Principal Investigators:
Prof. Tomás Lozano-Pérez -Dept. of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

Additional Investigators:
Prof. Eric Grimson (EECS), Prof. Leslie Kaelbling (EECS), Dr. Chris Terman (EECS), Prof. Patrick Winston (EECS)

Project Overview:

Faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) have been experimenting with major changes in the format and content of several of the Department's key courses. They are developing and using on-line, interactive technologies that enable students to learn at their own pace and on their own schedules and to get immediate and complete feedback on their mastery of material; and enable faculty to spend their time on developing new content, rather than rehashing of old content, and enable teaching assistants to spend their time on face-to-face interactions with the students, rather than grading.

This work uses different combinations of:

• On-line presentations based on narrated PowerPoint slides. These presentations are modular and interspersed with on-line exercises. They are easy to edit and improve from semester to semester.
• Web-based assignments with immediate feedback on correctness and multiple attempts allowed. These assignments include programming and circuit design, not just multiple-choice and provide students with a wide range of challenges.

These technologies define a new genre of course materials that goes far beyond printed textbooks or Web sites of materials to be printed. This research is already being used in three of the large undergraduate Computer Science subjects in EECS (6.001, 6.034 and 6.004) and are under evaluation for 6.042. Extensive surveys have been conducted in 6.001 and 6.034; student reaction has been quite positive.

Description:

The new materials have been used in this subject during Fall '00, Spring '01 and Fall '01 with an average of 300 students per semester. The format, made possible by the on-line presentations and assignments is

• Six live lectures for the whole class during semester
• Two faculty-led recitation sections per week (25-30 students)
• One TA-led tutorial meeting per week (5-6 students)
• Two on-line presentations per week, with interactive exercises
• One on-line problem-set per week, checked automatically
• Three programming projects per semester

• Sample presentation (for JavaScript-enabled browser):
• Sample presentation (HTML):
• Sample problem (HTML):

The new materials have been used during Fall '00 and Fall '01 with an average of 300 students per semester.

• Two live lectures per week
• One faculty-led recitation section per week (30-35 students)
• One TA-led tutorial meeting per week (10 students)
• One on-line presentations per week, with interactive exercises
• One on-line problem-set per week
• Three programming projects per semester

• Sample presentation (for JavaScript-enabled browser):
• Sample presentation (HTML):
• Sample problem (HTML):

Full-scale use has begun in Fall '01.

The format for the subject is:

• Two live lectures per week
• Two TA-led tutorial meeting per week (25 students)
• On-line tutorial questions each week
• Seven laboratory assignments each checked automatically; students must also answer a set of personalized on-line questions after each assignment.
• Three design projects, each checked automatically

Screen shots of the laboratory check-off process:

• status page
• verification successful
• verification failed
• Sample set of lab questions
• Sample tutorial questions

6.555J/HST582J - Biomedical Signal and Image Processing (Spring '01) Julie Greenberg (http://web.mit.edu/6.555/www/), On-line tutorial on Spectral Analysis.

6.042 - Math for Computer Science (Fall '01) Albert Meyer, On-line practice problems.