January 2008 News

Posted January 30, 2008 The 2008 Horizon Report is the fifth in the New Media Consortium's series of annual reports on key emerging technologies that are likely to impact teaching, learning or creative expression in higher education. This year's report was produced in collaboration with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). All links listed in the report are clickable in the PDF version. It is accessible via download.

The technologies profiled this year, and their times to adoption, are:

• one year or less: grassroots video
• one year or less: collaboration webs
• two to three years: mobile broadband
• two to three years: data mashups
• four to five years: collective intelligence
• four to five years: social operating systems

The research methodology and a look back at the status of previous years' Horizon Reports is available from the Horizon Project wiki. The University of Delaware is a member of the New Media Consortium.

Posted January 16, 2008 Following the keynote, UD faculty members discussed their personal experience using emerging technologies with instruction.

Lou Rossi, mathematical sciences
Rossi discussed his project, “Electronic Collaboration Enhances Student Skills,” which he designed for a calculus course of 100 students. Because this large group had a broad range of mathematical skills, it was difficult to teach effectively using one approach.

For many students, one unavoidable hurdle in a mathematics course is word problems. “To solve these problems, students must learn which of the variables to select and how to integrate them to calculate an answer,” Rossi said.

Rossi had groups of students write their own word problems based on their declared major and the selection of a photo from a photographic collection that Rossi compiled. Grouping students by major provided a secondary source of educational reinforcement—biology students wrote problems related to biology whereas chemistry students wrote problems related to chemistry.

“The students were not just people who are assigned a word problem, they got to write them,” Rossi said. The project greatly increased the students understanding of the course material. “Our assessment showed an increase from 39 percent to 65 percent in understanding the concepts,” Rossi said.

Ann Rucinski, health, nutrition, exercise sciences
Rucinski’s presentation, “Using Electronic Portfolios with Nutrition and Dietetics Interns,” explained a project developed for a post-baccalaureate 5th year internship program that is offered nationwide through distance learning.

Previously, students in this program kept written journals. The written journals were replaced with e-portfolios that included reflective journaling. The benefits of the e-portfolios included documentation for accreditation, a connection between the students and internship faculty and staff and the support that comes from a project designed specifically for the internship.

“Most of all, the benefit was enhanced learning,” Rucinski said. “You really do need to have and to use technology to make a distance learning program work,” she said.

Mary Beth Kramer, chemistry and biochemistry
Kramer shared her work on creating the project, “Simulating a Chemistry Lab.” For approximately 10 years an important chemistry experiment had been withdrawn from the curriculum because of safety concerns if done in a lab. Therefore, the physical lab experiment was no longer available to students.

“Unfortunately, this experiment has significant conceptual contributions to student learning,” Kramer said.

To reintroduce the experiment into the curriculum, Kramer and Becky Kinney, IT-user services, created a simulated lab using Adobe Flash. Assessment was built into the project on three levels:

• Students are graded on the virtual lab just as if it were actually conducted in a chemistry lab,
• Efficacy of the simulation and student understanding of the concepts are assessed through personal response systems (classroom clickers), and
• Students will be given an evaluation and survey to determine how they feel about the simulation.

The simulation was completed this fall and will be used in the upcoming semester.
“I hope that by reintroducing this virtual experiment, we will help students integrate many important core concepts of chemistry,” Kramer said.

About the Winter Faculty Institute
To view all sessions offered during the institute this month, visit the Professional Development Calendar.

The Winter Faculty Institute is a month-long series of events designed to enhance teaching and learning using technology. The institute is co-sponsored by the University of Delaware Library, Center for Teaching Effectiveness, Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education, Office of Educational Assessment, IT-User Services and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Posted January 16, 2008 Over 80 participants to the 15th annual UD Winter Faculty Institute on Jan. 7, were welcomed by Havidan Rodriguez, vice provost for academic affairs and international programs. This year’s event focused on the importance of assessment when integrating teaching and technology.

Karen Swan presented the keynote address, “Taking Learning to the Next Level: Using Assessment and Technology,” to set the focus of the institute.

Swan, a faculty member in the Center for Educational Technology at Kent State, presented some of the critical decisions educators must make to incorporate assessment when designing a course that integrates technology. Participants came away with a framework for designing an assignment and selecting the most appropriate technology tools to facilitate and evaluate student learning.

Unlike traditional curriculum development in which assessment tool choices are left to the end, Swan discussed “backwards design” in which assessment rubrics are created at the beginning of a course’s development.

“An instructor first needs to define a learning goal. The next decision is what evidence is needed to assess that goal—the specific understandings, knowledge and skills that students should demonstrate to show they have met the goal,” Swan said.

Second, instructors must create assessment rubrics. “The assessment rubric helps evaluate the learning goal identified,” she said.

Finally, a plan for the teaching and learning experience is defined. When technology will be used, this decision should be based on evaluations of which of the available technologies can most effectively achieve the goal.

“Once an instructor completes this ‘backwards design’ process, the most appropriate technology for the designated goal should be clear,” Swan said.

About the Winter Faculty Institute
To view all sessions offered during the institute this month, visit the Professional Development Calendar.

The Winter Faculty Institute is a month-long series of events designed to enhance teaching and learning using technology. The institute is co-sponsored by the University of Delaware Library, Center for Teaching Effectiveness, Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education, Office of Educational Assessment, IT-User Services and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Posted January 7, 2008 The 2008 Summer Faculty Institute has been scheduled for June 2-6, 2008.

The features speakers will be announced soon, along with the specifics of this year's technology bundles.

Applications are now being accepted. The week-long program will be developed based on the profile of the accepted participants.