Development and results from a survey on students views of experiments in lab classes and research

The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) was developed as a broadly applicable assessment tool for undergraduate physics lab courses. At the beginning and end of the semester, the E-CLASS assesses students views about their strategies, habits of mind, and attitudes when doing experiments in lab classes. Students also reflect on how those same strategies, habits-of-mind, and attitudes are practiced by professional researchers. Finally, at the end of the semester, students reflect on how their own course valued those practices in terms of earning a good grade. In response to frequent calls to transform laboratory curricula to more closely align it with the skills and abilities needed for professional research, the E-CLASS is a tool to assess students' perceptions of the gap between classroom laboratory instruction and professional research. The E-CLASS has been validated and administered in all levels of undergraduate physics classes. To aid in its use as a formative assessment tool, E-CLASS provides all participating instructors with a detailed feedback report. Example figures and analysis from the report are presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the E-CLASS. The E-CLASS is actively administered through an online interface and all interested instructors are invited to administer the E-CLASS their own classes and will be provided with a summary of results at the end of the semester

Electronic Feedback: Pedagogical Considerations for the Implementation of Software

[EN] As university lecturers, we often struggle to provide our students with good quality feedback in a consistent manner. This is usually caused by the increasing imbalance in teacher-student ratios (Hounsell et al., 2008), as well as the pressure of academic life and the lack of time (Sadler, 2010). In addition, assessment practices should be transparent enough to ensure all students are evaluated in a similar way (O’Donovan et al., 2004), especially when different instructors teach different groups of students taking the same course. This paper, which focuses on designing a feedback scheme that helps instructors to provide good quality feedback in a consistent manner, begins with a needs analysis based on the author’s experience as an instructor of academic writing in English. A literature review follows, focusing on: (a) the scholarship on feedback in higher education; and (b) the research on the use of technology for the provision of feedback. Finally, a feedback scheme is presented, and some guidelines for its implementation are provided.García-Yeste, M. (2013). Electronic Feedback: Pedagogical Considerations for the Implementation of Software. The EuroCALL Review. 21(2):39-48. https://doi.org/10.4995/eurocall.2013.97893948212Alesón, M. et al. (2006). "Assessment and online feedback: Using a written text correction programme". Proceedings of the XXIV International AESLA Conference Madrid: UNED.Cabero, J. (2001). Tecnología educativa. Dise-o y utilización de medios de ense-anza. Barcelona: Paidós.Carless, D. et al. (2011). "Developing Sustainable Feedback Practices". Studies in Higher Education, 36(4): 395-407. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075071003642449Case, S. (2007). "Reconfiguring and realigning the assessment feedback processes for an undergraduate criminology degree". Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(3): 285-299. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930600896548Cumming, A. (1989). "Writing Expertise and Second-Language Proficiency". Language Learning, 39: 81-135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1989.tb00592.xDiGiovanni, E. and Nagaswami, G. (2001). "Online peer review: an alternative to face-to-face?" ELT journal 55(3): 263-272. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/55.3.263Hedgcock, J. & Lefkowitz, N. (1994). "Feedback on feedback: Assessing learner receptivity to teacher response in L2 composing". Journal of Second Language Writing 3(2): 141-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/1060-3743(94)90012-4Holmes, M. (1996). "Marking student work on the computer." The Internet TESL Journal 2(9).Hounsell, D. et al. (2008). "The quality of guidance and feedback to students". Higher Education Research & Development 27(1): 55-67. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360701658765Hyland, F. (2003). "Focusing on form: student engagement with teacher feedback". System 31(2): 217-230. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0346-251X(03)00021-6Krajka, J. (2002) "Correcting student work with the computer - using dedicated software and a word processor". Teaching English with Technology. A Journal for Teachers of English 2(4) [retrieved from: http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/j_tech10.htm].McCune, V., & Hounsell, D. (2005). "The development of students' ways of thinking and practising in three final-year biology courses". Higher Education, 49(3): 255-289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-004-6666-0Mooij, T. (2009). "Education and ICT-based self-regulation in learning: Theory, design and implementation". Education and Information Technologies, 14(1): 3-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-008-9066-8Nicol, D. (2006). "Increasing success in first year courses: Assessment re-design, self-regulation and learning technologies". Proceedings of the 23rd annual ascilite conference.Nicol, D. J., & Macfarlane‐Dick, D. (2006). "Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice". Studies in higher education, 31(2): 199-218. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070600572090O'Donovan, B. et al. (2004). "Know what I mean? Enhancing student understanding of assessment standards and criteria". Teaching in Higher Education, 9(3): 325-335. https://doi.org/10.1080/1356251042000216642Perkins, D. (2007). "Theories of difficulty". In Entwistle, N. Student learning and university teaching. BJEP Monograph Series II, Number 4-Student Learning and University Teaching, 1(1): 1-18.Sadler, D. R. (2010). "Beyond feedback: Developing student capability in complex appraisal". Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(5): 535-550. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930903541015Thomas, J. (2004). "Using computers in correcting written work". Teaching English with Technology, 4(3): 1-8.Tuzi, F. (2004). "The impact of e-feedback on the revisions of L2 writers in an academic writing course". Computers and Composition, 21(2): 217-235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2004.02.003Ware, P., & Warschauer, M. (2006). "Automated writing evaluation: Defining the classroom research agenda". Language teaching research, 10(2): 157-180. https://doi.org/10.1191/1362168806lr190o

Teaching and learning in live online classrooms

Online presence of information and services is pervasive. Teaching and learning are no exception. Courseware management systems play an important role in enhancing instructional delivery for either traditional day, full-time students or non-traditional evening, party-time adult learners enrolled in online programs. While online course management tools are with no doubt practical, they limit, however, live or synchronous communication to chat rooms, whose discourse has little in common with face-to-face class communication. A more recent trend in online teaching and learning is the adoption and integration of web conferencing tools to enable live online classrooms and recreate the ethos of traditional face-to-face sessions. In this paper we present the experience we have had with the adoption of the LearnLinc® web conferencing tool, an iLinc Communications, Inc. product. We have coupled LearnLinc with Blackboard®, for the online and hybrid computer science courses we offered in the past academic year in the evening undergraduate and graduate computer science programs at Rivier College. Twelve courses, enrolling over 150 students, have used the synchronous online teaching capabilities of LearnLinc. Students who took courses in the online or hybrid format could experience a comparable level of interaction, participation, and collaboration as in traditional classes. We solicited student feedback by administering a student survey to over 100 students. The 55% response rate produced the data for this paper\u27s study. We report on the study\u27s findings and show students\u27 rankings of evaluation criteria applied to hybrid and online instructional formats, with or without a web conferencing tool. Our analysis shows that students ranked favorably LearnLinc live sessions added to Blackboard-only online classes. In addition, how they learned in live online classrooms was found to be the closest to the hybrid class experience with regard to teaching practices they perceived as most important to them, such as seeking instructor\u27s assistance, managing time on task, and exercising problem solving skills

Building capacity in climate change policy analysis and negotiation: methods and technologies

Capacity building is often cited as the reason “we cannot just pour money into developing countries” and why so many development projects fail because their design does not address local conditions. It is therefore a key technical and political concept in international development. Some of the poorest countries in the world are also some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Their vulnerability is in part due to a lack of capacity to plan and anticipate the effects of climate change on crops, water resources, urban electricity demand etc. What capacities do these countries lack to deal with climate change? How will they cope? What steps can they take to reduce their vulnerability? This innovative and high-profile research project was part of a larger project (called C3D) and conducted with non-governmental organisations in Senegal, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The research involved several participatory workshops and a questionnaire to all three research centres

Using Blogs to Foster Inquiry, Collaboration, and Feedback in Pre-Service Teacher Education

This chapter presents a critical case study on the use of information technology in a pre-service teacher education program. The authors integrated Weblogs (blogs) into two constructivist-oriented teacher preparation courses with the goal of helping students learn to think like a teacher through enhanced inquiry, collaboration, and feedback. The authors found that, through the use of blogs, pre-service teaching candidates grew in their abilities to reflect on their own teaching and to provide constructive comments to peers. The authors’ experience also indicated that while instructor and peer feedback via blogs was valuable, it functioned best when paired with face-to-face meetings between the instructors and students. They discussed design principles for combining online and face-to-face environments and offer possibilities for the expanded use of blogs in pre-service teacher education

MOOC adaptation and translation to improve equity in participation

There is an urgent need to improve elementary and secondary school classroom practices across India and the scale of this challenge is argued to demand new approaches to teacher professional learning.  Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) represent one such approach and which, in the context of this study, is considered to provide a means by which to transcend traditional training processes and disrupt conventional pedagogic practices. This paper offers a critical review of a large-scale MOOC deployed in English, and then in Hindi, to support targeted sustainable capacity building within an education development initiative (TESS-India) across seven states in India.  The study draws on multiple sources of participant data to identify and examine features which stimulated a buzz around the MOOCs, leading to over 40,000 registrations and a completion rate of approximately 50% for each of the two MOOCs