If we are to tutor effectively in blended classes, we have to experiment with the online environments and overall pedagogies that will drive these classes in the future. Many of RELATE’s activities are therefore centered around creating online courses, both blended on-campus and MOOCs, so that we can do experiments in them. This is the source of data logs we study to learn about learning, behavior, time on task, study habits, etc. A key theme in the two descriptive papers below is putting more activities online – even for lectures and recitations in an on-campus class so that we can get a fuller picture of what students are doing.
TPR10 Toward an Integrated Online Learning Environment, Teodorescu, R., Pawl, A., Rayyan, S., Barrantes, A. , and Pritchard, D. E.. Physics Education Research Conference 2010 Portland Oregon, AIP Conf. Proc. 1289, 321(2010).
RFC16 A MOOC based on blended pedagogy S. Rayyan, C. Fredericks, K.F. Colvin, A. Liu, R. Teodorescu, A. Barrantes, A. Pawl, D.T. Seaton and D.E. Pritchard Journal of Computer Assisted Learning: 19 MAR 2016 | DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12126
MOOCs – massive open online courses – are a good venue for studying online education because virtually all student learning interactions are online, with little opportunity for students to have discussions, study sessions, or office hours that may well contribute to their learning but are not included in the log.