Video conferencing as a peephole to MOOC participants: Understanding struggling students and uncovering content defects

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Abstract
Distance education gained considerable attention with the rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Given the significant role collaboration plays in practical computer science education on campus, it becomes evident that nowadays online course platforms mostly lack the necessary collaborative capabilities. We present a solution to support collaborative programming through video conferencing for practical exercises employed in MOOC contexts. Two user surveys show that although users value the possibilities, privacy concerns remain. We therefore propose to additionally use video conferencing technology to face another challenge: MOOCs usually are conceptualized and produced to a large extent before the actual course runtime. Reaction on current events within the course is possible but requires insights on students' problems. Course conductors can use the tutoring mode in our WebIDE to understand struggling students and potentially uncover topics that lack additional background material or need additional training exercises.

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