Patent Application
20170178525
Students (learners) are increasingly engaging in online education activities. Students taking online education courses may do so for various reasons (e.g., professional reasons, lifelong interests in learning, etc.), and invest significant effort into completing coursework (e.g., assignments, exams, etc.) in order to complete a course. An online education course may be provided to students over network connections or the Internet by an education course provider. For example, an online course provider may have access to, or create, course materials or resources for an online education course on a cloud computing platform. The online course provider may serve the course materials to the students as web pages on network or Internet-connected client communication devices.
Entire education courses with structured programs (e.g., including a series of lectures, demonstrations, quizzes and tests, etc.) can be made available online to students from the cloud computing platform. The students may receive the online education course content (e.g., video) on a computing device (e.g., desktop, laptop, tablets, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a radio transceiver, a telephone, a mobile computing device, etc.), which may have a variety of technical capabilities (e.g., internet connections, input/output devices, audio or video capabilities, display size, etc.). Furthermore, students may participate in such courses while in any of a variety of study environments or circumstances (e.g., sitting in a room, travelling in a bus, or walking).
Consideration is now given to facilitating a student's navigation of the course materials or resources of an online education course served by a cloud computing platform.
An online education course may have a hierarchical schema of items (e.g., learning materials) grouped in one or more hierarchy levels. An example sequence of hierarchy levels may be week/lessons/items. Another example sequence of hierarchy levels may be chapter/section/subsection/items. The items are presented as web pages or item views in an online education presentation on a client device to a learner.
In a general aspect, a system for navigating the online education course presentation on the client device includes one or more processors and one or memories storing computer-readable instructions. The instructions when executed by the one or more processors display, to a learner, a plurality of user interface (UI) elements integrated with a current item view of the online education course presentation. The plurality of UI elements include at least one UI element that provides visual information about the current item view and its location in the hierarchical schema of the online education course, and at least one UI element that leads to a different item view from the current item view of the online education course presentation.
In an aspect, the at least one UI element that provides visual information about the current item view and its location in the hierarchical schema of the online education course is an UI element that shows an analog measure of progress represented by the current item view in the online education course.
In an aspect, the at least one UI element that provides visual information about the current item view and its location in the hierarchical schema of the online education course is a breadcrumb UI element that shows a URL trail leading to the current item view in the hierarchical schema of the online education course.
In an aspect, the at least one UI element that leads to different item view from the current item view of the online education course presentation is an UI element that leads to an item view which is immediately adjacent to the current item view in the hierarchical schema of the online education course.
In an aspect, the at least one UI element that leads to different item view from the current item view of the online education course presentation is an UI element that leads, in a single click operation, to an item view which is not immediately adjacent to the current item view in the hierarchical schema of the online education course.
In an aspect, the online education course includes an overview page for a hierarchy level in the hierarchical schema of the online education course, and the at least one UI element that leads to a different item view from the current item view of the online education course presentation is an UI element that leads to the overview page for the hierarchy level in the hierarchical schema of the online education course. The overview page for the hierarchy level in the hierarchical schema of the online education course provides contextual information for the current item view of the online education course presentation.
In a further aspect, the plurality of user interface elements integrated with a current item view of the online education course presentation include one or more UI elements disposed in an informational panel co-displayed with the current item view.
In an aspect, the one or more UI elements disposed in the informational panel co-displayed with the current item view include one or more UI elements that provide contextual information for the current item view of the online education course presentation at one or more of the hierarchy levels in the hierarchical schema of the online education course.
In an aspect, the online education course includes an overview page for an hierarchy level in the hierarchical schema of the online education course, and the one or more UI elements disposed in the informational panel co-displayed with the current item view include an UI element that leads to the overview page for the hierarchy level in the hierarchical schema of the online education course.
In an aspect, the current item view relates to an item in one hierarchy level in the hierarchical schema of the online education course, and the one or more UI elements disposed in the informational panel co-displayed with the current item view include an UI element that leads, in a single click operation, to an item view related to an item in another hierarchy level in the hierarchical schema of the online education course.
In an aspect, the current item view relates to an item in one hierarchy level in the hierarchical schema of the online education course, and the one or more UI elements disposed in the informational panel co-displayed with the current item view include an UI element that leads, in a single click operation, to an item view related to another item in the same hierarchy level as the current item view.
In an aspect, the one or more UI elements disposed in the informational panel co-displayed with the current item view include one or more UI elements that provide completion or progress information for the one or more hierarchy levels in the hierarchical schema of the online education course.
In an aspect, the informational panel co-displayed with the current item view includes a user-activable UI element which when activated collapses or detaches the informational panel from the current item view.
In another aspect, the current item view includes an UI element leading to a quiz on materials in the online education course, and the at least one UI element that leads to a different item view from the current item view of the online education course presentation is an UI element that leads to an item view related to review materials in the online education course for the quiz.
The details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Further features of the disclosed subject matter, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings, the following detailed description, and the appended claims.
The accompanying drawings, in which like numerals indicate like components, illustrate embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.
Systems and methods for facilitating a student's navigation of course materials or resources of an online education course served by a cloud computing platform are described herein. The systems and methods involve a navigation system that is integrated with web pages of the online education course served by a cloud computing platform, in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure. The navigation system may include user interface (UI) elements that allow a student to navigate to different web pages or item views from a current web page or item view of an online education course presentation.
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the disclosed subject matter, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings
In example implementations, an online course provider's online education platform may support massive open online courses (“MOOCs”), in which tens of thousands (or other applicable numbers) of students (students) can enroll, and participate, in the same course at the same time.
In example cloud computing implementations, the students' client devices attempting to access online education course materials may communicate with an Amazon Elastic Loadbalancer (ELB). In the embodiment shown in
Platform 104 may be implemented using a scalable, elastic architecture. When platform 104 is referred to as performing a task, such as storing data or processing data, it is to be understood that one or more sub-components of platform 104 (whether individually or in cooperation with third party components) may cooperate to perform that task. Further, certain tasks may be distributed such that a given task is accomplished by multiple instances of a component depicted in
From one perspective, an example online education course may be viewed as an ordered collection of online education items (e.g., web pages, audio content, video content, graphical content, forms, quizzes, surveys, etc.). The online education items can be arranged in a hierarchical structure that may be indexed to facilitate navigation of the items by the user.
An example online education course, which may be intended to be taken by a student over a period of time (e.g., weeks), may have a hierarchical schema, with the syllabus or course content organized (e.g., by a course instructor or educator) or structured as fragments or portions of the course content as items grouped in a hierarchy of levels. The course content of the example online education course may be organized in terms of one of more time periods in which the student is expected to consume the content of the course. For example, the course may be organized by week. Each week may include multiple sections or lessons of the course. Each lesson may include one or more items (e.g., textual reading segments, audio visual lecture segments, interactive question and answer sessions, and student participation events such as submission of student coursework related to quizzes, tests, reports, etc.). The lessons or items of the course content may be presented, for example, as a series of web pages, on client devices.
For convenience of description herein, each web page or item of the course content presented or displayed on the student's client device may be referred to herein as an “item view.”
The course content (e.g., lessons and items) web pages may be intended (e.g., by the course instructor or educator) to be presented to a student sequentially or serially on a time line, for example, in week-by-week segments. However, since the course content is stored in the cloud computing environment, the course content can be replayed or served item-by-item to the student, for example, on demand. The student may want to peruse the course content (e.g., item views) at his or her own pace or in a personally preferred order. For example, the student (who may be at current web page or item view in a week in the course) may want to revisit or review previously presented portions of the course content (e.g., a previously viewed item or lesson) to prepare for an upcoming quiz or exam. Further, the student may want to revisit or review portions of the course content (e.g., a previously viewed item or lesson), for example, to help the student better understand a current item or lesson.
The online education course presentation by the online education course provider may include a navigation system to help the student navigate to different web pages or item views from a current web page or item view in the online education course presentation. The navigation system may include an arrangement of one or more UI elements. The navigation system (e.g., item-level navigation system 250) may be incorporated or rendered in the current web page or item view by the online course provider platform. Item-level navigation system 250 may include informational UI elements, which may provide visual information about the current item view and its location within the hierarchical schema of the education course.
It may be expected that with the navigation system shown in
In example course implementations, the course presentation item views may include home or weekly overview pages. For example, the home overview page may provide a course syllabus for the entire course or an overview of the content taught in different blocks (e.g., time periods, such as, weeks) of the course, and the overview page for a week of the course may provide an overview of the content items associated with that week of the course. The student may have to locate the home or weekly overview page, for example, by clicking through each intervening item view by using item-level navigation UI elements 236A or 236B, or by clicking on link 234a “Course home” or link 234b “Week 2” in breadcrumbs UI element 234. While such home or weekly overview pages may reorient students on the course content, for example, in weekly segments, these pages may not provide sufficient course, week or item level context to help the student quickly locate the relevant item view. Even after arriving at a week overview page, the student may have to scroll through the week overview page to identify and click through to enter the relevant item view.
In field studies of item-level navigation systems (e.g., navigation system 250), it was found that an unexpectedly high percentage of students enter a “quiz” item view through the week overview page. This suggests that students use the week overview page to reorient themselves before attempting an assessment (e.g., quizzes or exams). Further, in the studies, it was noted that in navigation system 250, weeks are not prominently referenced in the item views. Weeks are referenced, for example, only in breadcrumbs UI element 234, which is not very prominently displayed. Further, students using item-level navigation UI elements 236A or 236B can accidentally or inadvertently pass over from one week into the next without returning to the current week overview page. It was also noted in the studies that a higher percentage of students than expected used clicks on week breadcrumb 234 in an item view to arrive at the week overview page. This may suggest that the students find the information in the week overview pages is useful, for example, for reorientation, as the students consume item level views. It was also noted that many students may chunk or break their learning sessions using assessments (e.g., quizzes or exams) as break points. A large percentage of students use the week or home overview pages to reorient themselves after the assessment break points.
Another navigation system (e.g., navigation system 350,
Week and lesson information panel 340 may include information UIs (e.g., UI element 341, and UI element 342), which identify, for example, which week of the course and which lesson of the week is current (i.e. which week and lesson of the course current item 310 belongs to). UI element 341 and UI element 342 (as shown for in
Week and Lesson information panel 340 may further include UI information elements (e.g., UI elements 344, 345, 346, 347 and 348) that may provide information on items in the current lesson (i.e. lesson 3 of 4, “Game Balance”). UI elements 344, 345, 346, 347 and 348 (as shown for in
In example implementations, UI elements 344, 345, 346, 347 and 348 elements and/or the corresponding UI elements (e.g., icons 344a, 345a, 346a, 347a and 348a, and UI elements 345b, 346b, 347b and 348b) may include activable navigation elements or links that can be activated to navigate to the respective item views in the lesson. For example, a student may click on icon 347a in current item view 300 to navigate to item 347 (e.g. item Lecture segment “Mechanical Balance”). It will be noted that item 347 is not adjacent to current item view 300/item 310/item 345 in the lesson. Yet navigation system 350 (unlike navigation 250) allows the student to navigate from current item view 300/item 310/item 345 to a non-adjacent item view in a single click operation (e.g., a single click on icon 347a).
Navigation system 350 may be configured so that the students can navigate to all other items in the lesson with a single click. Students may often “jump around” non-adjacent items, for example, to review content in the lesson before taking a quiz. Navigation system 350 may enable the students to do so without constantly having to return to the week overview page, which can be a jarring transition, especially in weeks with lots of content. Furthermore, as discussed with reference to navigation system 250 above, getting back to a student's current item views in the week may involve scrolling through items of a week to find or locate a desired item view. Navigation system 350 may avoid such difficulties by providing week and lesson information (e.g., in Week and Lesson information panel 340) in the current item view and enabling direct and immediate navigation to other item views in the lesson by a single click in Week and Lesson information panel 340.
In some implementations, navigation system 350 may be configured to display clear demarcations or boundaries between weeks in the course content and to provide a specific activable UI element for transitioning to another week's course content from the current week.
Current item view 400 may include a Week and Lesson information panel 440 including information UIs (which may be similar to the UI elements of Week and Lesson information panel 340 discussed with reference to
In further example implementations, navigation system 350 may also include UI elements configured to provide the student with completion or progress information at week, lesson or item levels of the course. In an example implementation, completion or progress information may be provided, for example, by using a color coding scheme to color UI elements corresponding to the week levels, lesson levels and item levels displayed, for example, in Week and Lesson information panel 340 or 440, or in the current item view displayed. Weeks, lesson or items that have been completed, may for example, be marked with a green color. Weeks, lesson or items that have not been completed, may for example, be marked with yellow color. In some implementations, progress bars may be displayed in the current item level view indicating the students' progress toward the week, lesson or item levels of the course.
While concepts of navigation systems have been described in the foregoing using example online education course structures having content organized as an a hierarchy: week/lessons/items, it will be understood that the same, or similar, concepts are also applicable to navigations systems for online education course structures having content organized differently (e.g., as a hierarchy: chapter/section/subsection/items, etc.). The online education course content may, for example, include discussion and review group or subgroup threads organized in a hierarchy.
It may be expected that the navigation systems for traversing online education course materials described herein (e.g., navigation system 350) may improve the quality or learning experience of a student by enabling navigation which enables chunking of the education course material in useful amounts (e.g., for providing explicit breakpoints for week-to-week or lesson-to-lesson transitions) and enable connection of new materials to learned materials. Students may know when a lesson/week in the online education course has ended and may be make a conscious decision to start the next lesson/week. Further, using navigation system 350 students may be able tell how far they have progressed in the current week without leaving the current item view. Students may see the time estimates for each item in the lesson without leaving the current item.
An example method 600 includes presenting an online education course on a first communication device, for example, to a student or learner (602). The online education course content may include a set of web pages or items grouped in a hierarchy, for example, a hierarchy of weeks, lessons and individual items. Each week may include one or more lessons, and each lesson may include one or more individual items.
Method 600 further includes providing a navigation system for navigating from a currently displayed individual item on a first communication device to another non-adjacent individual item in a current lesson by a single click operation (604). The navigation system includes a user interface co-displayed with the currently displayed individual item on the first communication device. The user interface may include contextual week and lesson information and navigation links to adjacent and non adjacent individual items in the current lesson.
The disclosed subject matter can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process; an apparatus; a system; a computer program product embodied on a computer readable storage medium; and/or a processor, such as a processor configured to execute instructions stored on and/or provided by a memory coupled to the processor. These implementations, or any other form that the disclosed subject matter may take, may be referred to herein as techniques. In general, the order of the steps of disclosed processes may be altered within the scope of the disclosed subject matter. Unless stated otherwise, a component such as a processor or a memory described as being configured to perform a task may be implemented as a general component that is configured to perform the task at a given time or a specific component that is manufactured to perform the task. As used herein, the term “processor” refers to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores configured to process data, such as computer program instructions. The processor may be a semiconductor-based processor.
The detailed description of one or more embodiments of the disclosed subject matter is provided above along with accompanying figures that illustrate the principles of the disclosed subject matter. The disclosed subject matter is described in connection with such embodiments, but the disclosed subject matter is not limited to any embodiment. The scope of the disclosed subject matter is limited only by the claims and the disclosed subject matter encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents. Numerous specific details are set forth in the foregoing description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed subject matter. These details are provided for the purpose of example and the disclosed subject matter may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the disclosed subject matter has not been described in detail so that the disclosed subject matter is not unnecessarily obscured.
While certain features of the described embodiments and implementations have been described herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes and equivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the scope of the described embodiments and implementations.
This application is a non-provisional of, and claims priority to, U.S. Patent Application No. 62/269,906, filed on Dec. 18, 2015, entitled “ONLINE EDUCATION COURSE NAVIGATION SYSTEM,” which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62269906 | Dec 2015 | US |
