Mar 28, 2022
This course covers two major components (1) design of next generation education experiences and (2) cutting-edge education algorithms used to model students, assess learning, and design widely deployable tools for open access education. The goal of the course is for you to be ready to lead your own computation education research project. Topics include item response theory, designing for motivation, and above all, welcomes you into the conversation of education's digital future.
During the course, there will be two core assignments and a final project. The core assignment questions are designed to be submitted individually but we encourage you to teach each other and complete them in teams. The final project can be individual or team work.
This class has no midterm, no final. All your homework is designed to be completed in class.
Your final project will be either be: recreating an advanced idea in computational education, producing a novel idea or making a new tool. We will help you along the way. You will present your final project on the last day of class. Lets make some impact! In CS398 you will get mentorship on how to get your ideas spread more widely -- which is of course optional. One way to make impact is to submit your final paper towards a peer reviewed conference. Another way is to add an idea to the Open-Access Code in Place course that we will offer from Stanford in Spring 2023.
Grading in CS398 is based on a set of disiterata that we value: Your personal growth, your contribution to the community, your ability to "complete", your ability to be creative. As a research class, we have more authority to grade based on the progress that we make as opposed to grading on a curve. As such, in CS398 we are not competing against one another. We are competing against the challenges in education and are collectively training.
The different components of the class are weighted as follows:
As you know, the variance of scores on each item largely impacts their "effective weight" on your overall grade. So here is a subjective interpretation. If you do all of the assignments, participate in class, put genuine effort into your final project you would get an A. If you are short of expectations on one element: A-, etc. If by the end of the course you have created something "directly useful": A+.
How do you measure class contribution and personal growth? Class contribution will largely be showing up to, and participating in class. But if you do go out of your way to help the class community in other ways -- eg through teaching each other -- we will credit that too. Personal growth (how much you learn) is vitally important.
We will have a classroom with tables and a small group of students! Given those resources we are going to use class in a few ways: at times we are going to give talks on great ideas in the field. At times we are going to have you work on parts of your assignments in class. At times we will give you space to work in teams or to do some individual exploration.
Show up, bring a laptop . Let's have a good time and learn together.
One clear policy: please be concious that other people in the class can see your screens: laptop or phone. If you are visibly off-task during class (facebook, shoping, etc) it can make it truly hard for others to pay attention. We kindy ask that you be considerate to your fellow students. Thank you all in advance.
One of the special elements of a small class is the chance to get to know the teaching team. Your first point of contact is class -- we will take time to work on challenges and answer questions there. If you want help outside of class there are a few options:
For logistical questions or general class conversations, please use the class slack channel. If you have more private questions you can send us direct messages on slack or email (cs398@cs.stanford.edu goes to all of us). If you have a personal concern feel free to email Chris directly.
For in-person help come to our office hours. We love chatting with you about anything: questions you have about the assignments, ideas on computational education, life thoughts, jokes, etc.
Lateness is an interesting issue: On one hand, flexibility is important for many good reasons. Things do come up and not everyone needs to go at the same pace. On the other hand, deadlines are motivating and provide clear goals. Without a believable deadline, would I do my work? We will give you deadlines, but we will work with you if for any reason you fall behind.
This course has been offered once before in Fall 2019. I am excited to host it this time in South Africa. Education is a challenge that is faced by folks around the world. More, the digital solutions that scale are often designed in places like Stanford. What would it look like if we designed from a South African context? A course like this that teaches modern AI and education to computer scientists and humanists is, to the best of my knowledge, a first of its kind anywhere. That means you get to be part of a cool moment in time, and that we will put exceptional effort into this quarter.
We are looking forward to a wonderful quarter!
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