Final Review

GeeksforGeeks Review

Introduction

Before introducing the social learning community, GeeksforGeeks. I want to introduce its founder who is Sandeep Jain, an IIT Roorkee alumnus. He loves to solve programming problems in most efficient ways. Apart from GeeksforGeeks, he has worked with DE Shaw and Co. as a software developer and JIIT Noida as an assistant professor. As an computer science student, I think teaching others is the best way to debug and resolve the problem. The teaching experience let Sandeep Jain know what others need for learning programming. I think this is why GeeksforGeeks is useful for learning computer science.

GeeksforGeeks is not found as a social learning community at the beginning. GeeksforGeeks starts as just a blog based site with articles on programming questions, then later on expanded to courses and now is a portal covering programming questions, interview experiences and even a coding platform taking inspiration from other competitive coding sites.

 

Students/Users

  • Student demographics

The main target users of GeeksforGeeks are computer science students. And the website is main focus on the college and university students. Most users like me are the undergraduate students. Since GeeksforGeeks provides all kinds of learning materials and courses for computer science, it is also suitable for high school students and the beginner of programming.

Graduate student is also a part of target users. But graduate students can use GeeksforGeeks as tutorial assistants and post their ideas or lectures on GeeksforGeeks.

  • Access

Because GeeksforGeeks is an openly social learning community, there is no limitation for access. Everyone can access the website and log in with their google/facebook accounts or GeeksforGeeks accounts. Everything except some live and online courses on GeeksforGeeks is free. The only thing users need is their own device, computer or smartphone, with the internet.

  • Difference in how students learn

GeeksforGeeks is suitable for all computer science students. It provides all courses from beginner level to professional level. The website provide three kinds of courses: live courses, offline courses and online courses. Live courses is the live video provide by teachers. They usually set lectures on weekends. Offline courses include the videos and materials. Students can download them and go over the materials any time. Online courses are like EDCI 339. They provide special topics and materials.

GeeksforGeeks also has the forum function for students. I think this is most useful part of the website. Students can post questions and discuss ideas of coding with others. Students can also search others’ posts which are very helpful. Like below is the example I search “linkedlist java”.

 

Ease of Use

  • Simple

GeeksforGeeks is a very simple and easy use social learning community. Students can use it like a search engine. We can type the keywords in search bar to find the course and materials that we want to learn. Like the “linkedlist java” example above. It will show many possible results. The interface design is very good. The button on the top of the home page is clear and simple. Users only need to type in the keywords or click the button. Since this is a website for computer science students or students with the basic computer using skills, I do not think users will feel trouble to use it.

  • Reliablity

Most courses are provided by doctors or professors who work in the university and college. Few courses are provided by graduate students. And the courses provided by graduate students will be posted after the check by professors GeeksforGeeks hired.The forum part is also reliable. Teachers and students post and update materials frequently on this part.

 

Cost

  • Courses

GeeksforGeeks provide the sign up for free use service. Students can register few courses without any payment. The future cost depends on the lecture teacher. But it is much cheaper than the university tuition fees.

  • Forum

This part is free access. And it is very useful. I only use this part for my study and it is totally enough. I can find everything here and communication with teachers and other students is more helpful.

 

Teaching and Media Selection

  • Multimedia teaching

GeeksforGeeks contains all types of multimedia teaching. Students can choose their favorite type to go over the course contents. However, considering that GeeksforGeeks is the social learning community for computer science. Most contents are words based or video type. And most high-level materials are boring and difficult to understand. It needs patience for student to read the material. To solve this problem, GeeksforGeeks adds many examples and fun practices to materials.

  • Weak discriminator and forum

Since GeeksforGeeks is a social learning community, teachers cannot design the course for all types of students. And this is the only problem that need to be concerned about. Therefore, forum function is necessary. Students who have trouble with the weak discriminator can post their questions or search the solving ways through the forum. It is easy for students to find the answer if the question is common. If you cannot find the answer by searching keywords, it will not take a long time for answering short and long questions. Usually, short or simple questions will be answered within a day and long questions will be answered in two or three days.

 

Interaction

  • Learning materials

There is no text book for all courses. Learning materials are mainly video clips and articles.

  • Interaction between students-teacher and students-students

Student-teacher interaction is used in live and online courses. It is similar to the face-to-face seminars. The main limitation of student-teacher interaction is that it can be time-demanding for the teacher, and therefore does not scale easily. Student-student interaction is student mentorship, one-on-one study groups, or student teaching another student. Student-student interaction is usually used in forum. Forum is free discussion place for students who are confused.

 

Organisational Issues

  • Professionals

All teachers and workers hired by GeeksforGeeks are working in computer science major. The materials and courses are always up-to-date since users can freely leave their comments below the content and administers will check the mistakes weekly. Therefore, most materials are accuracy and good-quality.

 

Networking  

Depending on the type of codes, GeeksforGeeks create its own wiki through code libraries (main from Java, Python, and C). We can find the formula and the definition from the libarary. This is the example I searched re.match() in Python library.

GeeksforGeeks will provide the formula with the example to help students learn efficiently. This is the example I searched in GeeksforGeeks.

We can see GeeksforGeeks is more powerful. It also provide the difference between re.search() and re.match().

 

Securtiy and Privacy

As mentioned above, GeeksforGeeks is an openly social learning community. Most learning materials are free for downloading and using. Only few course materials are licenced. The only privacy problem is that users can use their google/facebook accounts to log in. This is a easy way for others to get your personal information.

 

Conclusion

Overall, GeeksforGeeks is a powerful social learning community for computer science students. It is a useful and helpful place for students to study outside the school.

 

Reference

Bates, A. (2020). Chapter 9: Choosing and using media in education: the SECTIONS model. Retrieved 2 April 2020, from https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-media/

Crosslin, M., & al., e. (2020). Chapter 5: Effective Practices. Retrieved 3 April 2020, from https://via.hypothes.is/https:/uta.pressbooks.pub/onlinelearning/chapter/chapter-5-effective-practices/

How to read content of GeeksforGeeks in an organized way? – GeeksforGeeks. (2020). Retrieved 2 April 2020, from https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/how-to-read-content-of-geeksforgeeks-in-an-organized-way/

Showcase of Reflective Post 2

The Difference Between Online Educational Content and Openly Licensed Educational Content

Online educational content is the resource which is needed the permission from the author when someone wants to use it. Openly licensed educational content is the resource that the author gives the license or permission to the public to use it under the term of the license. Open licences reserve specific rights and relax others making it easier for educators and course designers to use the resources.

Open Educational Resources (OER) Example

ORE Commons: https://www.oercommons.org/

Wikipedia: https://www.wikipedia.org/

Python: https://www.python.org/

ORE Review of ORE Commons

  • Relevance

“ORE Commons” has a good relevance. There are many subjects with different education levels and standards in the website.

  • Accuracy

Since the resources of this website are from the whole world, I cannot make sure those materials written in different languages are accuracy. But I searched comments on “Google” about this website. Most of comments are positive. I do not see any spelling errors or typos when I try to do some simple search on the website. All of materials have the rating option. Most of materials are peer reviewed. Overall, I think this website is accurate.

  • Production Quality

I read and watch some materials and videos which have a large number of viewers. Most of them have a clear topic and understandable. Most of their positive ratings are higher than 80%. I think the design features enhance learning because many of them are more like a lecture which can clearly explain problems or solutions for me. For multimedia resources, the audio/video has the high quality. The authors of some low quality videos also provide a “YouTube” link with high quality link.

  • Accessibility

The resource is available in alternative formats. However it needs us to create a account to download files. For some high rating video resources, there is a description or a short summary. Some general topic will be divided into detailed topics with subtitles.

  • Interactivity

I think the resource encourages active learning and class participation. Viewers can leave their comments below the materials or videos. The author and other viewers can answer questions freely. In my search, I did not find any opportunities to test the understanding of the material.

  • Licensing

Most of materials in this website are allowed for educational reuse. Only those materials that shared within groups are not reusable for education. Since the website is more like the library, we cannot modify the origin materials. But we can make the resource better fit our class objectives.

ORE Review of Wikipedia and Python

I put these two ORE resources together because they are similar. They are both powerful. They both have good relevance, high accuracy and free accessibility. “Python” has higher accuracy than “Wikipedia” because “Python” is a official resource which is updated by developers. But “Wikipedia” is a website that everyone can modify it. In addition, we know that we can find any knowledge we want to know from the “Wikipedia” but we cannot use it as the reference in any research papers. All of materials in these two websites are allowed for educational reuse. Both of them have a good interactivity. Users can leave and search questions and comments in “FAQ” page.

The difference between “Wikipedia” and “Python” is that “Python” is more official and reliable because I cannot make sure everything in “Wikipedia” is correct. Additionally, the page will not exist if no one create it in “Wikipedia”. “Python” is the resource that I can find all usable python codes and formulas with different versions (usually Python 2.7 and Python 3.0). And it is up-to-date when the bug or new version comes out.

My Use of OER

The OER I used frequently are “Wikipedia” and “Python”. Since my major is computer science, I often use “Wikipedia” to search the algorithm and definitions of some terms. I only need to understand the material I searched in “wiki” at most time. In addition, “Wikipedia” is a good resource in my daily life. I often use it to search something I do not know while watching films or reading articles.

“Python” is very helpful when I am writing codes. And I often use “Python” and “GeeksforGeeks”, a social learning community, together. “Pyhthon” is a good resource for formulas and “GeeksforGeeks” is a good forum for examples. “Python” is more like a catalogue for me to use the “GeeksforGeeks”.

GeeksforGeek: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/

Reflective Post 4

Three most important concepts, ideas, or issues

UI option is the first thing that I think is the most important. Because I am a computer science student, UI design is a very important part in any application and website design. The UI will affect the using experience directly. A good UI can let user find anything they need easily through the interface. But a bad or complex UI will make users feel confused when they try to use the tool. Therefore, a good UI can help users use learning tools easily and save time.

Security architecture is the second thing that I think the most important. Internet security is a big problem now. Like we learned in this course at the beginning of the semester. It is very easy for others to know or get our personal information from Internet. And our accounts and personal information are in danger when we use them online. So, security architecture is essential to protect these information.

Feedback tool is the final thing that I think is the most important. The knowledge need to be updated with the time passing by. For example, I use Python 2.7 in the first two years of university and Python 3.0 in the last two years. They do not have big differences but Python 3.0 makes some codes be more simple and changes and deletes some formulas. When I want to use these changed formulas, the feedback tool is important. I can learn how to use them and what bugs will be caused from the feedback tool. In addition, the mistakes need to be reported immdiately. This will make the website be more accurate.

Two concepts, issues, or ideas that I have difficulty understanding

Sonification framework is the first ideas that I confused about. I know sonification of learning materials is helpful and essential for some people. But I don’t think we can sonificate everything. Especially, some complex graphs are hard to be sonificated. And I check the demo of Floe Sonification. It will include the graph. But it is hard to make it come true. Additionally, format conversion of files may cause some problems. I think it is easy to lost something during this process. I confuse about how to do the sonification. It needs people to check every file and this will cost bunch of time.

EPUB 3 is the second concept that I confused about. I know that EPUB is an ebook format which is a container for web content that can be distributed as a whole and interpreted by supporting EPUB reader systems. And it is more powerful than HTML5. But I think I use HTML5 materials more frequently than EPUB in my daily life. So, I don’t understand why EPUB 3 is more important.

Question

How to upload your learning files and make the file be more accurate?

Reflective Post 3

Online Learning Experience

“GeeksforGeeks” and “Python” are two websites that I often use.(Links below) “GeeksforGeeks” is a social learning community and “Python” is an open educational resource. I usually use them together. I usually use “Python” to find the formula or code that I may use. Then I will search them in “GeeksforGeeks” to see if I can find some examples. For example, I want to use the regular expression, re.match(). I can find that re.match() is under the re.compile() and used to compare a pattern with a string. Also, re.search() is under the same class and does the same thing. Then, I search the difference between match and search in “GeeksforGeeks”. I can find a brief description that both return first match of a substring found in the string, but re.match() searches only in the first line of the string and return match object if found, else return none. But if a match of substring is found in some other line other than the first line of string, it returns none. While re.search() searches for the whole string even if the string contains multi-lines and tries to find a match of the substring in all the lines of string.

Link: “GeeksforGeeks” https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/

“Python” https://www.python.org/

Week 6 Reading “Chapter 5: Effective Practices” and Week 8 Reading “7.1 Choosing technologies for teaching and learning: the challenge”

There are many types of communication interactions. Personally, I prefer the face-to-face (student-teacher & student-student) because I can ask questions when I don’t understand the content. When I do the online learning or attend the online class, the teacher will not answer the questions immediately. But online learning is better for free learning. I can read the material or watch the video at any time. It is better for the busy people. With the technology support, the learning can be more efficient. For example, AI is a good support for learning and teaching. AI has a better performance in data analysis. So, I believe that teachers can know students’ level more clearly with the AI support. Students can use AI to analyze their grade to see the efficiency of learning.

 

Reflective Post 2

The Difference Between Online Educational Content and Openly Licensed Educational Content

Online educational content is the resource which is needed the permission from the author when someone wants to use it. Openly licensed educational content is the resource that the author gives the license or permission to the public to use it under the term of the license. Open licences reserve specific rights and relax others making it easier for educators and course designers to use the resources.

Open Educational Resources (OER) Example

ORE Commons: https://www.oercommons.org/

ORE Commons

ORE Review

  • Relevance

“ORE Commons” has a good relevance. There are many subjects with different education levels and standards in the website.

  • Accuracy

Since the resources of this website are from the whole world, I cannot make sure those materials written in different languages are accuracy. But I searched comments on “Google” about this website. Most of comments are positive. I do not see any spelling errors or typos when I try to do some simple search on the website. All of materials have the rating option. Most of materials are peer reviewed. Overall, I think this website is accurate.

  • Production Quality

I read and watch some materials and videos which have a large number of viewers. Most of them have a clear topic and understandable. Most of their positive ratings are higher than 80%. I think the design features enhance learning because many of them are more like a lecture which can clearly explain problems or solutions for me. For multimedia resources, the audio/video has the high quality. The authors of some low quality videos also provide a “YouTube” link with high quality link.

  • Accessibility

The resource is available in alternative formats. However it needs us to create a account to download files. For some high rating video resources, there is a description or a short summary. Some general topic will be divided into detailed topics with subtitles.

  • Interactivity

I think the resource encourages active learning and class participation. Viewers can leave their comments below the materials or videos. The author and other viewers can answer questions freely. In my search, I did not find any opportunities to test the understanding of the material.

  • Licensing

Most of materials in this website are allowed for educational reuse. Only those materials that shared within groups are not reusable for education. Since the website is more like the library, we cannot modify the origin materials. But we can make the resource better fit our class objectives.

My Use of OER

The OER I used frequently is “Wikipedia”. Since my major is computer science, I often use this website to search the algorithm and definitions of some terms. I only need to understand the material I searched in “wiki” at most time.

 

Reflective Post 1

Instructor-centered versus student-centered learning

I am an International student. Before I came to Canada, I study in China. In China, all courses are instructor-centered. I get almost 90% of the knowledge from my instructors. And the exam is based on what the instructor said in the course and in-class practices.

Then, I came to Canada and study in the University of Victoria. My major is computer science. I think the most courses of the computer science is instructor-centered, especially some algorithm courses. In algorithm courses, the instructors will explain how each algorithm works and how to use codes to do it. The course is about teaching us how to use algorithm to solve the problem and my job is to use what I learned to find the best way. In addition, there are few student-centered courses. I took an artificial intelligence course last year. This is a student-centered courses. We study and do assignments as a group. The instrutor only gives us some basic information about the course topics. The most useful website of this course is “Google”. But, it is very interesting to combine ideas from my group members and the instructor.

Asynchronous versus synchronous learning

I think this course, EDCI 339, is an asynchronous course although we use the same material. And this is the first asynchronous for my life. I do not have chance to take any asynchronous courses in China because China is a big country with a huge population. It is impossible to have a small class in any schools of China. If it is possible, it will be super expensive to be a student of that school. In my memory, my class is always bigger than fifty students and we change the teacher not the classmates. I will take the same course and use the same material with my classmates. It is similar to my univerity courses. I only took the course with more than eighty students in the university. And they are all synchronous courses. I have some tutorials or labs for my major courses. But all of my tutorial or lab teachers will use the same material to help us. So, I am happy to have a chance to take this course to try something different.

Thoughts on connectivism

For my major, I think connectivism is essential after year two. In year one and year two, connectivism is not important because the most of my assignments are single work. I cannot share my work and even my idea with my classmates. And my instructors always tell us that do not upload our codes or assignments online or outside of the school. In addition, instructors and tutorial teachers encourage us to finish the assignment without any sources. I think this is a good way to train us to write codes and it is important for my year three and year four courses. After year two, I begin to do the project with my classmates. It is interesting to generate different ideas from my partners and online sources. I also find it is easy to get a better solution for the problem when I have a meeting with my partners or search online. And sharing my ideas on some websites like”reddit” is very helpful to improve my skills.

Welcome and Introduction

Welcome to your WordPress website for EDCI339. Here are some first tasks to explore with your new site:

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change email address

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