Title: Designing Online Technologies that Improve Student Efficiency, Instructor Engagement, and Program Integrity in Online Learning Environments 

Date: Thursday,  April 28th, 2022

Time: 9:00-11:00 AM ET

Location (remote via Bluejeans):  https://bluejeans.com/1669189709

India Irish

Ph.D. student in Human-Centered Computing

School of Interactive Computing

Georgia Institute of Technology

Committee:

Dr. Thad Starner (Co- Advisor) – School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Rosa Arriaga (Co- Advisor) – School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Ashok K. Goel  – School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Charels Isbell – College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. David Joyner – College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Jeonghyun Lee – Center of 21 Center for 21 Century Universities (C21U), Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract:

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are becoming increasingly popular as students seek less expensive alternatives to obtain additional technical skills to further their careers. The rapid growth in interest in online classrooms has required institutions to consider developing tools to help facilitate large student enrollment.  For example, Georgia Institute of Technology offers a MOOC-based online Master's degree with a tuition cost of $5,000. However, many interventions are targeted at massive online open courses (MOOCs) rather than online degree-seeking courses. My research attempts to understand how we design online technologies to improve students' efficiency, instructor engagement, and program integrity in online environments.

In this proposal, two completed research studies examine how a recommendation agent can improve instructor and student experience in online forums, used in online degree-seeking programs. The first evaluates how a recommendation system improved: a.) students' satisfaction within a forum, b.) teaching assistants' ability to support students learning in the forum, and c.) the number of posts and redundant posts within the forum. The second study builds upon the first study by incorporating an experimental deployment of the recommendation agent. These two studies provide an empirical contribution using a mix-methods approach to present students' and teaching assistants' perceptions and interaction with recommendation systems in a classroom discussion forum.

The proposed work focuses on designing online technologies for online classes by extending the efforts to improve instructor efficiency.  This study will establish if the students' process of inquiry plays a role in how instructional staff identifies urgent posts in discussion forums. This work will contribute to adding additional features to strengthen their ability to navigate to urgent posts on online forums.The final proposed project will focus on program integrity, investigating contract cheating.  This work seeks to validate the business structure of contract cheating and investigate optimal Computer Science assignments that do not appeal to homework for hire contractors.

India Irish

Ph.D. student in Human-Centered Computing

School of Interactive Computing

Georgia Institute of Technology