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Educational Effectiveness Review Appendix C2 EXEMPLARS
NEXT (New Education Extraordinary Technology) Classrooms of the FutureCalifornia State University, Fresno’s vision for the campus is to provide and support the evolving needs of the faculty, students, staff and community with a learning environment that will inspire and stimulate:
To begin major enhancements to the academic support equipment and physical plant, the university has partnered with Steelcase, Inc. to explore, develop and provide environments to inspire, empower, accommodate and link, students, faculty, staff and the community in ways never thought possible. The goal is to transform the Fresno State campus into the premier regional interactive university, the intellectual and cultural leader of the San Joaquin Valley. The formation of a NEXT Technology Team (New Education Extraordinary Technology) will be chartered by the President and be responsible to:
Cyber CollaborationDr. Ojoung Kwon, Professor of Information Systems and Craig Faculty Fellow, of the Craig School of Business at CSU Fresno, is a leader in the development of collaborative technologies and their use at CSU Fresno. In the last few years, colleges and universities have been changing their approach to education by offering various online courses and research material. This provides students, having time and location constraints, with more opportunity and flexibility in selecting classes that meet their needs. Because technical advancements and availability of the Internet, collaborative technologies such as chat, computer conferencing, web boards, etc. have become very affordable and readily accessible. In the near future, collaborative technologies will be a major productivity tool that will change the way people think and work. Additionally, there will be some degree of standardization. CyberCollaboratory, one of the first web-based virtual meeting systems, had as a goal to develop robust software tools and procedures, from which team projects could be formulated and applied in a variety of contexts and from various geographical locations. The primary objectives for CyberCollaboratory are 1) to provide students with the opportunity to participate in and enjoy the benefits of cooperative learning without having to coordinate meeting times or come to campus 2) to provide a more technologically enriched collaborative environment than is possible in a traditional face-to-face classroom 3) to provide working professionals with an easy to access virtual meeting system anywhere, anytime 4) to provide tools and structures to facilitate collaborative work without having to coordinate or travel to meetings. Today the challenge for business and government is to deploy and use these technologies. In keeping with the need for standard availability of the tools, commercially available applications, coupled with software developed in-house, were implemented as the CyberCollaboratory. The CyberCollaboratory consists of Lotus Notes and Domino as the collaborative platform extended through the development and implementation of group decision support (GDSS) tools, chat and group discussion tools, collaborative document production tools, project management tools, scheduling tools, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Although the technology and use are in the early stages, many researchers have reported that group support systems such as the Virtual Meeting System or CyberCollaboratory offer many exciting opportunities to improve the quality of work and decision making. Reference Material
Project TALENTTeaching And Leading for Educational Needs with Technology (TALENT) is a grant by supported by the U.S. Department of Education from June 2000 through the present. Its goals focus on improving the integration of technology into teaching across the campus through hands-on activities, especially in ways that impact future teachers. TALENT has provided numerous opportunities for professional development for full and part-time faculty. Using in depth one-week workshop/institutes that focused on pedagogy and how technology can support quality teaching, the grant provided training for 82 faculty and 12 master teachers, who facilitate student teaching field experiences. Other opportunities through this grant included twelve different one-day specialized training workshops, which provided training for 126 faculty and 661 master teachers. In addition, TALENT provided support (release time or summer pay) for seven faculty members in order to make significant technology enhancements to their courses. Results of this grant have shown dramatic increases in the innovative use of technology in many classes of the participants. These include the use of projects in which students create electronic portfolios, digital video, Webquests, electronic analysis of data, and digital presentations. Many other faculty members are providing some of these (such as video and Webquests) to add richness to their instruction. Multimedia ProgramIn the fall Semester of 2003, the Academic Innovation Center and the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning introduced the Multimedia Program (http://www.csufresno.edu/multimedia). The program was developed to meet the increasing demand from faculty and staff to incorporate multimedia technology into the curriculum and elsewhere. The Multimedia Program integrates training in digital photography, video, graphics and animation with technology such as the web, PowerPoint, CD ROM and DVD. Specialized workshops and lab experiences were designed to provide assistance to faculty and staff participants in the development of multimedia projects. An initial cohort of twelve faculty and staff were selected to participate in the program. Workshops were tailored to the needs of the program cohort. Projects included integration of multimedia into web-based science teaching methods courses, using multimedia to recruit and educate students about medical physics, using multimedia to teach American sign language, establishing a virtual center for economics college students and K-12 teachers, and developing Drama Online Outreach Resource(DOOR) as a resource for teachers and educational outreach for the Fresno State Theatre Program. Microbiology eGuideby Alice Wright and Ethelynda Harding The goal of our project was the development of an online multimedia laboratory guide for microbiology and molecular biology (http://www.microeguide.atinet.org/). We used hypermedia to provide students with technical information as needed because it efficiently allowed non-linear access to information presented in the most effective manner (text, diagrams, photographs, video). The guide was intended to replace neither the laboratory experience nor the traditional laboratory manual; rather it served as an introduction to laboratory techniques designed to enhance time spent in the laboratory and to give students increased confidence in their laboratory skills. Effect of the eGuide on Student Learning The effectiveness of the Microbiology eGuide in enhancing the laboratory skills of beginning microbiology students was assessed in a lower division course for nonmajors, primarily nursing students (Micro 20) and an upper division course for biology majors (Micro 140). The eGuide was assigned Fall 2003 but not in Spring 2004, which served as a control. Students during the spring semester were taught microbiology laboratory skills using traditional in-class demonstrations of the techniques. Laboratory skills were assessed using a written pre-test/post-test given at the beginning and end of each semester in Micro 20 and by practical laboratory skill evaluations performed at the end of each semester in both courses. Single factor ANOVAs were used to compare student scores on the examinations. Micro 20 students improved their laboratory skills each semester as indicated by pre-test/post-test scores (Table 1; p < 0.00005). Although pre-test scores and lecture grades were the same in Micro 20 the two semesters, post-test scores and scores on the laboratory practical were significantly higher the semester the eGuide was used. An effect of the eGuide on performance on the laboratory practical could not be detected in Micro 140, a smaller class. In order to measure the impact of the eGuide on the use of class time, the Micro 140 instructors maintained a log of instructional activity each semester and estimated that they saved seven hours that would have been used teaching basic skills in a course totaling 81 hours of laboratory, leaving more time for experimentation and interaction. Table 1. Impact of eGuide on student performance on written and practical examinations.
Use of the eGuide Outside of California State University, Fresno WebTrends Live was used to monitor website traffic and record access to the website. Between July 1, 2003 and June 28, 2004 there were 14,962 total visits made by 11,659 monthly unique visitors browsing a total of 155,984 web pages for a monthly average of 1,250 visits, 970 unique visitors, and 13,000 web pages browsed. Micro eGuide use spiked during the months corresponding to the start of semesters, suggesting that site use was academic. In July 2003, the website received only 563 total visitors in comparison 2,113 in September 2003 (Figure 1). A small portion of the September spike in use may have resulted from our own students. The 140 students in general microbiology courses were required to use the eGuide in fall 2003, while spring 2004 served as a negative control.
The Micro eGuide was accessed primarily by people in the US, although it did receive significant traffic from other countries (Table 2). Within the US, there were slightly more accesses of the Micro eGuide from the central time zone than from the Pacific time zone. Table 2. Top five countries from which the Micro eGuide is accessed.
Of the 15,200 visitors for which the information is available, 26% were referred to the Micro eGuide website by search engines, with the three largest search engines; Google, Yahoo, and MSN responsible for more than 95% of all search engine references. A wide variety of words was used to find Micro eGuide (Table 3). Table 3. Top five search phrases used to find the Micro eGuide.
Conclusions The Microbiology eGuide was effective in preparing students to learn new techniques in microbiology laboratory. Although information about the eGuide has only been disseminated at one state and one national conference and through email lists in microbiology education and faculty professional development, the web site attracted significant traffic. Future plans include increasing dissemination of information about the Microbiology eGuide and collaborating with others to broaden its content.
Acknowledgements eGuide development and assessment were funded by Grant No. 0088668 from the National Science Foundation, with additional funding from the College of Science and Mathematics California State University; and by California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB). Many students worked on the project: Leigh Schmidt, Jovita Diaz, Jenny Turner, Lori Orosco, Michelle Davison, Holly Ramage, Paphavee Lersethtakarn, Monet Hudspeth, Mark Schreiber, Justin Costa, Archana Mohan, Megan McCullough, Kurt Sterling, and Linda Weisenberger. Video components were filmed and edited primarily by students who were training for work in video production, under the supervision of Candace Egan, who also helped plan the eGuide and provided technical advice. Jose Munoz did most of the video shooting and editing. Elliot Mendoza and Amjad Qafeiti assisted with editing. Website technical development was done by Yosemite Computer Consultants. ssessment protocols were developed by Alice Wright and Ethelynda Harding and by Yosemite Computer Consultants. David Frank assisted with assessment activities. Judy Haber, Alice Wright, Mamta Rawat, and Nuria Denis-Arrue instructed the courses in which the eGuide as used and assessed. TOP |
