources.
People with knowledge about pedagogy don’t have to know a specific programming language.
This democratizes creating of rich educational resources and means that “learning engineers” don’t have to be software engineers.

There are many free options for software for rapid authoring that are unfortunately "best kept secrets": tiny.cc/rapidauthoringtools

Using Qualtrics for E-Learning

Pedagogically rich features of Qualtrics for Digital Lessons & Activities: tiny.cc/adaptingqualtrics

Embedding Qualtrics Lessons into a MOOC like EdX (e.g. via iFrame): tiny.cc/qualtricsedx

Qualtrics is one option I use. The “formerly known as survey tool” software Qualtrics.
Everyone at Stanford (and most R1 universities) have an account. Simply log in with your SUNET ID at stanforduniversity.qualtrics.com

Create text lessons, embed videos, add multiple choice, free response, and extremely broad range of other question types.
Provided targeted feedback and adaptive learning.
There are many advanced functionalities to explore: tiny.cc/adaptingqualtrics
A/B Testing & Randomized Experimentation, Data Analytics, basic Statistical Tests, Graphs, Reports viewable online
Make the resource immediately available via hyperlink (instant deployment, can handle tens of thousands).
Provide a custom mnemonic using tiny.cc (e.g. tiny.cc/learningassistant)
Share your resource with other people’s Qualtrics account so they can directly edit or make comments, make copies and iteratively improve
Embed it into MOOC platforms – EdX, Coursera, NovoEd. tiny.cc/qualtricsedx

Amazon’s “Marketplace for work” that pairs “Requesters” who want things done with “Workers” who do things. Has a system for payment and a huge community of people to draw on. Large community of Researchers who use it already.
tiny.cc/mechanicalturk provides further explanation of what Mechanical Turk is, guide on how to set it up for experiments & user-testing, scientific literature on its viability for research, common challenges, additional resources.