GEORGIA TECH ONLINE MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE CHARLES ISBELL SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN

Transcription

1 GEORGIA TECH ONLINE MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE CHARLES ISBELL SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN

2 OMS CS: What Are We Talking About? 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, currently in the first term

3 Context: Georgia Tech Six Colleges Engineering Computing Sciences Liberal Arts Architecture Business and Professional Education! Largest Engineering College in the US One of the Largest Computing Programs

4 College of Computing MS CS 36 credit hours / 12 classes / 15 specializations! Architecture Computational Perception & Robotics Machine Learning Human-Computer Interaction Interactive Intelligence Networking Social Computing Visual Analytics! Graphics Databases & Software Engineering High Performance Computing Information Security Modeling & Simulation Scientific Computing Systems

5 Why a MOOC-delivered MS CS? So why are we doing this? Because we can, and because we should

6 Why a MOOC-delivered MS CS? Now is the right time for this effort Rapidly maturing technology Rapidly maturing experience: 20+ Georgia Tech Coursera courses, multiple iterations and changes Broad interest: Gates and other philanthropic entities, governmental entities, students CS is a good place to start MS is a good place to start CoC is a good place to start

7 Why a MOOC-delivered MS CS? Georgia Tech motto: Progress & service Students want certification not just exposure Student want degrees, not just courses Chance to redefine student-focused learning experiences Chance to reach more students Larger pool of prospective students (incl. nontraditional) Address shortage of trained computing professionals New pipeline for Ph.D. students Move away from prestige == saying no

8 Why Udacity? Big platforms all have potential Experience in online education delivery Quality of product built in partnership Support for IP on assessment but openness for material Efficiency of execution, can move quickly Small & focused: Do a few things and do them well Experience in massive-scale projects MOOC 2.0

9 OMS CS Course Infrastructure (MOOC 2.0)

10 OMS CS Course Infrastructure (MOOC 2.0)

11 How We Got to a $6,600 Degree Price must match cost to achieve scale Goal is to expand access through reduced cost Charge what it costs at scale Leave a margin $2M gift from AT&T funds start up costs Fixed costs do not scale Efficiency of execution

12 Approving OMS: Building Consensus Appointed faculty Working Group College leadership minimized presence in deliberations WG gave 6+ months to project Final proposal affirmed by 75% of College faculty Moved through the Institute from there Main concern: Quality, quality, quality GT leadership support critical President & Provost socialized idea with key Regents & USG officers prior to Board of Regents vote

13 What s In It for Faculty? Multiple faculty volunteered to produce OMS courses before there was any talk about payment Multiple-part compensation model Course creation Instructor of record Subsequent offerings of existing course Improved teaching & learning Flipped classroom Rethinking Pedagogy: Instructors say experience yields valuable insights Fame?!

14 OMS CS: Who s Interested? Survey of OMS CS subscribers (1,014 respondents) 84% have bachelor s/master s degree 75% employed full-time (82% in computing/it) 94% will work while enrolled 72% will pay for OMS CS themselves! Other interesting takeaways Flexibility, mode of delivery most important aspects 97% said quality would be better (52%) or about the same (45%) as other MS CS degrees Machine learning most popular specialization

15 OMS First Class: Applications 2,361 applicants in 21 days about twice as many as oncampus MS CS 77 countries represented & all 50 U.S. states Vast majority are degree-holders working in computing/it 85% domestic applications complement of on-campus MS CS Indicates we are expanding the market, not cannibalizing on-campus MS CS program or other MS CS markets

16 OMS First Class: Enrollments 380 enrollments (+20 deferrals) out of ~410 admissions Early demographics: Average age: 34.8 (11 years older than on-campus MS CS) ~88% are U.S. citizens or permanent residents 40 U.S. states & 24 countries represented More male then our on-campus MS CS 300+ more Fall 2013 applicants are and will be admitted for subsequent terms

17 OMS First Courses Start in January 2014 with 5 courses Advanced Operating Systems Computer Networks Software Development Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence for Robotics

18 Different Ways of Providing Content One case study: true team teaching Multiple faculty across multiple institutions Multiple perspectives Conversational podcast better than lecture?

19 Interactive Quizzes One case study: true team teaching Multiple faculty across multiple institutions Multiple perspectives Conversational podcast better than lecture?

20 You Should See the Unedited Version One case study: true team teaching Multiple faculty across multiple institutions Multiple perspectives Conversational podcast better than lecture?

21 Early Feedback

22 Early Feedback GEORGIA TECH ONLINE MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

23 Lessons Learned So Far 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 both in courses and about the program They need better program guidance We must develop online advising process Expectation-setting is essential A degree program is not just a collection of courses it s a community built around common interests and goals

24 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 Technology must improve Community Support Test Taking Projects Did I mention expectations-setting: MS CS vs Executive MS

25 Impact on campus enrollments MS CS applications up 30% this year 2013: 1, : 1,757 GT undergraduate applications up 46% this year BS CS apps +85% (+550% since 2008)

26 What s Next? Summer & Fall 2014 terms Next application periods March (summer enrollment) & April-May (fall) Additional credential tracks: an answer to scaling? Some ideas Career services support? Low residency? Collaboration with universities in U.S. & abroad?

27 How Will We Know We ve Succeeded? Courses are shown to be top quality and rigorous Support scales Employers accept & hire graduates on equal terms Financial viability Others start to follow Launching multiple research projects: Student long-term professional success (Harvard) Accessibility in online courses (GT) Peer feedback in online courses (GT) Increasing female, underrepresented minority participation (GT)

28 Concluding Thoughts Uncharted territory: we don t know all the answers Overwhelming reaction, both positive and negative Tremendous opportunity to offer advanced training in regions that lack quality options Scalability is the major question (grading, student support, advising) Where is it all going?