Using MOOCs for Computer Science Teacher Professional Development

When our ebook work was funded by IUSE, our budget was cut from what we proposed. Something had to be dropped from our plan of work. What we dropped was a comparison between ebooks and MOOCs. I had predicted that we could get better learning and higher completion rates from our ebooks than from our MOOCs. That’s the part that got dropped — we never did that comparison.

I’m glad now. It’s kind of a ridiculous comparison because it’s about the media, not particular instances. I’m absolutely positive that we could find a terrible ebook that led to much worse results than the absolutely best possible MOOC, even if my hypothesis is right about the average ebook and the average MOOC. The medium itself has strengths and weaknesses, but I don’t know how to experimentally compare two media.

I’m particularly glad since I wouldn’t want to go up against Carol Fletcher and her creative team who are finding ways to use MOOCs successfully for CS teacher PD. You can find their recent presentation “Comparing the Efficacy of Face to Face, MOOC, and Hybrid Computer Science Teacher Professional Development” on SlideShare:

Carol sent me a copy of the paper from  the 2016″Learning with MOOCs” conference*. I’m quoting from the abstract below:

This research examines the effectiveness of three primary strategies for increasing the number of teachers who are CS certified in Texas to determine which strategies are most likely to assist non-CS teachers in becoming CS certified. The three strategies compared are face-to-face training, a MOOC, and a hybrid of both F2F and MOOC participation. From October 2015, to August of 2016, 727 in-service teachers who expressed an interest in becoming CS certified participated in one of these pathways. Researchers included variables such as educational background, teaching certifications, background in and motivation to learn computer science, and their connection to computer science through their employment or the community at large as covariates in the regression analysis. Findings indicate that the online only group was no less effective than the face-to-face only group in achieving certification success. Teachers that completed both the online and face-to-face experiences were significantly more likely to achieve certification. In addition, teachers with prior certification in mathematics, a STEM degree, or a graduate degree had greater odds of obtaining certification but prior certification in science or technology did not. Given the long-term lower costs and capacity to reach large numbers that online courses can deliver, these results indicate that investment in online teacher training directed at increasing the number of CS certified teachers may prove an effective mechanism for scaling up teacher certification in this high need area, particularly if paired with some opportunities for direct face-to-face support as well.

That they got comparable results from MOOC-based on-line and face-to-face is an achievement. It matches my expectations that a blended model with both would be more successful than just on-line.

Carol and team are offering a new on-line course for the Praxis test that several states use for CS teacher certification. You can find details about this course at https://utakeit.stemcenter.utexas.edu/foundations-cs-praxis-beta/.

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* Fletcher, C., Monroe, W., Warner, J., Anthony, K. (2016, October). Comparing the Efficacy of Face-to-Face, MOOC, and Hybrid Computer Science Teacher Professional Development. Paper presented at the Learning with MOOCs Conference, Philadelphia, PA.