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Talkabout: Making Distance Matter with Small Groups in Massive Classes

In: Design Thinking Research

Author

Listed:
  • Chinmay Kulkarni

    (Stanford University)

  • Julia Cambre

    (Stanford University and Coursera Inc.)

  • Yasmine Kotturi

    (UC San Diego)

  • Michael S. Bernstein

    (Stanford University)

  • Scott Klemmer

    (UC San Diego)

Abstract

Massive online classes are global and diverse. How can we harness this diversity to improve engagement and learning? Currently, though enrollments are high, students’ interactions with each other are minimal: most are alone together. This isolation is particularly disappointing given that a global community is a major draw of online classes. This paper illustrates the potential of leveraging geographic diversity in massive online classes. We connect students from around the world through small-group video discussions. Our peer discussion system, Talkabout, has connected over 5000 students in 14 online classes. Three studies with 2670 students from two classes found that globally diverse discussions boost student performance and engagement: the more geographically diverse the discussion group, the better the students performed on later quizzes. Through this work, we challenge the view that online classes are useful only when in-person classes are unavailable. Instead, we demonstrate how diverse online classrooms can create benefits that are largely unavailable in a traditional classroom.

Suggested Citation

  • Chinmay Kulkarni & Julia Cambre & Yasmine Kotturi & Michael S. Bernstein & Scott Klemmer, 2016. "Talkabout: Making Distance Matter with Small Groups in Massive Classes," Understanding Innovation, in: Hasso Plattner & Christoph Meinel & Larry Leifer (ed.), Design Thinking Research, pages 67-92, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:undchp:978-3-319-19641-1_6
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-19641-1_6
    as

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