GR1 - Project Proposal and Analysis
1. Group Members
- Aakriti Shroff
- Kyle Fisher
- Brad Cordova
2. Problem Statement
Over the past year there has been a rapid increase in college level Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). With a large selection of courses to choose from, millions of users struggle to make an informed decision about which class to take from which provider (EDX, Coursera, Udacity, etc.). With this struggle, there arises a need for an interface that allows users to share their thoughts about courses so prospective online learners can make more informed decisions when subscribing to a course.
3. Interviews
*The names have been altered to preserve anonymity.
We conducted 4 interviews with the users.
Marky is a professional web designer who is looking to expand his technical skill set. He wants to take an online programming course, but doesn’t know where to take it from. Coursera seemed like an option, but so did EDX. He is afraid that he won’t have enough time to take the course on EDX because he thinks it will be too demanding. Additionally, he doesn’t want to find himself in a trap where he signs up for both courses and finds he prefers one to the other because he thinks it would be a huge waste of his time. His time is his most important asset.
Ricky is a soccer mom with her associates degree in nursing. She has been a registered nurse for 10 years and now has a child who is taking biology. She wants to help, but knows she won’t remember the course she took in college. At the time, she’s searching for something to refresh her memory and test her problem solving skills and wants to know if an online course would suit her needs better than a textbook.
Joey is a full time college student who uses MOOCs to learn more about topics she’s interested in. She signed up on Coursera for a class called “Algorithms, Part I” - taught by a professor at Princeton. She didn’t really have any information about the course before she signed up other than the syllabus on Coursera, but thought it might be interesting. She admitted that Princeton was a big part of the reason she joined that course over others, but says she would have changed her mind if she knew the professor wasn’t a great teacher beforehand. Kayla said that she felt overwhelmed because she didn’t know where to look for a review of the prerequisites.
Professor Danny has just released an online course at some massively open online course. He’d like to know what his students struggle with and how they find the course. He tried asking his students to fill in surveys throughout the course, but feels many students didn’t respond truthfully. He wants to know how he did as an online professor, and how he can improve his course and course content in the future.
4. User Classes
- Working professionals who are looking to expand their skill base
- Full Time Students
- Individuals (Stay home moms, for example) who are learning in their leisure time
- Course Instructors