Walk into any college classroom and
you'll probably see students on their devices. Some are taking
notes, but most are also simultaneously monitoring multiple social
media feeds. Rather than fight this trend as a problem to be solved,
the innovative folks at the
Georgia Institute of Technology have
figured out a way to turn it into an educational opportunity. Thanks
to a recent initiative:
students at Georgia
Tech will earn college credit
for their
Internet use, automatically.
Post
a cool mashup on Instagram?
That's 0.1 credits toward a graphics arts class. Play an online WWII
first person shooter for an hour? You'll get some points in your
History class. Defeat a troll in a Facebook argument and you will
find your Politcal Science quiz grade is an A. Reddit and YikYak
posts that have a lot of upvotes, count as a homework grade in
creative writing. Following leading scientists on Twitter may be
substituted for attending Physics lectures. No credit will be given for
activity on LinkedIn since there is little educational value there.
"It is a
well-known fact that college students spend an average of 126 hours
per week online" says Dr. Loof Lirpa, Vice Provost for Online
Initiatives. "Our faculty have worked hard for many years to
get students engaged, but there are too many distractions now on the
Internet. We started monitoring and analyzing Internet usage, and we
discovered that students
are still learning material and engaging in discussions via social
media, but it's all happening online and we can't easily grade it. All we had to do was figure out a
way to use this tremendous student
effort in service of their degree. We are now using advanced learning
analytics on all authenticated network traffic to assign grades
instantaneously," says Lirpa. "When the student has
completed enough activity, they earn their degree automatically and it
is emailed to them."
How does it work? The answer is the
network.
In order to use the
campus wifi at Georgia Tech
(and most other universities), everyone has to log on
with their username and password. At that point their entire network
traffic stream is uniquely identifiable and available via log files
from switches, routers, and firewalls. Every website visit, post,
tweet, photo, and yes, even yaks are available and tied to a user. Each
TCP/IP packet is archived and analyzed using high performance computing
and advanced
algorithms. Grades are assigned using machine learning that has been trained to recognize intellectually valid content. The
student receives a monthly report of their progress. The more they
use the Internet, the faster they graduate.
It
is not clear what will happen to the faculty, labs, and research
programs that Gerogia Tech also operates. However, there is clearly
huge potential for increasing the impact beyond the current brick and
mortar university. "We are developing a Georgia Tech Degree app which
you can download for $9,999.99," said Dr. Lirpa. "The app will monitor
all your network traffic and analyze your Internet activity. When you
have learned the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree, your Georgia Tech
diploma will be emailed to you automatically."
What
do you think about this latest educational disruption? I think it's
going to be huge. And the good news is, just by reading this blog, you
are a little further on your way to that Georgia Tech degree!
