HigherEd 2.0

I have just been compiling some statistics about the project that I want to share with you.

The Wiki The course wiki was popular, especially in the last day or two before the exam (as expected). I must admit that this data is a bit incomplete, because I have not verified that the Javascript on each wiki page continued to be active throughout the whole time period (i.e., that nobody deleted the script). This JS is used by Google Analytics to track hits, sources, etc. Anyway, this Analytics screenshot shows a usage peak of only about 20 hits per day, with a total of only 160 page views. This seems sort of low to me, considering all the materials I saw at the final exam. Nonetheless, I am actually really pleased with the way the wiki turned out. You took ownership and did a really good job.

The Video Solutions All I can say is “wow”. I was really blown away by the quality and usefulness of the solutions. Some data:

• We had video solutions to a total of 32 different problems and 3 mash-ups from individuals and student teams.
• About half of the video solutions were for problems from Ch. 9.
• There were 389 total downloads of the videos (QT movies and other formats). Of these, 305 downloads were from Ch. 9 problems (an average of nearly 30 downloads per problem).
• I was not able to effectively track downloads of the PPT solutions, and there were lots of them. But, especially for the Ch. 8 and 9 problems, it’s probably safe to assume that there were a similar number of downloads for these solutions.
• There is a clear chronology to the downloads too. The solutions which appear higher up in the blog (i.e., were posted closer to exam time) had much higher download rates.
• The mash-ups were also popular, with 156 total downloads or about 52 per mash-up. The mash-ups also showed the chronology trend.
• None of these “download” data account for RSS feed subscribers or students who played the videos in a pop-up window. So the total viewing numbers are probably a bit higher than reported here.
• Google Analytics also tells a certain story, with 700 page views the day before the exam.

I will be writing a bit more about this entire experiment of collaborative development of educational resources, and I will also be sending around a survey to get your feedback on the approach once the dust settles. But until then, let me say one more time that I am so deeply proud of everyone for engaging in learning this way, producing extremely high quality education materials, and cooperating toward a common goal.