By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor
Posted 7/28/15 at 10:17am; updated 11:46am
In the discussion on “MOOCs and Traditional Online Courses Are on a Collision Path,” Ray Rose (onlinelearningevangelist) and Harry Keller are having a fascinating exchange on the problem of captioning in MOOC videos. A cost-effective solution is autocaptioning, but the outlook at this time for developing an effective tool isn’t very good.
Their discussion fascinates in more ways than one. For example, it raises the issue of problem-solving in the online environment. What is the best approach?
For problems in technology, we naturally gravitate toward technological solutions, for example, a program that automatically translates speech to text and displays it as captions.
The cost for developing such a program, however, may be prohibitive, and the wide variation in human speech even within a single dialect makes the task extremely difficult.
But high tech problems don’t necessarily exclude low-tech solutions that are leveraged by technology. Put another way, the latest technology could generate innovative approaches that rely on old-fashioned human power, creating cost-effective solutions that blend the old with the new.
For example, Duke’s Sally Kornbluth,1 discussing the problem of formative evaluations in MOOCs, says, “If you’re wondering how you can possibly read 400,000 essays, you can have 400,000 students read one another’s essays.” Her point is that “there’s a lot of unexplored power that can be harnessed.” We just need to open our eyes to a much wider range of possibilities — and the possibilities could easily include human resources such as classmates empowered by networking technology.
The rap against peer feedback models, however, is that they’re unreliable, but ongoing research is proving that they can be and are being improved.
We have to keep in mind, though, that peer feedback is really just one of many other forms of evaluation provided by people other than teachers. For example, Sebastian Thrun,2 for his Udacity nanodegree on Android programming, takes the idea of peer evaluators and leverages it to include experts who aren’t part of the formal instructional staff. He has created a “network of 300 global code reviewers” who provide feedback to students.
The genius of this business model is that it’s self-sustaining while providing a profit for Udacity. Students pay $200 a month, reviewers’ pay is covered by this amount, students rate the quality of the feedback they receive, and reviewer income is determined by the evaluations they receive from students.
According to Thrun, “The best-earning global code reviewer makes more than 17,000 bucks a month. I compare this to the typical part-time teacher in the U.S. who teaches at a college — they make about $2,000 a month.”
This model could be applied to other problems (see Harry Keller’s comment) such as captioning. For example, MOOC developers could put out an international call for transcribers who are willing to provide captioning services. Since captions are aimed primarily at learners with disabilities, candidates could be volunteers or paid through philanthropic and public funds. A rating system could be attached to the videos, providing both student feedback on the quality of the captions and a means to control for quality.
The pool for captioners, when geographic location is factored out, is potentially huge. It could include high school and college students earning service credits, retirees, homebound adults, military personnel, and select prisoners.
We tend to think of technology as cold and impersonal, but it really doesn’t have to be. Technology could easily be a means to expand and deepen human interaction, providing a way for people to collaborate, one-on-one, with others.
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1George Anders, “The Believer: Duke’s Sally Kornbluth,” MIT Technology Review, 27 July 2015.
2Nanette Byrnes, “Uber for Education,” MIT Technology Review, 27 July 2015.
Filed under: Instructional Technology, Learning Disablity, MOOC, Online Learning |
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Richard Koubek
Judith McDaniel
Tim Fraser-Bumatay: "Although the format leaves us far-removed physically, the online forum has its own sense of intimacy" (Judith McDaniel, "
Ryan Kelly: "For me to be able to work with people clear across the country for an extended period of time opened me up to new things" (Judith McDaniel, "
Daniel Herrera: "As a Mexican American, I know that words of identity are powerful; so to discuss white privilege with my professor and classmates in a face-to-face class would have been terrifying and impossible" (Judith McDaniel, "
Cathy Gunn: "Traditional methods for effecting change at my institution aren’t getting us even to a trickle yet, let alone to thinking about or planning for a wave!" (
Educational Technology and Change Journal 
Hi JIm,
I’m right with you on this. If students with sight limitations would pay a very modest fee for their CC’d learning materials, and captioners would be willing to work for modest pay, it could even work in the ordinary world outside of foundations and goverments. It could work along the lines of the global code reviewers, although I doubt that captioners could expect $17,000 per month.
Creative use of our enormous people resource could do lots of things. We’re just beginning to see the potential with crowdfunding, MOOCs, and other initiatives. The XPRIZE Foundation is doing it for the world’s problems. Live Earth is working on the first-ever one billion signature petition.
We just have to have the means to prevent being dragged down to mediocrity. The global code reviewer concept has a feedback system to help prevent that. Just look at the number of people who provide Amazon with free reviews that help to keep bad products from succeeding in that marketplace.
On average, we are mediocre with respect to any specialty. Yet, people have unexpected skills. I am terrible at learning languages. Do not expect me to translate your French or German for you even though I studied both in school and passed tests on both for my PhD. Here I am, a chemist by training, a self-taught and successful software engineer, but I also was able to do an excellent job of wiring a new home that eventually reached 3,500 sq ft. with a 400 amp service entry. No one would expect that.
Well. I guess I’d better get to figuring out how to engage this fantastic force for my business. :)
As I was reading about captioning, it occurred to me that captioning would also be a method for other students to review and study material they had to know well. It would suit some learners styles well, although it would not be for everyone. The challenge would be in finding the learners who prefer learning that way.
Jim:
Nice transition between discussions. The people resource is a solution for some issues. I was just keynote in a web conference where I had both a live captionist and a live signer providing accessibility services. And while there is a cost, I believe the captioning was done by staff who are developing the skills for this, though it’s a once-a-year conference. It’s a skill students could develop which would provide both enhanced marketability and as Mary suggests, enhanced learning/understanding.