COURSE / PROGRAM

• English 60 (now 1160) - Writing and Research

ABSTRACT

This project seeks to transition two sections of English 60, a core requirement for many Missouri S&T students, from a traditional classroom format to a fully online version.  This transition will assist with increasing classroom availability, allow for more English 60 sections to be offered at preferred class times, and improve students’ writing skills by providing increased opportunities for writing activities in place of the traditionally oral classroom.  The course designer for this project is Dr. Olivia Burgess, Assistant Teaching Professor in the English & Technical Communication Department, who teaches courses in both composition and technical communication. Dr. Burgess has several years of online teaching experience.  Dr. Burgess supports all of her on-ground courses with Blackboard and is familiar with desktop publishing and video editing software. The online English 60 sections would be offered in Spring 2014, and likely across multiple sections in future semesters.

COURSE / PROGRAM

• Psychology 50 (now 1101) - General Psychology

ABSTRACT

This project is a proposed course redesign of PSYCH 50 (General Psychology) taught by Dr. Henslee in the Fall semesters. This proposal is a whole redesign (Tier l) of the course. Currently, PSYCH 50 is taught in a traditional classroom format (i.e., MWF 50 minute lecture periods). PSYCH 50 is a required course for psychology majors and serves as a social science elective for many engineering, computer science or other majors at S&T. PSYCH 50 is a large course with enrollment capped at l00 students.

This proposal suggests a redesign of PSYCH 50 to a blended format. As such, the class would meet two days a week rather than three.  During the 3rd "out of class" day, students would read assigned modules in the text, watch related videos embedded in Blackboard, complete corresponding online homework modules, and take a mastery-based quiz corresponding to each text module. The modules completed out of class will not be covered during class lectures; rather the two in-class lecture periods will be devoted to lecturing on material not covered by mastery-based quizzes.

The benefits of the proposed course redesign may include improved student learning outcomes, increased student acceptability of course content, the generalizability of redesign components to other psychology courses, increased classroom availability, and increased course flexibility.

COURSE / PROGRAM

• Enhancing GTA Training and Assessment Practices with Technology 

ABSTRACT

Using pedagogical research methods and surveys, Dr. Ivliyeva and Ms. Sutcliffe will evaluate, redesign and implement the updated curriculum and enhanced assessment practices for the GTA workshop. They will also redesign and update the Blackboard / web-based instructional curriculum for prospective GTAs to more effectively integrate theories of learning and motivation, effective communication methods, practical teaching tips, and the incorporation of multi-media and computer task-based GTA training activities for both FTF and blended/online instruction. This will result in the creation of a web-based database of resources (course syllabi, study guides, online tests and quizzes, placement exams, surveys, etc.).

COURSE / PROGRAM

• Biology 222 (now 3319) - Microbiology Lab

ABSTRACT

Increasing enrollment in the Department of Biological Sciences has created a number of challenges to preparing Biology majors for future careers.  The Department has begun to adopt the guidelines established in the AAAS Vision and Change report which places a strong emphasis on scientific competencies.  An important aspect of developing student competency is engagement in hands-on and inquiry-based courses.  Restructuring laboratory courses to increase inquiry-based activities and research-oriented projects are essential for student preparation.  To achieve these goals in the limited laboratory time available Biological Sciences has been exploring the inverted (“flipped”) classroom model.  They predict the flipped classroom model of having students watch video lectures prior to beginning the laboratory course will improve student preparation and increase student interactions.  This will enable instructors to use laboratory time more efficiently and create an improved learning environment.  Videos will be used to explain the necessary background and to demonstrate new techniques before entering the teaching laboratory and online quizzes will be used to ensure students watch the videos. Funds from the eFellows program will be used to develop demonstration videos and short lectures to be used in the microbiology laboratory course. Funds will be used to purchase necessary equipment and software and to hire a student to assist in making and editing demonstration videos.

COURSE / PROGRAM

• Biology 212 (now 2219)  - Cellular Biology Laboratory

ABSTRACT

The goal of this project is to redesign the lecture portion of the Cellular Biology Lab (BIO 212) into a flipped course. Cellular Biology Lab is a required course for the Biological Science majors, as well as Chemical and Biological Engineers with a Biological emphasis. The purpose is to redesign the lab lecture portion of the class so that students can view mini-lectures online before they come to lab. These mini-lectures would include background information on the lab topic for the week, as well as videos on how to properly use equipment in the lab such as microscopes, spectrophotometers, and centrifuges. The preliminary revision of several online lab lectures will be piloted in Spring 2014 with improvements in Fall 2014, and the final rollout is scheduled for Spring Semester 2015 incorporating lessons learned during the initial trial.

COURSE / PROGRAM

• Engineering Management 124 (now 1100)  - Practical Concepts for Technical Managers

ABSTRACT

A redesign of Engineering Management 124 – Practical Concepts for Technical Managers is proposed for 2014 eFellows Tier 1 consideration. The course is delivered to approximately 300 undergraduate students each year (primarily Mechanical Engineering students) as a service course taught by the Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Department. Currently the one credit hour course occupies a large lecture classroom two hours per week in both Fall and Spring semesters.

A fully online version of the course is proposed, to be offered as an alternative to classroom-based sections. The online version has the potential to increase course access for students away from campus during co-ops and/or summers, allow greater scheduling flexibility for students on campus, and reduce classroom use.

While utilizing exclusively existing technology and hardware, the course may be modified to enhance the student experience in a flexible online environment. Further, best practice technology tool implementation, content delivery, and assessment approaches from the redesigned course may be transferred to other sections and classes.

COURSE / PROGRAM

• Math 15 (now 1215) - Calculus for Engineers II

ABSTRACT

This project will produce a set of remediation videos for Calculus II that are designed to be a study aid for students who have forgotten some of the prerequisite material necessary to successfully complete Calculus II.  This proposal builds on the Tier 3 proposal from 2013, where Assistant Teaching Professor Kimberly Kinder, obtained 2 iPads and learned to use them following best practices.  She and her partner in that project will continue using the iPad for immediate responses to student questions.  They will continue to evaluate uses of the iPad in instructional development.

COURSE / PROGRAM

• Information Science and Technology 241 (now 4641) - Electronic and Mobile Commerce

ABSTRACT

IST 241 (Electronic and Mobile Commerce) is a core course in the Information Science and Technology (IST) undergraduate degree program. This course has traditionally been offered as a face-to-face class but starting in the Fall 2013 semester, a distance section will also be offered. Given the emergence of electronic, mobile, and social commerce and their importance to technological entrepreneurship, we are offering a distance section to make it more possible and feasible for students across campus as well as full-time working professionals to take the class. Due to the limited number of VCC classrooms available, this course, which will have both on-campus and distance sections, has not been scheduled in a VCC classroom for the Fall 2013 semester though the plan is to offer both on-campus and distance sections of the course concurrently in VCC classrooms in subsequent semesters. With such limitations, we are experimenting with various e-learning options to provide more flexibility in offering the course.

There are several reasons that this course needs a full course redesign into one that uses blended learning. First, with a class size of about 50 on-campus students (e.g., in the Spring 2013 semester), it was very challenging and close to impossible to have adequate class time to cover the required course material as well as their application through case studies, hands-on activities and presentations of group projects. Hence, delivery of online course content outside class time allows the application of course content to become the focus during class time. Second, blended learning is a feasible and efficient way to deliver the course content to both on-campus and distance students. Third, given the limited number of VCC classrooms available at Missouri S&T, blended learning can be used to overcome this limitation because it can significantly reduce class time by 33% to 50%.

Dr. Nah will implement a blended learning approach for this course in an incremental manner in the Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 semesters while finetuning and refining it along the way. The newly redesigned course will be rolled out in the Fall 2014 semester.

COURSE / PROGRAM

• Chemistry 1 (now 1310) - General Chemistry I

ABSTRACT

The first semester general chemistry course at Missouri S&T, Chem 1, is a large enrollment course required for the majority of students. This course is typically taken during a student’s first or second semester at S&T. At this time in a student’s education there are several things that seem to work against them, including the often unanticipated reality of college expectations and the likely uninteresting schedule of classes that don’t seem to be important to their major. While directly dealing with these issues may not be feasible or even possible, measures can be taken that have an indirect effect on these hindrances. Increasing communication with students, including both synchronous and asynchronous forms, can ease the difficulties experienced by these students.

This project will focus on tailoring resources to students and increasing accessibility to learning assistance in general chemistry. Online learning assistance will be provided in the form of online LEAD sessions using Google Hangouts and Adobe Connect. Short videos focused on major topics and common difficulties will be created as additional learning resources for the students. Besides the increased student accessibility to resources, additional benefits include freeing time for development towards other aspects of the course as well as creating an opportunity for campus exposure to prospective students. Furthermore, the content developed can be used as a chemistry review resource for engineering students preparing for the FE exam.

Extending the scope of this project past the upcoming year, these aspects have the potential to build a strong foundation for extending the Chem 1 redesign to the second semester general chemistry course, Chem 3. It is likely that the online LEAD may be a more effective means of assistance for the significantly smaller course where the students are more independent. Also, the videos can be used as a remediation resource for students who come in with AP chemistry credit but are not fully prepared for the second semester general chemistry course, increasing the likelihood of student success in the course.

COURSE / PROGRAM

• Engineering Management 254 (now 3320) - Introduction to Project Management

ABSTRACT

In previous course redesign efforts (efellows 2013), Blackboard content and goals were redesigned for Engineering Management 254.  Some limited course material was recorded and made available to the class. The next step in course redesign is to increase the online material available and to reduce the in-class hours by one-third to one-half.

Beginning fall semester of 2013, course content modules will be developed.  These modules will be made available to students beginning in the spring semester of 2014 for feedback. For the fall 20 14 semester, students will be required to view the course content modules prior to class. To ensure student viewing of online material, a mixture of in-class quizzes and reflective papers will be used.  Available class time would then be used for problem solving and class activities utilizing the material in the content modules.  Class time will be reduced by conducting project meetings outside of class time and requiring students to record their project presentations for viewing and evaluation by the instructor and fellow students.

Engineering Management 147 is listed at the same time as Emgt 254 except on opposite days.  These two courses could potentially be good options for a blended format in the future to reduce classroom space requirements. Therefore, beyond the 2013/2014 academic year, online material can be developed for Engineering Management 147. If student performance and satisfaction increases, a blended format for Engineering Management 147 could be developed as well. 

COURSE / PROGRAM

• Biological Sciences 211 (now 2213) - Cellular Biology

ABSTRACT

This goal of this project is to continue the redesign Cellular Biology (Bio 211) into a flipped course. Cell Biology is a required course for Biological Science majors, as well as for Chemical and Biological Engineers with a Biological Emphasis. In 2012-2013, 154 students took the course, and we anticipate that this number will grow since the number of Bio Sci majors has grown steadily during the past five years. The purpose of the redesign is to allow students to view lecture materials online and self-assess their learning with online quizzes at their own pace, freeing class time to work on case studies and problem solving that will enhance their understanding and application of the material. With Tier 2 support, we will continue the redesign focusing on flipping one day of the course a week, and developing online quizzes and homework problem sets. The preliminary revised course will be offered in the fall of 2014 with final rollout scheduled for spring semester of 2015 incorporating lessons learned during the initial trial. The successful flipping of part of the course could lead to flipping the course completely and offering as blended or online in the future.