Abstract

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are currently all the rage, and are now a popular method of distance learning for Computer Science. In this talk we explore whether some of the approaches deployed in recent MOO Cs can be used to improve teaching quality in a traditional university setting. Last term at the Computer Laboratory we ran an experiment replacing the lectures in one of our undergraduate courses with online videos. We investigated how this form of delivery might work for Cambridge undergraduates in tandem with the supervision system, and to try to promote direct engagement between supervisors and lecturers. In this talk we will describe the recording process we followed and the platform we built for the delivery of videos and embedded interactive questions for students. We will present the data we collected from interviews with undergraduates, surveys of supervisors and students, and viewing statistics from the videos themselves. We will expand on a number of possible scenarios for how this might evolve in future.