{"169941":{"#nid":"169941","#data":{"type":"news","title":"40,000+ Enroll in First Coursera Course","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESitting in front of a camera and giving a lecture to students you can\u2019t see is intimidating. This is just one of the things that Tucker Balch has learned about the process of teaching a massive open online course (or MOOC) through Coursera.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOne of the reasons I enjoy teaching in front of students is because I can see if they\u2019re getting the material, but lecturing online is like diagnosing an illness over the Internet. It\u2019s a challenge,\u201d said Balch, an associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing. \u201cInstead of gauging reactions, I really have to pay attention to the online forums to see if people understand.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn late October, Balch began teaching Georgia Tech\u2019s first free class on Coursera to more than 40,000 students, ranging from retirees to high schoolers, around the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe course, Computational Investing Part I, runs eight weeks and focuses on how modern electronic financial markets work, why stock prices change and how computation can help people to better understand these issues. (Learn more about the course \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.coursera.org\/course\/compinvesting1\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBalch\u2019s interest in teaching a MOOC began last year after hearing that other institutions were offering them. He approached Rich DeMillo, director of the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U), about teaching one, and the rest is history.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve had colleagues tell me that there\u2019s much less support for teaching these types of courses at other universities,\u201d Balch said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of Georgia Tech for being bold enough to give this a try.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlthough Balch thinks that the ideal teaching environment is still a single professor teaching 20 to 30 students face-to-face, he also thinks MOOCs have a place in higher education.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor example, teaching these courses allows us to reach a wider audience \u2014 including millions of people in India and China,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s also a great marketing tool to reach high school students who might one day attend Tech.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBalch selected the course topic because it\u2019s fairly new, and he wanted to be one of the first to teach a course about it. The information taught in this class is based on a class that Balch teaches at Tech, which he has broken into two parts for Coursera. Each week, students view two modules, with each module being made up of four 5- to 12-minute lectures.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve learned is that lectures need to be broken up into short chunks of time, because it\u2019s easier for students to process the material,\u201d Balch said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo keep students engaged, he tries to use visuals, such as pictures, as much as possible. In the future, Balch also plans to integrate interviews with people who work in investing fields (such as hedge fund managers and stock traders) into the lectures.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents take weekly multiple-choice quizzes and complete optional code-writing projects throughout the course to assess their learning, and projects are peer graded by students in the class.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen it comes to cheating, Balch isn\u2019t as concerned with the issue as he might be with a for-credit course.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey have nothing to gain by cheating,\u201d he said. \u201cI suppose they could, but that would be like jumping to the end of a good book and skipping the good parts in the middle.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe estimated workload for students is about five to seven hours per week. At the end of the not-for-credit course, all students receive a certificate of completion from C21U.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlthough Balch has taught distance learning courses in the past, one of the things that was a surprise to him about teaching a MOOC is the amount of time he has needed to put into it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMultiply your estimate of time you\u2019ll put into it by two,\u201d he said. \u201cI have spent about 15 to 20 hours a week on this course, because it takes time to make my material online-friendly. But I also realize that when I offer the course next semester, it won\u2019t take up as much time, because I\u2019m not starting from scratch.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOn Jan. 28, Balch will offer the course again, and several other Tech Coursera courses will also kick off. For more information about the Institute\u2019s offerings, click \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.coursera.org\/gatech\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESitting in front of a camera and giving a lecture to students you can\u2019t see is intimidating. This is just one of the things that Tucker Balch has learned about the process of teaching a massive open online course (or MOOC) through Coursera.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Sitting in front of a camera and giving a lecture to students you can\u2019t see is intimidating. This is just one of the things that Tucker Balch has learned about the process of teaching a massive open online course (or MOOC) through Coursera."}],"uid":"27445","created_gmt":"2012-11-09 14:24:33","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:13:10","author":"Amelia Pavlik","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-11-12T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2012-11-12T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"169901":{"id":"169901","type":"image","title":"Tucker Balch","body":null,"created":"1449178978","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:42:58","changed":"1475894809","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:46:49","alt":"Tucker Balch","file":{"fid":"195692","name":"balch.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/balch_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/balch_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":97999,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/balch_0.jpg?itok=XmVqJTEP"}}},"media_ids":["169901"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.coursera.org\/gatech","title":"Georgia Tech on Coursera"}],"groups":[{"id":"1259","name":"Whistle"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"13481","name":"C21U"},{"id":"14381","name":"center for 21st century universities"},{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"38281","name":"Coursera"},{"id":"14386","name":"massive open online course"},{"id":"49661","name":"online learning. MOOC"},{"id":"166848","name":"School of Interactive Computing"},{"id":"1938","name":"Tucker Balch"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:amelia.pavlik@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EAmelia Pavlik\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstitute Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-385-4142\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}