Hi, I'm one of the developers for MITx. We'd love to get your feedback on the system - bugs, features you'd like to see, what you like and don't like, etc. Thanks!
Excellent. That is a really well done CMS, and Im not being nice. The textbook specially is a nice touch. Love the course progress.
Small request - Given that most of your users are going to be college students whose emails are cut off after graduating, I think you should allow emails to be changeable in the profile. (I used my school email hoping to change it later on. I couldve signed up for another accont but your policy prohibits that not to mention I lose my username.)
Thanks for the feedback from everyone. Some of these things we've been aware of and are working on, others are news to us. We really appreciate it and will be working hard to improve the system. Please keep the feedback coming, whether here or through our feedback form (footer of page once you log in).
A very minor issue – I was looking through the Terms of Service and noticed that under the DMCA section, DMCA is misspelled as DCMA in both the email and mailing addresses.
Looks much spiffier than I expected. Very well organized and presented.
I did manage to get the scrolling text out of synch with the video. I think it was because I put the first video on 1.25 speed. The next video then reverted to 1.0 speed by itself, but I think the text stayed on 1.25. When I explicitly reset the video to 1.0, the text re-synched and stayed synched.
I may have missed it - but it seems like the transcription for the videos is synced to the video so that you cant scroll and read it faster than the video plays. I'd love if it was scrollable somehow; for example, I could quickly read a section that was less than interesting, then click to rejoin the part where I want to actually listen/watch the video.
Looks great. Very clean and fast UI. A pleasure to use and easy to navigate.
It was nice to see the textbook there. It was a little hard to read though, on my 13" screen I had to frequently scroll up and down when turning pages.
I'm guessing pdf is not an option for licensing reasons, but a vertical scroll or full screen option would be nice.
Thanks for the subtitles. They would be easier to follow if overlaid directly on the video. I understand the transcript is supposed to be clickable/seekable, so maybe have traditional overlays as a full-screen option.
As a "competitor", I think the biggest compliment I could pay you is this new system is the only LMS out there that even comes close to what we have built, both in content and presentation. Great job. Honestly, I'm hoping that your development cycle is long enough that we can open up a big lead while you are caught up building out new classes. Given how long the old open-courseware was around, I'm cautiously optimistic.
As a student, I do have to highly recommend not using Comic Sans for any part of the presentation. It makes the slides look incredibly amateurish.
Kathy Sierra and Burt Bates also used these types of fonts in their "Head First" series for O'reilly. I have never gotten into those books, but many people love them.
Now that is genuinely interesting. Of course, the raw data is hidden behind a paywall, so we don't really know that "significant" means to the author, or whether the test included slides or just raw text.
Still, this is one of those rare times when I could be right about looking professional (it looks cheesy, can't argue that) but completely wrong if it actually leads to higher retention.
I've checked out several of the leading LMS's out there, and have yet to find one that I actually like. You sound confident that your LMS is quite good. I was wondering if you would link it up so that I may check it out?
The system is great, as is the content! The only bug I've found is that the videos revert to 1.0x playback when you go to the next one, but the transcript continues to move at the changed speed.
The only other criticism I have is the price of the course book. It's £55 in the UK (Amazon price), which is £25 more than any other course book I have ever bought. Seeing as much of the book appears to be online, it may be worth looking at cheaper options if possible (Kindle, international edition, or some discount for MITx users).
One of the first things I noticed was the video sizing. The default size seemed too small but the larger size was not view able without scrolling down past so all of the top nav controls where out of the way. Making video like a click to resize type thing would be pretty cool.
(just resizing the browser content also seems to be a suitable solution too however)
Really good overall. One thing that really annoys me in the videos however is the endless tunnel effect (slowly expanding rings). It's ok when it's in the background and covered by something, but I can actually see it applied over the TA... Pretty annoying over time, reminds me of the looney tunes screen.
Found a small error...
I was in the "Lab0: Using the tools" and I put "500uA" for the answer to "Current flowing into source (amps, with correct sign)". I got an Unknown Error javascript alert. When I removed the "A" from the answer box, all was well.
The speed up options was really a stroke of genius. I caught myself reading ahead of the transcript and not paying attention to the video till I set it to 1.5x.
It was just a tiny learning hurdle when there are 3 different navigation bars (main at the top, secondary on the left, and tertiary under the main) for courseware section.
The Stanford Database and Machine Learning classes had a 1.5x speed option. I found it really helped me concentrate; the extra effort needed to listen helped keep me from zoning out.
Wow, Gerald Sussman (SICP) is one of the professors, another one is the director of CSAIL. If you are not in the US, or if you are not in a top university, why would you study in your university instead of studying from top material like this?
Labs, office hours, networking, research opportunities, independent study, structural constraints, etc.
I love the whole movement of making lecture recordings available online for free. Ready and open access to learning has long been an ideal of academia. But it's not likely to topple the ivory tower any time soon, there's just too much that it can't do.
There's also plenty that it can do but isn't yet, leaving many areas to target if you want to do an EDU startup. "Video lectures plus computer-administered homework" is not the endpoint.
Not disagreeing with you, but, as a point of reference, I took 6.002 in person and I didn't take advantage of any of those opportunities for that class. You could argue that it's my loss, and you'd be right, but in practice you can replicate many MIT students' 6.002 (or any other class) experience with just videos and a looming final exam.
Exactly. In my experience the vast majority of students rarely if ever take advantage of office hours.
Also, the lack of hands on labs and research isn't going to matter most of the time. That being said, EE is one of the majors where physical labs are essential, but for CS there's really no need.
I want to check it out but don't intend to go through the whole course. Is there a way to take it for a test drive without formally registering for the course?
I know I can just stop participating and that would "drop" me from the course; but I hate to skew your analytics just to satisfy my curiosity.
I know of two others in SF who are interested in this course. I'm sure there are more out there. If you're near the bay area and want to connect to form study groups, holler or email me at jkwon.work@gmail.com.
You do not have to do anything. You can simply stop working on the course at any time you choose to do so.
What happens if I drop the course?
For the prototype course, learners achieving grades of "A," "B," or "C" will receive an electronic Certificate of completion with the learner's name and grade on it. If you receive a grade below a "C" or do not complete the course, you will not receive a Certificate and no grade record attaching your name to your participation in the class will be disclosed outside of MITx. You can also choose to opt for a no record at any time. However, the posts you make while enrolled in the class will remain visible."
