Online educationincludes a great variety of learning programs and courses, from the elementary education to doctorate, and, in addition, certifications, trainings, language courses, programs of personal development etc. But what we really get from online education besides different diplomas and certificates? To answer this question, listen to Daphne Koller and her experience in this field.
1 Pre-watching activities
a) Answer the questions:
What do these names refer to: Coursera, Khan Academy, edX, FutureLearn, Udacity?
What does MOOC mean?
Have you ever taken part in a MOOC?
What does informal education mean?
Search the Internet and find out the opportunities for you in informal education.
b) Study new vocabulary (e-flashcards can be found on: http://quizlet.com/60234731/flashcards):
pervasive – spread throughout;
a third generation PhD – the third in the family to have a Philosophy Doctor degree;
to take for granted – accept without any gratitude;
readily accessible – capable of being reached without much difficulty;
apartheid – the official policy of racial segregation;
minority – a group of people who differ racially or politically from a larger group which it is a part;
consequence – things or events that are caused or follow after other things or events;
spot – a position or job;
to deserve – be worthy of something;
scarcity – a small and inadequate amount;
a handful of something – a quantity that fills the hands, a small number or amount;
admission – the act of allowing someone to enter;
stampede – a headlong rush of people on a common impulse;
available – that you can get, buy or find;
to be within reach – possible to get;
rising cost – becoming more expensive, increasing amount of money to be spent;
obvious – easy to see or understand;
tuition – the act of teaching something, especially to one person or to people in small groups;
unaffordable – costing so much that people do not have enough money to pay for it;
recent – that happened or began only a short time ago;
college graduate – a person who has a college degree;
to require – to demand, to need something; to depend on something;
value – how much something is worth compared with its price (money, time, energy, efforts);
to capture – to make somebody interested in something;
the spirit behind our efforts – a person’s feelings or state of mind giving support or approval of physical or mental energy spent to do something;
breakthrough – an important development that may lead to an agreement or achievement;
suddenly – quickly and unexpectedly;
desperately – feeling or showing that you have little hope and are ready to do anything without worrying about danger to yourself or others;
enrollment – the act of officially joining a course, school, etc; the number of people who do this;
perspective – a view, especially one in which you can see far into the distance;
bored – feeling tired and impatient because you have lost interest in something or because you have nothing to do;
uninsured – not having insurance; not covered by insurance;
unbelievable – very difficult to believe and unlikely to be true;
segregation – the act of separating things or people from the whole;
to take on – to get a certain form, shape;
hyperbolic cosine – a graph of a mathematical function;
to eliminate – to remove or get rid of something;
polio virus – an infection disease;
to toss – to throw something lightly or carelessly;
to launch – to start an activity;
to submit – to give a document, test, quiz or other task to somebody in authority so that they can study or consider it;
to hone – to develop and improve something, especially a skill, over a period of time;
germ – microorganism, a very small living thing that can cause infection and disease;
on a giving day – a concrete date/date to submit the course tasks;
weekly basis – the way the course is organized: the tasks are to be done or published once a week or every week;
assignment – a task or piece of work that somebody is given to do, usually as part of their job or studies;
deadline – a point in time by which something must be done;
usage – the fact of something being used; how much something is used;
spike – a peak, the highest point of a graph;
procrastination – delaying doing something that you should do, usually because you do not want to do it;
prospective employer – a person expected to give you a job, position and pay money for working on him;
meaningful – serious and important;
constraint – a thing that limits or restricts something, or your freedom to do something;
explicitly – said, done or shown in an open or direct way, so that you have no doubt about what is happening;
break away from – to escape, to leave, to move away from;
monolithic – single, whole, that is very slow to change and not interested in individual people;
coherent content – logical and well organized, easy to understand and clear units;
traverse – to cross an area of studying material;
preparatory – done in order to prepare, to get ready for something;
enrichment – the act of improving the quality of something by adding something to it;
to pursue – to do something continuously or try to achieve something over a period of time;
one-size-fits-all model of education – educational system built for all the students without considering individual interests and skills;
retrieval – the process of getting back information that is presented in the courses units;
considerably – much, a lot;
achievement – something that is done successfully, especially with efforts and skills;
to build in – to incorporate, to make something a part of a larger system or structure;
to scribble – to write something quickly and carelessly, especially because you do not have much time;
to zone out – to fall asleep, become unconscious or stop paying attention;
in the front row – the first in a line, the first sitting in the classroom;
to blurt out – to say something suddenly and without thinking carefully enough;
terribly gratified – very much pleased or satisfied;
to notice – to pay attention, to see, to give information;
to engage – to succeed in attracting and keeping somebody's attention and interest;
to grade – to identify the level of students’ ability or achievements;
TA – teaching assistant;
multiple choice – a type of test questions when two or more answer options are given and students are to choose the correct one;
short answer – a type of test questions when students are to give their own short answer;
mathematical derivations – a mathematical phenomena related to functions;
sophisticated – difficult, clever, complicated, important;
programming assignment – a task or work to write a computer program;
pretty simple – unexpectedly easy, not very complicated or complex;
fairly – very good, of high quality;
supposed – expected, should do something;
blurry – without a clear outline, not very clear;
to move on – to start doing or discussing something new;
critical thinking – thoughts involving making fair, careful judgments about the good and bad qualities of something;
to convince – to make somebody believe that something is true;
solution – an answer to a puzzle or to a problem;
to end up – to find yourself in a place or situation that you did not intend or expect to be in;
peer grading – a kind of assessment when students check each other’s tasks;
y-axis (x-axis) – a fixed line against which the positions of points are measured, especially points on a graph;
to incentivize – to encourage somebody to behave in a particular way by offering them a reward;
correlated – close, similar or closely connected;
grading at scale – giving marks, evaluate when compared with something else;
pipeline – chain;
community – group of people who share the same ideas;
endeavor – an effort; a trial;
to collaborate – to work together with somebody in order to produce or achieve something;
median response – an average reaction or answer;
testimonial – a formal written statement about the quality of something;
self-assembled – put together as a group according to own desire;
intervention – the act of involving people into some work;
tremendous – huge, enormous, extremely large in size or amount; great in degree;
submission – the act of giving your work, test, quiz, assignment to be checked by instructor;
hypothesis-driven – based on a few known facts but that has not yet been proved to be true or correct;
data-driven – based on clearly proved facts and data;
misconception – an idea or belief that is not understood by people;
two-dimensional – having two measurements in space;
root cause of something – the main reason;
bucket – a large amount;
virtue – useful quality;
population – a particular group of people;
mastery-based approach – a way of thinking based on great knowledge about or understanding of a particular thing;
one-on-one instruction – face to face learning model: one student per one instructor;
tutor – a private teacher, who teaches an individual student;
deviation – different, moving from normal, usual or acceptable;
sigma – a figure that has a form of the 18th letter of the Greek alphabet (Σ);
threshold – the level at which something starts to happen or have an effect, starting point;
hence – for this reason;
curve – non-linear graph;
personalized trajectory – a way, path that is suitable for the needs of a particular person;
curriculum – the subjects that are included in a course of study in a college;
obsolete – old-fashioned;
lecture notes – the main ideas of the lecture written by students;
either – each of two;
to spend time on something – to use time on something;
further – at a greater distance;
vessel – a container;
igniting – the act of making something start to burn;
performance – how well or badly you do something;
every single metric – every criterion;
attendance – the act of being present at lessons;
engagement – being involved and interested in something;
achievement score – the number of correct answers, gained points in a test;
to double – to multiply by 2, twice as much or as many;
fundamental human right – one of central, very important, basic rights that everyone has to be treated fairly and not in a cruel way, especially by their government;
to enable – to make it possible to happen or exist;
wave of innovation – a sudden increase in introduction of new things, ideas or ways of doing something;
to come up with – to find or produce an answer or solution.
c) Remember new vocabulary: http://quizlet.com/60234731/learn
d) Write a dictation: http://quizlet.com/60234731/speller
e) Have some fun: scatter-game: http://quizlet.com/60234731/scatter,
race-game: https://quizlet.com/60234731/spacerace
f) Take a test: http://quizlet.com/60234731/test
2 While-watching activities
Watching for general information
a) Watch the video and answer the questions:
a) Coursera helps people all over the world improve their lives.
b) Education should be the fundamental human right for people from around the world.
c) Online education is a powerful instrument to improve the world.
d) The Internet is a better place to learn and live in.
b) Watch the video again and complete the following exercise (e-test can be found on: http://www.quia.com/quiz/5047291.html):
1.Put the main points of Daphne’s talk into the correct order:
1 _____; 2 _____; 3 _____; 4 _____;5 _____; 6 _____; 7 _____; 8 _____; 9 _____; 10 _____; 11 _____; 12 _____.
1st part
a) about numbers;
b) the first experience of organizing an online class in Stanford;
c) family background;
d) about people;
e) educational problems around the world;
f) Coursera courses examples;
2nd part
g) the way to understand human learning;
h) types of grading in the courses;
i) famous people about education;
j) what we can do for everyone around the world for free;
k) Bloom’s research;
l) students’ testimonials.
Say if the sentences are true or false:
Online education will enable lifelong learning strategy for all the people around the world.
Choose the best answer to the questions (sometimes more than one answer are possible):
a) English instructor
b) Math instructor
c) Coursera cofounder
d) Daphne’s relative.
a) playing computer games
b) using Facebook
c) writing studying material
d) grading other students
a) playing computer games
b) question and answer forum
c) peer-grading
d) working in a team.
a) a lecture-based classroom
b) a lecture-based classroom with a mastery-based approach
c) an online class
d) a one-on-one instruction with a tutor.
Watching for detail
c) Watch the first part of the video and match what these numbers refer to (e-test can be found on: http://www.quia.com/quiz/5050619.html):
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1. 14 million |
a) woman died |
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2. 8 to 12 |
b) who are using social network instead of studying |
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3. 1,5 million |
c) enrollments in Stanford online classes |
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4. 20 |
d) increasing of higher education tuition rate |
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5. 43 |
e) years Andrew would have to teach his students |
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6. 15% |
f) injured people in Johannesburg |
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7. 1 |
g) Coursera courses on the platform |
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8. 559% |
h) videos were viewed |
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9. 80% |
i) students who are writing the instructor’s lecture |
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10. 400 |
j) enrollments in Machine Learning class |
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11. 100,000 |
k) minutes a standard modular unit lasts |
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12. 250 |
l) enrollments in Coursera courses |
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d) Watch the first part of the video again and complete the text (e-test can be found on: http://www.quia.com/quiz/5050637.html):
Like many of you, I’m one of the lucky people. I was born to a family where education was 1 _______. I’m a third-generation PhD, a daughter of two academics. In my childhood, I played around in my father’s university lab. So it was 2 _______ _______ _______ that I attend some of the best universities, which in turn opened the door to a world of opportunity.
Unfortunately, most of the people in the world are not so lucky. In some parts of the world, for example, South Africa, education is just not readily 3 _______. In South Africa, the educational system was constructed in the days of 4 _______ for the white minority. And as a consequence, today there is just not enough spots for the many more people who want and 5 _______ a high quality education.That scarcity led to a crisis in January of this year at the University of Johannesburg. There were a 6 _______ _______ _______ left openfrom the standard admissions process, and the night before they were supposed to open that for registration, thousands of people lined up outside the gate in a line a mile long, hoping to be first in line to get one of those positions. When the gates opened, there was a 7 _______, and 20 people were injured and one woman died. She was a mother who gave her life trying to get her son a chance at a8 _______ _______.
Finally, even for those who do manage to get the higher education, the doors of opportunity might not open. Only a little over half of recent 9 _______ _______ in the United States who get a higher education actually are working in jobs that require that education. This, of course, is not true for the students who graduate from the top institutions, but for many others, they do not get the value for their 10 _______ and their 11 _______.
What’s suddenly possible was demonstrated by three big Stanford classes, each of which had an12 _______ of 100,000 people or more. So to understand this, let's look at one of those classes, the Machine Learning class offered by my colleague and cofounder Andrew Ng. Andrew teaches one of the bigger Stanford classes. It’s a 13 _______ _______ class,and it has 400 people enrolled every time it’s offered. When Andrew taught the Machine Learning class to the general public, it had 100,000 people 14 _______. So to put that number in perspective, for Andrew to reach that same size audienceby teaching a Stanford class, he would have to do that for 250 years. Of course, he’d get really 15 _______.
It turns out, maybe not surprisingly, that students like getting the best 16 _______ from the best universities for free. Since we opened the website in February, we now have 640,000 students from 190 countries. We have 1.5 million 17 _______, 6 million quizzes in the 15 classes that have launched so far have been submitted, and 14 million videos have been viewed.
So what made these courses so different? After all, online course content has been available for a while. What made it different was that this was real course experience. It started on a given day, and then the students would watch videos on a18 _______ _______ and do homework assignments. And these would be real homework 19 _______ for a real grade, with a real 20 _______. You can see the deadlines and the usage graph. These are the spikes showing that 21 _______ is global phenomenon.
Of course, we all know as educators that students don’t learn by sitting and 22 _______ watching videos.Perhaps one of the biggest components of this effort is that we need to have students who practice with the material in order to really understand it. There’s been a range of studies that demonstrate the importance of this. This one that appeared in Science last year, for example, demonstrates that even simple 23 _______ practice, where students are just supposed to repeat what they already learned gives considerably improved results on various 24 _______ tests down the line than many other educational interventions.
So they get to try again, and this time they got it right. There’s an optional explanation if they want. And now the video moves on to the next part of the 25 _______. This is a kind of simple question that I as an instructor might ask in class, but when I ask that kind of a question in class, 80 per cent of the studentsare still 26 _______ the last thing I said, 15 percent are 27 _______ _______ on Facebook, and then there’s the smarty pants in the 28 ______ _______ who blurts out the answer before anyone else has had a chance to think about it, and I as the instructor am terribly 29 _______ that somebody actually knew the answer. And so the lecture moves on before, really, most of the students have even noticed that a question had been asked. Here, every single student has to 30 _______ with the material.
3 After-watching activities
a) Match words from each column to make collocations found in the video (e-test can be found on: http://www.quia.com/quiz/5050623.html):
Part 1
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1. retrieval |
a) education |
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2. quality |
b) concept |
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3. within |
c) up |
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4. take |
d) reach |
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5. college |
e) assignment |
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6. achievement |
f) phenomenon |
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7. coherent |
g) content |
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8. prospective |
h) for granted |
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9. homework |
i) basis |
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10. to scale |
j) test |
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11. global |
k) graduates |
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12. the best |
l) practice |
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13. better |
m) employer |
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14. weekly |
n) life |
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Part 2
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1. effective |
a) trajectory |
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2. achievement |
b) questions |
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3. lecture |
c) human right |
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4. terribly |
d) tired |
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5. peer |
e) strategy |
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6. to get |
f) testimonial |
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7. fundamental |
g) score |
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8. student |
h) classroom |
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9. the root |
i) gratified |
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10. lecture-based |
j) of innovation |
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11. tremendous |
k) opportunities |
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12. personolized |
l) grading |
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13.wave |
m) cause |
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14. short answer |
n) notes |
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b) Fill in the gaps with the words to complete the sentences (e-test can be found on: http://www.quia.com/quiz/5053970.html): stampede, deadline, available, consequences, requires, preparatory, minority, admission, enrollments, explicitly, blurted out, hone, endeavor.
4 Production
a)What are the advantages and disadvantages of online education, according to Daphne Koller? Think yourself about pros and cons of learning with computers. Complete the following table with ideas from Daphne’s talk and your own thoughts.
While completing the table, think about your own experience of taking part in any online course or just studying on this book. Try to give some advice to students and teachers experiencing online education.
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Ideas |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
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According to Daphne |
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Your own ideas |
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Using the data of the table, make a mindmap “Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Education”, use https://www.mindomo.com.
b) Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
The Internet has forever changed the way we live and study. Its importance will continue to grow. By the year 2020 most of the world will be conducting its learning and business solely via the Internet.
Use the ideas from your mindmap to create arguments to discuss your opinion with the group.
These phrases can help you to create arguments:
According to the statistics, the use of the Internet in education and business around the world is doubling every few month.
The Internet has already changed the way we are communicating.
A lot of people nowadays stay at home, but at the same time study and work on the Internet.
The Internet has created unlimited new business and educational opportunities.
The Internet is still very young in its offerings of new educational and business opportunities.
The Internet is just a new way of communicating, but will not change anything in our lives.
The Internet, while interesting, is just a fad.
People want to meet other people while studying, working and shopping.
Reading on a computer screen is uncomfortable and people will never stop wanting to read, listen to music and be entertained in traditional ways.
Online education creates cultural homogenization, someone will say “Amiricanization”, and eventually people will get tired and bored of it.
The only real face to face interaction between a teacher and students must be present in a learning process.
The Internet is just a waste of time, it is mainly used by teenagers to entertain themselves.
This language will be helpful in expressing opinions, offering explanations, agreeing and disagreeing.
Expressing personal opinion:
Personally I think that
It would seem to me (that)
From my point of view
In my opinion
My personal opinion is
As far as I can judge...
As far as I remember…
As far as I know…
Agreement:
You have my full support
I’m all out for it
I’m in favour of it
I can see no reason to oppose
I fully agree with you
Disagreement:
I am not sure I quite agree
That one way of looking at it, but...
If I may say so, I believe you have confused...
I see (take) your point, but …
There appears to have been a slight misunderstanding here
Let’s get this straight from the start...
I’m afraid you have got it all wrong
I see what you mean, but...
You can’t be serious here, because……
Clarifying the situation:
Well, what I’m trying to say is (that) ...
Well, I suppose what I mean is (that) ...
Well, the point I’m trying to make is (that) ...
Well, I think what I mean is (that)
All I’m trying to say is (that) ...
I’m sorry, could you explain what you mean by...
I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand what you mean by...
Do you really think that ...
Am I mistaken in thinking that ...
I’m sorry, but could you possibly explain what you mean by...
Perhaps, but don’t you think that...
I’m afraid, I’m not very clear about what you mean by...
Giving reasons:
To start with …
The reason why … is that …
That’s why …
For this reason …
That’s the reason why
Many people think …
Considering …
Allowing for the fact that …