Interventions in the Online Classroom

Presented at HCI Lunch in 2012.

Transcript

1. interventions NLINE CLASSROOM in the JUSTIN CHENG SCOTT KLEMMER CHINMAY KULKARNI 1
2. How do we increase student retention in online classes? (Assignment Completion) 2
3. Retention is important Interested students may need an additional push to complete a course Important metric in measuring how engaging a class is 3
4. Sociality Feedback · Peer Assessment Individual / Group · Grades · Action Plans · Contextual Hints · Commitment Contracts · Office Hours · Generic Hints · Personalized Email · 1-on-1 tutors Passive / Active · Co-located group work 4
5. Social Effects People are consistent in their actions [Cialdini ‘01] People are influenced by what their friends do [Cialdini ‘07] – “Scott and 4 other friends completed this assignment” 5
7. Commitment Sign a commitment contract [Werner, et. al ‘95] A small commitment followed by a larger one [Taylor & Booth-Butterfield ‘93] Bet on your success [Giné, et. Al ‘08] 7
8. We find that The effects of commitment is affected by social influence Using checklists encourages task completion … 8
9. So what did we do? 9
10. Experimental Setup Conducted on Fall 2012 Stanford HCI Online class Waitlist control to minimize participant backlash 10
11. Social Feedback / not Commitment / not Exp. 1 Social Feedback + Commitment 2384 participants 2 x 2 conditions •  How does social feedback and commitment affect student retention? •  How do these interact with each other? 11
12. Exp. 1 Social Feedback + Commitment Both Social Feedback + Commitment Condition “I’ve started button” + List of friends (on Announcements Page & Assignment Page) 12
13. Exp. 1 Social Feedback + Commitment Both Social Feedback + Commitment Condition Email before due date - friends who’ve started Email after due date – see your friends’ work 13
14. Exp. 1 Social Feedback + Commitment Social Feedback Only Condition List of friends (on Announcements Page & Assignment Page) Generic email before due date See friends’ work email after due date 14
15. Exp. 1 Social Feedback + Commitment Commitment Only Condition “I’ve started” button (on Announcements Page & Assignment Page) Generic email before due date Generic email after due date 15
16. Exp. 1 Social Feedback + Commitment No Social, No Commitment Condition 16
17. Exp. 2 Personalized & Generic Email Personalized Emails Generic Emails No Email 1439 participants 3 conditions •  Does sending emails affect retention? •  Are personalized emails more effective than generic emails? 17
18. Exp. 2 Personalized & Generic Email Generic Email Condition Generic encouragement   Examples of good work   18
19. Exp. 2 Personalized & Generic Email Personalized Email Condition Number of videos watched, quiz score reporting Use of student’s name   Generic encouragement   Examples of good work   19
20. Exp. 2 Personalized & Generic Email No Email Condition 20
21. Exp. 3 Action Plans Action Plans No Action Plans 1439 participants 2 conditions •  Do interactive checklists help people complete assignments? 21
22. Exp. 3 Action Plans Interactive checklist at the top of an assignment Inline step completion 22
23. Facebook Friends have no noticeable impact on retention 23
24. An “I’ve started” Button reduces assignment completion (and retention) 24
25. But both together increase completion! (p < 0.05) 25
26. Control Commitment 0 20 40 60 80 100 Control Social Control Social social_feedback_condition count 26
27. Emails that we sent have no noticeable impact on retention 27
28. 0 500 1000 None Generic Personalized intervention_condition count 28
29. But! Personalized Emails discourage people from clicking on examples! (p < 0.05) Assignment Link   Example Link   Example Link   29
30. 3 4 5 0 50 100 150 Generic Personalized Generic Personalized Generic Personalized factor(intervention_condition) count 30
31. Action Plans increase assignment completion (and retention) (p < 0.05) 31
32. 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 Control Action plan Experimental condition Number of submissions 32
33. To conclude, Commitment goes hand-in-hand with social influence Action plans or interactive assignments in general are promising 33
34. What’s next? What are other ways to increase retention? 34