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Session Description

Free ticketed event
Cyber-enabled tools and web platforms are being used today to provide fast formative feedback to both instructors as well as students. Three widely used techniques are the focus of the workshop. One is Conceptests (or Clicker questions) that are multiple choice questions with misconceptions embedded in the answers as distractors. The Conceptests can be given during class, usually with an active learning approach, such as Peer Instruction (brief collaborative discussions between students), to provide fast feedback to the instructor and students. The second technique is Muddiest Points, in which an instructor solicits brief, anonymous written comments from students at the end of class about difficult concepts over the class. The evaluated responses can be used for feedback at the beginning of the next class and to adjust teaching strategy and instruction. The third technique is screencasts which, in this workshop, are YouTube Tutorial Video Screencasts focused on Muddiest Points. For students, Conceptests allow immediate reflection on content understanding and repair of misconceptions. The Muddiest Points promotes students to reflect on their own learning over the whole class and also promotes instructor reflection on their own practice. Fast feedback can be given by the instructor at the start of the next class to clear up the muddy points. Muddiest Point YouTube videos allow students to address their own difficult concepts outside the classroom. All methods produce significant gains in student learning, motivation, and class persistence.
New and recently developed web-based technologies are evolving that can address the issues ease of implementation and sustainability with cyber-enabled web sites and tools. As such, one of the goals of the workshop is to inform and exchange knowledge and ideas with participants about the availability, usability, and potential opportunities, benefits, and issues associated with the web-based technologies. Session organizers will present ideas, knowledge and commentary about their own classroom experiences in implementing the methods and the resulting impact on their own teaching and their students learning. Although organizers' disciplines are related to chemical, mechanical and materials engineering, the approaches to be discussed are broadly applicable to other disciplines. Some of the particulars that will be discussed are the following. The Concept Warehouse, cw.edudiv.org, is a cyber enabled web site developed at Oregon State University, that has over 1600 Conceptest questions, as well as a Muddiest Point utility. Data analysis and results output has been refined and simplified for ease of use. Another tool to be discussed is the Muddiest Point YouTube Tutorial screencasts, examples of which can be viewed at www.youtube.com/user/MaterialsConcepts . These can be used as a vehicle to provide fast feedback and self-tutoring to issues raised from results acquired from Conceptests and Muddiest Points.
The workshop will be organized to briefly demonstrate the tools used by organizers and the impact on their teaching and student learning. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops to test the sites. This will then be followed by breakout group discussions. The discussions will be conducted to address the issues highlighted by organizers and also solicited from participants. Report outs of group meetings will be debated, discussed, and summarized and the possibility of a organizing a community of users will be discussed. Outcomes of discussions and reports will be compiled and communicated to workshop participants.

Speakers

1. Prof. Stephen J Krause

   Arizona State University

   Stephen J. Krause is a Professor in the Materials Science Program in the Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University. He teaches in the areas of engineering education design, capstone design, and introductory materials engineering. His research interests include evaluating conceptual knowledge, misconceptions and their repair, and conceptual change. He has co-developed a Materials Concept Inventory for assessing conceptual knowledge of students in introductory materials engineering classes. He is currently conducting research on misconceptions and development of strategies and tools to promote conceptual change in materials courses with cyber enabled tools for teaching and learning and assessment of student attitude, achievement, and persistence.

2. Dr. Adam R Carberry

   Arizona State University

   Adam Carberry is an Assistant Professor in the College of Technology and Innovation, Department of Engineering at Arizona State University. He earned a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Alfred University, and received his M.S. and Ph.D., both from Tufts University, in Chemistry and Engineering Education respectively. His research interests include conceptions of modeling in engineering, engineering epistemological beliefs, and engineering service learning. He is currently researching the effect of cyber-enabled pedagogy on student attitude and learning in core materials classes in the environment of a project-based curriculum.

3. Dr. Milo Koretsky

   Tufts University

   Milo Koretsky is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Oregon State University. He currently has research activity in areas related to thin film materials processing and engineering education. He is interested in integrating technology into effective educational practices and in promoting the use of higher level cognitive skills in engineering problem solving. Dr. Koretsky is a six-time Intel Faculty Fellow and has won awards for his work in engineering education at the university and national levels.

4. Dr. Cindy Waters

   Naval Surface Warfare Center

   Cindy Waters is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University and leads the College's efforts in engineering education research and practice. She has taught core materials classes with active learning since 2003 and is renowned for her innovative teaching efforts. Her experience at the 2006 Rigorous Research in Engineering Education Workshop initiated her participation in the research community as demonstrated by her work with researcher, Sheri Sheppard, of Stanford University in creating and facilitating a faculty workshop linking National survey results to outcomes in local teaching practice. She is currently researching the adaptation of web-based learning strategies and use of cyber-enabled tools for use at NCA&T and will be leading workshops for local faculty interested in using these strategies.

5. Prof. William Joseph Stuart P.E.

   Oregon Institute of Technology

   Joe Stuart is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Oregon Institute of Technology. He teaches courses in introductory materials and in manufacturing processes in the mechanical engineering technology curriculum. He is using web-enabled strategies and cyber-enabled tools for teaching an introductory materials class at OIT. He will also develop new web-based tools including concept maps and multiple choice clicker questions that are related to materials and manufacturing processes.