This work in progress paper investigates if timely feedback increases learners' passing rate in a MOOC. An experiment conducted with 2,421 learners in the Coursera platform tests if weekly messages sent to groups of learners with the same probability of dropping out the course can improve retention. These messages can contain information about: (1) the average time spent in the course, or (2) the average time per learning session, or (3) the exercises performed, or (4) the video-lectures completed. Preliminary results show that the completion rate increased 12% with the intervention compared with data from 1,445 learners that participated in the same course in a previous session without the intervention. We discuss the limitations of these preliminary results and the future research derived from them.

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Abstract. Attracting students' visual attention is critical in order for teachers to teach classes, communicate core concepts and emotionally connect with their students. In this paper we analyze two months of video recordings taken from a fourth grade class in a vulnerable school, where, every day, a sample of 3 students wore a mini video camera mounted on eyeglasses. We looked for scenes from the recordings where the teacher appears in the students' visual field, and computed the average duration of each event. We found that the student's gaze on the teacher lasted 44.9 % longer when the teacher gestured than when he did not, with an effect size (Cohen's d) of 0.69. The data also reveals different effects for gender, subject matter, and student Grade Point Average (GPA). The effect of teacher gesturing on students with a low GPA is higher than on students' with a high GPA. These findings may have broad significance for improving teaching practices.

Synchronous collaboration with large groups in a classroom requires coordination and communication mechanisms that allow students to contribute towards achieving a common goal. This paper presents an application based on an Interpersonal Computer with a shared display that promotes synchronous, nonverbal (silent) collaboration with large groups in a classroom.