Events

Accredited CS Education at Scale: An Experiment in Offering CS1 Online

Computer Science and Engineering
Lecture / Panel
 
For NYU Community

Speaker: David Joyner,  Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract:

Online learning has exploded over the past several years, but the vast majority of online learning comes without the traditional accreditation or college endorsement. Scalable educational programs through MOOCs and similar services serve a wide audience, but they do not inherently offer the high-value endorsement attached to traditional college education. In response to this, Georgia Tech has launched two programs that attempt to scale up education while preserving the endorsement. The first of these programs is its online Master of Science in Computer Science program, an entirely online Master's degree identically accredited as its on-campus program for only $7000 in total tuition for the entire degree. This Master's program is in its fourth year and is predicted to increase the total output of MSCS degrees in the United States by 8% on its own. The second of these programs is a new online undergraduate class in Introduction to Computer Science. While there are many online CS classes already, this class attempts to offer a scalable endorsement of students' abilities while also taking advantage of the unique opportunities offered by an online medium. Built around principles of adaptivity, modularity, and personalization, this online course just finished a successful first-semester pilot with on-campus students, and currently enrolls 45,000 students in its MOOC variant. In this talk, David Joyner will share the design and results of these two programs.

Bio:

David Joyner is the product lead for Georgia Tech's online Master of Science in Computer Science program, as well as an instructor teaching four online classes: Educational Technology, Human-Computer Interaction, Knowledge-Based AI, and Introduction to Computing. For these efforts, David was the 2016 recipient of the Lockheed Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2017 recipient of the College of Computing Outstanding Instructor Award. David is also the founder and director of LucyLabs, a research lab dedicated to research by and about online students.