CETA Professors Using Emerging Technologies in Classes

Dr. Patricia Mellodge and Dr. Michelle Vigeant are using two emerging technologies in classes as part of a pilot program sponsored by the Emerging Technologies Committee of the Faculty Center for Learning and Development (FCLD) here on campus. Dr. Mellodge’s students in ES 242, Engineering by Design, are using Wikis for collaborative work, while Dr. Vigeant’s students in ME 350, Vibrations I with Applications for Engineering, are using personal response devices, “clickers,” to answer multiple-choice and true/false questions posed on PowerPoint or other software-created slides.

The students in ES 242 are working this semester on a digital health project: an in-home health monitoring system. The class has separated into three groups, each working on a subsystem of the project, with the goal of assembling the subsystems into a working system by the end of the semester so that it can be tested in a simulated environment.

Each group must document their progress weekly on the wiki, which is now the central location where anyone in the class can find up-to-date project information. Thus, each group and group member knows the status of the other groups and how the subsystems must interface with one another and so can work outside of class without directly meeting other students. The project can progress despite the fact that the class meets only once a week.

Dr. Mellodge’s goals in using the wiki in the class are to enhance organizational and project management and to help the students improve their writing skills. With all the writing assignments and progress reports being on the wiki and available for editing by anyone (the editor’s name appears with the edits), improvements in writing are visible. In addition, the final report on the project will be easier than otherwise to write because all the information on the project will be available to the writers on the wiki.

In ME 350, Dr. Vigeant has her students use the clickers to respond to three kinds of questions: informational, retention, and “QEDs,” Questions to Engage Students in Discussion. Informational questions are survey-like, often used at the beginning of the term to capture information on the types of students in the class, their class level, their expected interest in the course, and so on. Retention questions can be used for immediate follow-up after a topic is covered in the class to make sure that students have understood the material presented. And QEDs can help to generate discussion because students might feel more comfortable discussing an issue after having voted anonymously on it and seeing the class’s general opinion.

More specifically, Dr. Vigeant opens each class meeting with three to five multiple choice or true/false questions to review material from the previous class. She also presents retention questions during the presentation of new material to track students’ understanding of it and their ability to relate it to previous material. She reports that she hasn’t used QEDs in ME 350; however, she does say that the students seem to feel comfortable explaining their answers when asked to do so.

Two primary advantages of using clickers in the classroom have emerged from Dr. Vigeant’s experience this semester. First, she is able to monitor students’ understanding of material in real time. If a certain concept seems to be unclear given the student responses to the questions, she can review it immediately. Second, the clickers promote active learning in the classroom. The students seem to be highly engaged throughout the 75-minute lecture period, even when clickers are used only intermittently. Many students both ask and answer questions, not just the small number of students who generally always participate in the class. Students learn from their mistakes during the class period and develop a better understanding of the material.

The FCLD was established to stimulate and support the teaching and learning environment by assisting faculty to incorporate technology and new teaching methods into their curriculum. As part of their program, Drs. Mellodge and Vigeant were among nine faculty members from across the University who received FCLD grants in the fall to support the work necessary to implement the emerging technologies in their classrooms. A showcase for all the participants will be held on April 27 in the Watkinsen Library so that other faculty can hear how the tools were used and what the participants learned.