Archive for the ‘MOOC’ Category

Learn before testing or test before learning?

Saturday, July 20th, 2013

I’m just catching up on my reading of New Scientist and in last week’s (13th July) issue I have found this from a ‘one minute’ interview with Anant Agarwal, president of the edX MOOC provider.

Question: What was the first course you offered – and what insights did it give you?

Answer: It was on circuits and electronics. In the first two weeks, about 70% of the students accessed the course video first, then did their homework. By midway through, 60% of students did their homework first, then watched the video. We learned that it’s more motivational to be given something to solve and then go get the knowledge, as needed.