IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2016 - 87

comprising camera and sound operators plus a producer. Over 200 video segments were created and each
underwent video postproduction, quality assurance, transcript production, and captioning.
Integration with Third-Party Providers
A key part of the course was the use of MATLAB, the scientific programming environment from MathWorks.
They generously granted a time-limited MATLAB licence,
with relevant Toolboxes, free for all MOOC students for the
duration of their course. MATLAB was integrated into the
course as an integral part of the textbook [8] and was demonstrated in the video, animations, and screencasts.
To evaluate the students' grasp of course material, we set
problems that the students answered by writing MATLAB
code to compute the solution. The students could test their
code on their own computer, using their free MATLAB
licence, or work directly with the web interface integrated
into the grading system. Students entered MATLAB code
into a text box, it was evaluated on a remote server, and
results (any displayed values, error messages, or even plots)
were returned to the student's browser window. The problem statement specified what should be computed and the
MATLAB workspace variables in which the results should
be saved. When students were confident of their code, they
pressed the Grade button and the code was run as usual on
the remote server, and then the lecturer's grading script was
run. This script executes in the workspace left by the
student's script, and it checks the values of the workspace
variables, issues informative error messages for the student,
and updates the grade book as appropriate. The number of
attempts allowed is settable in the course platform.
The course was delivered on an Open edX platform
provided by EdCast, a Mountain View, California-based,
third-party vendor that created a customized MOOC platform for our university (see course entry page, Figure 7).
The platform, using the Open edX source code, was familiar to students who may have used MOOCs through the
edX consortium (edx.org). It included a number of EdCastspecific enhancements, including a customized discussion
forum, shown on the right of Figure 8, as well as discussion
groups and the ability to schedule Google Hangouts. The
textbook [8] publisher, Springer, made relevant sections of
the book available for free in electronic form, and this was
accessed by the students through the EdCast platform.
Workflow and the Video Development Process
It is well known that transforming a set of lecture materials
and a face-to-face course into a quality online course is a
complex and demanding task [4], [11], [12]. From the perspective of the lecturer, the bulk of the effort in this project
was devoted to adapting content from the classroom course
into modularized MOOC segments and turning tutorial and
examination questions into weekly assignments. The workflow for the translation of classroom lecture slides, for example, was as follows:

1) The existing one-hour lecture slides (in Keynote) were
partitioned into short segments, no longer than 10 min
each. Additional title slides and placeholders for screencasts and videos were inserted into the slide deck.
2) Copyright clearance was obtained for all images used in
the slides or substitutes found.
3) Standard templates with uniform fonts and color
schemes were applied by the graphic designers to the
videos and slides.
4) The slides, generally animated, were narrated by the
lecturer, and the audio and video were captured using Camtasia.
5) Postproduction editing was performed to add annotations to highlight items on screen, screencasts, and other
video segments as needed.
6) Quality assurance was completed by a nontechnical
member of the team.
7) Transcript files were created, one for voice narration
and another for all MATLAB commands used in
the segment.
8) Ashort introductory text was created for each segment to
accompany the containing web page.
9) The check understanding (comprehension) questions for
the segment were created, coded, and checked.
The lecturer was only one of many people involved in effecting this translation. The
production of a highquality MOOC requires
The production of a highthe efforts of a specialized
team that includes learnquality MOOC requires
ing designers, multimedia developers, and
the efforts of a specialized
videographers.
It was important that
team that includes
each lecture had an opening segment to introduce
learning designers,
the topic, and this was
done face to camera by
multimedia developers,
the lecturer to create a
personal classroom-like
and videographers.
connection. The lectures
themselves were not
scripted, but they were rehearsed. Conventional classroom
lectures are typically done this same way, and it was hoped
that by not using scripts there would be a greater spontaneity
and energy to the narration. Many MOOC presenters use a
digital tablet to highlight a particular part of the slide or to
illustrate sequential development of the topic. The effectiveness of this approach varies widely, and the quality of
tablet-drawn text and graphics is often poor. The first author
found the tablet distracting and unnatural, so we used simple Keynote animations instead. The developments were
preprepared and of high quality. We also added some additional annotations in postproduction, typically to resolve
ambiguity when the narration refers to a particular item on
the slide.
june 2016

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2016