Duke MOOCs: Looking back on “Image and Video Processing”

In mid-March, “Image and Video Processing: From Mars to Hollywood With a Stop at the Hospital“, ended after nine weeks.  This Duke Coursera MOOC, taught by Guillermo Sapiro, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, looked at the science of image and video processing and how they are used in digital visualizations.

Guillermo Sapiro and the team that helped with his course.
Guillermo Sapiro and the team that helped with his course.

A detailed final report is being prepared about this course and will be posted soon on the CIT website.  Here’s a quick look at some highlights of what we observed.

  • Over 40,000 students signed up for the course.
  • More than 23,000 unique students accessed at least one video during the course, with the number of unique students watching lectures in a single week peaking at just over 20,000 students.  An average of 7,465 unique students accessing lectures during each week after the first two weeks. 
  • About 5,000 students watched all of the lectures. Over 750,000 streaming and nearly 800,000 video downloads were recorded.
  • Over 1,200 participants in the course created almost 3,000 posts in the course forums.
  • An average of 4,000 students attempted each of the eight quizzes in the course; the first quiz was attempted by 9,839 students and the last was attempted by 2,809.
  • At the end of the course 1,242 students earned the minimum grade to receive a Statement of Accomplishment in the course.  Another 2,827 met the requirements to receive the more rigorous Statement of Accomplishment with Distinction.  Forty-one percent of students who attempted at least one of the quizzes received a Statement of Accomplishment in the course.
  • A Facebook group for the course had 111 members.  Another study group attracted 154 students.  There was also a Facebook group with 21 members for students taking the course in Greece.
  • Dr. Sapiro experimented with a Google Hangout that was held February 13, 2013.  Although there were technical glitches at the start, students commented on the archived video of the session that they found the Hangout helpful and informative.

Students posted a “thank you” thread in the forums at the end of the course, offering up their compliments on the course and suggestions for future iterations of the MOOC.

  • “Your passion for teaching Image Processing resonates in every video lecture. I never imagined how much I would enjoy online learning and how much I look forward to the next set of videos.”
  • “My infinite thanks and gratitude to Prof. Sapiro for your incredible lectures, your devotion and enthusiasm! You explained difficult things so wonderfully and made me more curious about this fascinating subject. I have studied higher math at the university quite some time ago but did not have so much luck as in this course with you. … I am surprised  by the fact that it was the first time after my university that I was spending so much time studying and really enjoying it.”
  • “The lectures and demonstrations were very well planned and easy to follow. I work with a company who is involved in video streaming and compression technology and I wish this class would have been available sooner as it has help me immensely at work.”

Sapiro responded to students with his thoughts on teaching the course.

  • “The way you collaborated and helped each other is one of the highlights of teaching this class. It has been an incredible team effort to put together this class, but your words made it all worth it!!!”