Experience in applying online courses at Computer Science Center
The Computer Science Center (educational project ShAD Yandex, JetBrains and Computer Science Club at POMI RAS) continues to register for free open mass online courses (MOOC) on the basics of programming.
As we already wrote , from September 15, 2014 it will be possible to complete the following online courses :
1. Algorithms and data structures (AS Kulikov)
2. Introduction to computer architecture. Elements of Operating Systems (KV Krinkin)
3. Programming in C ++ (A.V. Smal)
In this post we will talk about how the CS Center used the online course on Algorithms and Data Structures as one of the stages of the admissions campaign in 2014.
As an experiment, the CS Center in the spring of 2014 offered to undergo an AS course. Kulikova on algorithms and data structures instead of the traditional written exam. The course was available only to those who applied for admission.
Entrance tests consist of three stages: filling out a questionnaire on the site, a written exam, instead of which this year you could take an online course, and an interview.
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801 people registered for the course, 199 of them passed it to the minimum score and above. 132 people came to the written exam, 12 of whom were invited for an interview and only 5 became students of the CS Center. In total, 98 people were enrolled this year, that is, 93 after taking the online course.
We have never used online courses for admission to the center before. Despite this, applicants made decisions on the course in order to be guaranteed an interview. In order to receive the “credit”, it was necessary to score 82 points, and even a person was found who did it three days after the launch of the admissions campaign. After talking with everyone who reached the required mark in the online course, we realized that it does not matter which filter to use at the first stage of selection: it seems that these guys and the exam would have written well. On the other hand, the course helped us to draw conclusions about the motivation and learnability of applicants, because in most cases it was necessary to spend more time and effort on it.
Speaking of motivation: basically, as seen in the figure, gaining a minimum passing score and sometimes solving a couple more tasks, students of the course set it aside, referring to the session and other more important matters. In personal communication at the interview, many said that they would continue to perform tasks and score more points. What do you think, are students willing to complete the course? (poll below).
In fact, not everyone even reached the “credit”, but 20% of the registered ones overcame this threshold. Our online course has a higher passing rate than, for example, teachers who published their courses on Coursera and told about this in an interview . However, it was expected: our listeners had a goal - to get an interview, and not just improve their level of education. To get an interview on the results of the written exam, for him it was necessary to get an unknown amount of points in advance for an unknown set of tasks, and this, apparently, this method attracted less applicants.
Overall, the online course worked well within the admissions campaign. Now we are launching three open courses, and we plan to use the results of their study in admission to the CS Center in 2015. In addition, the teachers of the CS Center A.S. Kulikov and K.V. Krinkin decided to apply their online courses for full-time study at the center in the fall semester of 2014.
A bit about the structure of courses. Course duration - 5-6 weeks. Every week a new chapter is opened for study. The average duration of video lectures in one chapter is 1-1.5 hours. For a week, you need not only to have time to watch lectures, but also to complete assignments: these can be programming tasks or tests; in addition, there are tasks in the course of Algorithms with a free answer, which are checked by students from each other. Tasks need to be addressed before the deadlines set for each week. There are two types: Soft deadline - the student receives a full score for the decision, Hard deadline - the student receives a half point for the decision. After Hard Deadline, even for a correctly solved task, the student will receive 0 points. For successful completion of the course, the student will receive a symbolic certificate of its completion.
Update
Judging by the results of the survey, 78% of the respondents did not believe that candidates for admission to the CS Center completed the course. And they were right. The figure shows the distribution of scores on the course on different dates, by the end of the deadline for taking the course for an invitation to an interview and after 3.5 months.
As we already wrote , from September 15, 2014 it will be possible to complete the following online courses :
1. Algorithms and data structures (AS Kulikov)
2. Introduction to computer architecture. Elements of Operating Systems (KV Krinkin)
3. Programming in C ++ (A.V. Smal)
In this post we will talk about how the CS Center used the online course on Algorithms and Data Structures as one of the stages of the admissions campaign in 2014.
As an experiment, the CS Center in the spring of 2014 offered to undergo an AS course. Kulikova on algorithms and data structures instead of the traditional written exam. The course was available only to those who applied for admission.
Entrance tests consist of three stages: filling out a questionnaire on the site, a written exam, instead of which this year you could take an online course, and an interview.
')
801 people registered for the course, 199 of them passed it to the minimum score and above. 132 people came to the written exam, 12 of whom were invited for an interview and only 5 became students of the CS Center. In total, 98 people were enrolled this year, that is, 93 after taking the online course.
We have never used online courses for admission to the center before. Despite this, applicants made decisions on the course in order to be guaranteed an interview. In order to receive the “credit”, it was necessary to score 82 points, and even a person was found who did it three days after the launch of the admissions campaign. After talking with everyone who reached the required mark in the online course, we realized that it does not matter which filter to use at the first stage of selection: it seems that these guys and the exam would have written well. On the other hand, the course helped us to draw conclusions about the motivation and learnability of applicants, because in most cases it was necessary to spend more time and effort on it.
Speaking of motivation: basically, as seen in the figure, gaining a minimum passing score and sometimes solving a couple more tasks, students of the course set it aside, referring to the session and other more important matters. In personal communication at the interview, many said that they would continue to perform tasks and score more points. What do you think, are students willing to complete the course? (poll below).
In fact, not everyone even reached the “credit”, but 20% of the registered ones overcame this threshold. Our online course has a higher passing rate than, for example, teachers who published their courses on Coursera and told about this in an interview . However, it was expected: our listeners had a goal - to get an interview, and not just improve their level of education. To get an interview on the results of the written exam, for him it was necessary to get an unknown amount of points in advance for an unknown set of tasks, and this, apparently, this method attracted less applicants.
Overall, the online course worked well within the admissions campaign. Now we are launching three open courses, and we plan to use the results of their study in admission to the CS Center in 2015. In addition, the teachers of the CS Center A.S. Kulikov and K.V. Krinkin decided to apply their online courses for full-time study at the center in the fall semester of 2014.
A bit about the structure of courses. Course duration - 5-6 weeks. Every week a new chapter is opened for study. The average duration of video lectures in one chapter is 1-1.5 hours. For a week, you need not only to have time to watch lectures, but also to complete assignments: these can be programming tasks or tests; in addition, there are tasks in the course of Algorithms with a free answer, which are checked by students from each other. Tasks need to be addressed before the deadlines set for each week. There are two types: Soft deadline - the student receives a full score for the decision, Hard deadline - the student receives a half point for the decision. After Hard Deadline, even for a correctly solved task, the student will receive 0 points. For successful completion of the course, the student will receive a symbolic certificate of its completion.
Update
Judging by the results of the survey, 78% of the respondents did not believe that candidates for admission to the CS Center completed the course. And they were right. The figure shows the distribution of scores on the course on different dates, by the end of the deadline for taking the course for an invitation to an interview and after 3.5 months.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/234929/
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