Technology & Learning Program

Through Web-based support materials, Steve Adams extended the geographical reach of the campus to students living outside of the Chico area. His work allowed the department to offer larger classes while maintaining quality, and gave students more time to work with the course content by providing custom-made support materials for individual study. The project improved the learning environment for approximately 700 students per year by providing much-needed support materials for both students and faculty. The following three areas were affected:

Exam scores
Students in the online, asynchronous course scored slightly higher on both the midterm and the final exams than the students in the live on-campus sections who took the same exams. The difference, however, was not statistically significant.

Drops
In the on-campus sections of the course, 16% of the students dropped the course, either officially or unofficially. In the online course, over twice as many--34%-- dropped the course (officially or unofficially). In Dr. Adams’ opinion, motivated students with good self-discipline thrived in the online class, while those who needed more structure and the discipline of a formal class dropped the online class very early in the semester.

Faculty time per student
The number of E-mail exchanges between Dr. Adams and his students was far higher for the online class because prompt return of graded and corrected homework assignments was very important to the online group and could only be done individually. The on-campus class, on the other hand, could review the assignments as a group, thus reducing the faculty time per student.

To hear Steve describe the materials developed in year 2 of the project, click on the movie on the left.

Biomechanics is the science of how people move their bodies. Jackie Hudson developed a digital library of exemplary ways that people move, and incorporated these clips into her lectures and labs.

Students in introductory biomechanics courses are expected to learn conceptual and procedural knowledge about how people move and how people move better (i.e., more skillfully and more safely). Traditional curricula have not been adequate for reaching the expected ends. This may be, in part, because available materials are static rather than dynamic (and predominantly verbal/quantitative rather than visual).

Jackie received a grant from The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) to develop dynamic, digital exemplars of movement. These were then integrated into a biomechanics curriculum that was designed for systematic application. The digital format facilitated productivity in that students could use and reuse the exemplars both in and outside of class (and for years to come).

Quality was assessed in terms of meeting the purposes of introductory biomechanics: The students' general knowledge of biomechanics, as indicated by verbal and quantitative exam scores, improved by 17% over the previous class which did not have dynamic exemplars. (More than likely, the previous class would have done even better if the exams had had a visual component.)

The students' ability to apply biomechanical knowledge, as indicated by grades on term projects, improved by 15%. Interest and engagement were also demonstrably higher in the students who learned visually-based biomechanics.

The Biomechanics Library has enhanced the learning environment by giving students more time to practice analyzing movement in slow motion and in real time.

To view a movie on how the course features the 7 Principles of Good Teaching Practice click on the links to the left.

Students enrolled in five different chemistry labs were given the opportunity to use computer-driven instrumentation for data gathering and manipulation. This saved student time, allowing them more time for critical thinking and analysis as well as more time to repeat the measurements. Students interacted with the material in many ways because data manipulation and modeling were possible.

CELT funds were used to acquire laptop computers that give students the opportunity to use computer-interfaced instrumentation for data gathering, visualization, and manipulation, and to conduct computational and visualization studies of molecular structure and reactivity.
Assessment showed that the interfaced lab equipment saved students time, allowing them more time for critically analyzing experimental outcomes. It also gave students time to repeat measurements and interact with the data in many ways, thus increasing their conceptual understanding of the concepts. Two areas in which the computers and probes were found to be most helpful were molecular modeling (junior/senior level physical chemistry course) and for the measurement of radioactive decay (freshman level courses).

Students often complain that because they can't "see" chemistry happening it is difficult for them to comprehend. The computers provide a graphical representation that enables them to visualize what is taking place at the molecular level when a chemical reaction occurs, and provides real-time evidence when a radioactive decay event occurs. As the old adage says, "a picture's worth a thousand words"; these images definitely help increase student understanding in many areas of chemistry.

To learn more about what kinds of assisgnment students do with the new equipment, click on the movie titles to the left.

Terry Kiser designed a project to assess the use of online multimedia mini-lecture sessions and online office hours. He used OfficeHoursLive, produced by HorizonLive and the Mimio device for digitizing mathematical content from a standard whiteboard. These tools provided the combination of 2-way audio and the ability to transmit mathematical content using standard notation in a way that provided a variety of easy-to-use course content and assessment creation tools.

Four mini-lecture sessions were conducted online and saved as archives for on-demand student viewing. The primary goal was to create more classroom time for small-group or problem-solving activities by moving portions of the lecture material online. Students received homework credits for participating -- either online live or by viewing the archive before the next class.

Assessment was provided through an attitudinal survey and by tracking student participation. The survey revealed that students were favorably impressed with the online environment and especially liked the audio capabilities despite the fact that few students had a microphone to take advantage of the 2-way audio. Communication became 1-way; the professor had the Mimio device, but students still had to type in their questions or responses. This worked for lectures, but would be a significant restriction for more interactive sessions.

Terry Kiser's online office hours averaged between 3 and 4 students per hour per week compared to an average of fewer than 1 student per hour per week for his standard office hours (except for the 1 or 2 days before an exam).
Mathematically, the 3-4 times increase in online student demand seemed impressive, but realistically it was hard for Terry to justify the added time involved. From a class of 30 students, only 13 took advantage of the online office hours, despite the fact that extra credit was given for online participation.

Terry Kiser's project was the basis for a paper published in the proceedings of the ED-MEDIA 2002 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia, and Telecommunications held in Denver, Colorado.