Tabula Rasa: Teaching and Learning as

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• Tabula RasaTeaching and Learning as
• Multimedia Authoring

Dr. Jason A Brotherton Computer Science
Department Ball State University
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What To Talk About?

• Classroom 2000 / eClass
• What it is (description)
• How we built it (engineering issues)
• How it was used (observations)
• The impact (evaluation)
• Why it was successful (lessons learned)
• Tabula Rasa
• What it will do
• How it will do it
• How it is different

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And Who I Am

• WE ARE NOT EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGISTS
• I dont even play one on TV!
• Research Belief
• Automated capture and access of live experiences
  can benefit or enhance everyday activities.
• Focus on the college classroom domain.
• eliminate tedious or unnecessary note taking

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Is There a Real Human Need?

• A classroom that takes notes why?
• Briefly describe your note taking practices in a
  traditional classroom
• I copy all the notes written on the board.
• Many times I lose what the professor is
  sayingbecause Im too busy writing notes
• more busy trying to write anddont really
  have the time to understand
• I spend all my timescribbling frantically
  without listening

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The Classroom
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The Notes
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The Notes
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Implementation

• Minimized development time by maximizing use of
  3rd party software
• Providing automation and the glue is the
  hardest part
• Yet, most critical!
• Written in early release Java (1996)
• Much of code is now obsolete
• Was novel, now ho-hum?

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Our Experience (W96 S00)

• 5 schools
• (GATech, Brown, McGill, GSU, KSU)
• 18 terms / semesters
• 35 different instructors
• 15 have taught 3 or more courses

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Our Experience (W96 S00)

• 132 courses taught using the system
• 112 classes (68 undergraduate, 44 graduate)
• 20 meetings / seminars
• 3,073 lectures captured
• 2,335 classes
• 738 meetings
• 30,087 slides captured
• 27,588 from classes
• 2,499 from meetings

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Evaluation Activities

• End of Semester Questionnaires
• 4 schools (most data from GT and KSU)
• 53 courses (43 unique)
• 938 students
• 22,010 responses
• On the fly student surveys
• 55 courses
• 12,924 responses

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Evaluation Activities

• Access Log Analysis
• 59,796 anonymous study sessions captured
• 57,048 classes / 2,748 meetings
• 109,115 study actions captured
• 104,537 classes / 4,578 meetings
• playMedia, viewSlide, viewWeb, printSlide,
  printAll, viewSyllabus
• (actions for many sessions were not captured)
• Controlled experiments
• GT Spring 98 KSU Spring 99

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Evaluation Results

• What Are the General Impressions?
• What is the Student Impact?
• How Were the Notes Used?

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Evaluation Results at a Glance(General
Impressions)

• eClass has authentic use
• used over a long period of time
• found by students to be a reliable service
• eClass is perceived as a useful study tool
• built for a need that existed
• used mostly for that need

Evaluation Results Overall Impressions
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eClass Used and Trusted

• Indirect Evidence
• Use spanning years
• Sheer volume of users (students and repeat
  instructors)
• 76 trust that lecture notes willalways be
  there.

Evaluation Results Overall Impressions
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eClass Built for a Need

• We supported the right thing (college lectures)
• 57 say lecture is most important
• 25 say lecture is 2nd most important

Evaluation Results Overall Impressions
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eClass Used for that Need

• Over 90 reviewed an attended lecture.
• Most common activity was to review a lecture.
• 38 for attended lecture
• 16 for a missed lecture
• Conclusion? Authentic use!

Evaluation Results Overall Impressions
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eClass as a Useful Learning Tool

• According to students, eClass
• aided in lecture engagement,
• helped them pay better attention,
• is suitable for most instructors / courses,
• is preferred by students

Evaluation Results Overall Impressions
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Evaluation Results At A Glance(Student Impact)

• eClass does not encourage skipping.
• Students take fewer, more summary style notes.
• Students want personalized notes.
• Privacy is not a worry, but should be addressed.
• Exam performance is not affected.

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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eClass Does Not Encourage Skipping

• Its not like being there . . .
• but it relieves worry.
• Attendance observations indicate capture has no
  negative effect on attendance.

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Effects on Note-Taking

• Can we observe a difference?
• Yes, students take fewer notes.
• Do we encourage good practice?
• Students appear to summarize more.(not copying,
  not just passive listening)

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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What Students Say

• Before
• I attempt to write down everything the professor
  does. This is sometimes distracting.
• After
• I did not try to write down everything that was
  said just the parts I found to be interesting or
  important.

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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In More Detail . . .

• Seem to be encouraging good practice!

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Comparing Notes Between Capture and Non-Capture
Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Personal Concerns

• Personalized Notes are desired.
• Students Still Want To Take Notes
• Students Prefer Own Notes
• In Consideration of Privacy
• Privacy In Class Not An Issue
• Privacy Out Of Class Not An Issue
• Student Voices Might Be Desired

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Impact on Performance

• Exam performance not impacted
• Replicated result in 2 studies
• However . . .
• Students report that
• eClass helps them learn, succeed in class
• eClass helps them study more efficiently.

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Evaluation Results at a Glance(Online Note Usage)

• How the Notes Were Used
• Notes are worth effort to capture heavily used.
• Augmentation of captured notes is desired / used.
• Media use increase time spent in study sessions.
• Audio is preferred over video.
• Slide-level media granularity is sufficient.
• StraightThrough is dominate media salvage
  technique.
• eClass used for exam cramming . . . and more.
• Future access occurs.

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Notes Worth Effort to Capture

• Saturation of Access _at_ 25 students / course
• 59,796 access sessions
• 2,335 lectures captured
• Average session duration is 430
• 13 minutes when look at sessions gt 2 minutes
• 557 eight-hour days of use

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Augmentation Desired

• Students said
• Audio/Video Augmentation of Notes is Worthwhile
• but So Is Web Capture!
• and Printing!
• but what we actually observed
• In 59,797 total note access sessions
• 27,102 media accesses in 10,064 sessions (18)
• 8,391 print jobs in 5,764 sessions (9)
• 1,581 web accesses in 726 sessions (1)
• 58 of courses used Web capture
• Media augmentation use dominates.

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Media Use Increases Study Time

• If media is accessed during the study session
  then
• The average study session duration jumps from
  430 to 1216

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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How Media Capture Is Used

• Average of 2.7 media accesses / study session
• Students play the media
• 614 average study session
• 318 average media play time / access

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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When Is Media Accessed?

• 47 of accesses are to first 5 minutes of
  captured lecture
• 69 of access occur in the first 5 minutes of
  study session

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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When is Media Accessed?

• After 5 minutes of a study session, 40 of media
  accesses refer to after the first 30 minutes of
  the media.

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Audio Capture is Good Enough

• Audio is by far the most popular interface choice
• 45,512 Audio interface accesses
• 7,148 Video interface accesses
• 6,297 Unknown interface accesses
• 839 No media interface accesses
• Audio is by far the most popular media choice
• 24,323 Audio Accesses
• 23,239 classes / 1,084 meetings
• 4,151 Video Accesses
• 3,863 classes / 288 meetings
• But . . .
• Video was poor quality (by todays standards)
• Audio interface was default

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Media Index Granularity

• Slide-level media access most popular (when able
  to determine method of access 27,102 accesses)

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Salvaging Techniques

• StraightThrough most popular salvaging technique

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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eClass Used For Exam Cram
Accesses
Sessions
Peak 3
Peak 3
Peak 2
Peak 1
Peak 2
Peak 1
Peak 1 getting to know the system Other peaks
exams
Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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eClass Used for Exam Cram

• Nearly ½ of accesses are withina week of an exam

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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eClass Used to Review Lectures

• Nearly 1/3 of all accesses are withina week of a
  lecture.
• No correlation within the first 7 days

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Instructor Experience Matters

• Instructors with more experience have more note
  accesses.

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Prepared Slides Matter

• Lectures with PowerPoint slides have more
  accesses than handwritten lectures.

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Future Access Occurs . . .

• 48 of all students say will access notes at some
  point in the future
• What we have observed (until Summer 2000)

• Captured material still useful after the fact

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Future Accesses Legitimate!

• They do not happen just because of repeat courses

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Evaluation Conclusions

• How the Notes Were Used
• Notes are worth effort to capture heavily used.
• Augmentation of captured notes is desired / used.
• Media use increase time spent in study sessions.
• Audio is preferred over video.
• Slide-level media granularity is sufficient.
• StraightThrough is dominate media salvage
  technique.
• eClass used for exam cramming . . . and more.
• Future access occurs.

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Evaluation Conclusions

• Student Impact
• eClass does not encourage skipping.
• Students take fewer, more summary style notes.
• Students want personalized notes.
• Privacy is not a worry, but should be addressed.
• Exam performance is not affected.
• General Impressions
• eClass has authentic use
• eClass is perceived as a useful study tool

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Tabula Rasa Enhancements

• Use the entire wall as an input surface
• Capture everything
• Enable student feedback/participation
• Both distributed and co-located
• Heterogeneous device support a must!

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Tabula Rasa Philosophy

• Revolution in teaching / learning through
  evolution
• Dont force the professor to change, but
  encourage good practices
• Relieve students from the burden of being copy
  machines let them take appropriate notes
• Encourage good study habits

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The End?

• I want to answer some questions first
• How much does this cost?
• What is the real motivation?
• Who does all the work?

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What It REALLY Costs
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For More Information

• On Classroom 2000 / eClass
• http//www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/eclass/
• On me (thesis more publications)
• http//JasonBrotherton.com

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Chi-Square Analysis

• For each questionnaire question, we looked for
  significant differences in responses based on
• The school attended
• The grade level of the student
• The students experience with eClass
• The instructors experience with eClass
• The ink density of the course
• The access ranking of the course
• The amount of prepared slides used in the course
• The total slide count for the course

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Media Augmentation of Notes is Worthwhile
(back)

Audio/Video augmentation (when available) of the
Web-based lecture notesincreased their value to
me.

• (341 responses)
• Graduate students, experienced students more
  likely to Strongly Agree and Agree.

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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But So Is Web Capture!
(back)

Capturing Web pages browsed in class was a useful
resource for later review.
(611 responses) Graduate students, students in
classes with PPT lectures more likely to Strongly
Agree.
Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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And Printing!
(back)

Printing captured lecture slides after class is a
valuable feature of this system to me.

• (785 responses)

Evaluation Results How Notes Were Used
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Its Not Like Being There . . .
(back)

Classroom 2000 technology will encourage students
to skip lectures.

• (757 responses)
• Graduate students more likely to Disagree,
  undergraduates Agree.

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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But Its Good Enough!
(back)

Classroom 2000 made me less worried about missing
class.

• (760 responses)
• Graduate students more likely to Strongly Agree,
  undergraduates Neutral, Disagree
• Courses with PowerPoint more likely to Strongly
  Agree, others Neutral.

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Students Want To Take Notes
(back)

The value of captured lecture notes would be
greatly enhanced if my own notes were included.

• (552 responses)

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Students REALLY Want To Take Their Own Notes!
(back)

I would rather have ONLY the captured notes over
just having ONLY my own notes.
My own notes taken in class were more useful to
me than the captured lecture notes.

• (124 responses)

• (115 responses)

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Privacy In Class Not An Issue
(back)

I was less likely to ask questions in class
because I knew that my voice would be recorded.

• (124 responses)

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Privacy Out Of Class Not An Issue
(back)

I was concerned that people outside of class
could listen to the lectures on the Web.

• (123 responses)

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Student Voices Might Be Desired
(back)

I would be more comfortable with Classroom 2000
if only the instructors commentswere recorded
instead of everyones comments being captured.

• (124 responses)

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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eClass Helps Students
(back)

The services of Classroom 2000 helped me to
succeed in this class.
I feel that the Classroom 2000 technology helped
me learn the material covered in this course.

• (348 responses)

• (224 responses)

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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Study Same Amount, But Study More Efficiently
(back)

Because of Classroom 2000, the amount of time I
spent studying/working for this class compared to
a similar class I have taken without Classroom
2000 . . .
The captured lecture notes enabled me to study
more efficiently than in other similar classes.

• (124 responses)

• (124 responses)

Evaluation Results Student Impact
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eClass Aids Engagement
(back)

The classroom lecture was more engaging or
interesting to me as result of the useof
technology in class and the availability of notes
afterwards.

• (582 responses)
• No statistical different between students with
  and without experience.

Evaluation Results Overall Impressions
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eClass Helps Attention
(back)

Because captured lecture notes are available
after class, I was able to betterpay attention
to the lecture.

• (887 responses)
• Students with previous experience more likely to
  Strongly Agree
• Classes with PowerPoint more likely to Agree

Evaluation Results Overall Impressions
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eClass Suitable for Most Courses
(back)

This type of course is well-suited to Classroom
2000 technology.
The lecturer used the Classroom 2000 technology
effectively in class.

• (581 responses)

• (582 responses)

Evaluation Results Overall Impressions
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eClass Preferred
(back)

All things being otherwise equal, I would prefer
to take a class that uses Classroom 2000
technology over the same class that does not.
Given the choice of taking a class with Classroom
2000 technology, or taking the same class which
was broadcast on demand over cable in a
high-quality format, Id prefer Classroom 2000.

• (535 responses)

• (123 responses)

Evaluation Results Overall Impressions