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Breakout Session One: 10:10-11:25 a.m.

Using Digital Storytelling to Meet Instructional Goals
Helene Cohen, College of Education

A digital story is a way of communicating content with the force of visual and auditory elements. It is simply the act of telling a story using images and sounds to enhance the text. Digital stories can be assigned in a variety of classes to help students integrate, articulate and retain course content. They can be created in software as simple and familiar as PowerPoint. Even in their simplest form, students find them fun to create, motivating to watch, and feel proud of their final product.

This session will begin by identifying instructional goals that can be met through assigning a digital story as a culminating course activity. We will then look at student-made examples to understand the variety of levels and topics that can be addressed. Next, we will talk about the process of introducing the assignment to reluctant students who have no experience with the format. We will conclude by identifying learning outcomes that were successfully met and speculating about ways to enhance this activity in the future.
Session Recording by Tegrity, Inc.
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Childhood, Imagination, and Visualization: Photography and Creative Expression in Children's Books
Barbara Tyroler, Art Department, College of Arts and Humanities and Maria Salvadore, College of Information Studies and College of Education

Undergraduate Honors students and kindergartners from the Center for Young Children came together over children's literature, cameras, and computer technology to create an unusual community of learners. Salvadore and Tyroler describe their experiences in a cross-disciplinary course between the Art department and the College of Education in this interactive session. The instructors will present an overview of the course launched in fall of 2008 which will include a multimedia audiovisual projection of their journey together.

Extending the Audience: Using Web 2.0 Tools to Improve the Quality of Student Work
Leslie Gates, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education

Students often turn in assignments when they are personally satisfied with the quality of their work. Once these students are in the workforce, however, they will need to consider whether or not their work is of a quality expected by clients, patients, students, and supervisors. I have found that increasing the number of people who will view and comment on student work has increased the quality of the work my students produce.

In order to extend the audience of my students' work, I have used Web 2.0 technologies to allow other students, working professionals, and various friends of education to view and comment on work students produce. This presentation will demonstrate the how and why of the Web 2.0 technologies that have helped extend the audience and increase the quality of my students' work.
Session Recording by Tech Smith via Camtasia Relay (iPod Video format)

Podcasts and Pedagogy: The Use of Audio Technology in the Composition Class
Kelli Skinner and Rachel Frier, English Department, College of Arts and Humanities

Our presentation will introduce uses of podcast instruction in two different sections of Advanced Composition / Professional Writing. As instructors, we have asked our students to compose, record, and edit a podcast, as a tool for learning about both the composition process and accommodating different audiences. We define a podcast simply as one audio recording made to potentially broadcast over the internet or radio. Our presentation will outline the objectives and learning outcomes of the podcast assignments, explain the technologies used for the podcast assignments, give examples of student podcasts, and offer suggestions for adaptation of the assignment in other classrooms and curricula.

The podcast assignment can be used to engage in current research in students current or intended fields of study, express views on controversial topics, offer literary criticism, etc. In order to produce the podcast, students must engage with a specific context and set of conventions, and are encouraged to subscribe to existing podcasts or listen to radio programming to get a sense of the genre and its conventions [sound bites, background music, etc.]. In researching, writing, and recording their own podcasts, students must choose an appropriate, researchable subject and a current reason for airing the podcast. More importantly, the podcast assignments require students to think about how to persuasively deliver information for specific audiences; to succeed, students must present their ideas efficiently and with relevance and exigency. The skills acquired through this assignment complement the material of a variety of courses and disciplines.

Beyond the Laboratory Report: Using Technology to Enhance Student Learning
Michelle Brooks, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Chemical and Life Sciences

As scientific progress continues moving forward and becomes more interdisciplinary, the pressure on our majors to communicate their findings clearly to both the scientific community and general population becomes increasingly important. Additionally, the manner in which this information is disseminated has gone beyond simply preparing manuscripts for publication in scholarly journals. In the bioanalytical chemistry laboratory, we have integrated a wide range of assignments aimed at communicating scientific results to a broad audience. We have done this by using both traditional (writing scientific abstracts) and non-traditional (creating subject Wikis) methods.

By encouraging students to write for both the scientific community and the layperson, we are asking them to use a variety of processing skills. This presentation will showcase the methodologies used in this course and demonstrate the effect of these assignments on student learning.

Teaching a Traditional Face-to-Face Course with Course Management and Social Media Tools
Mark Varner, Animal Sciences Department, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Traditional face-to-face (F2F) courses are the standard at universities, and the University of Maryland has provided faculty with course management software (ELMS powered by Blackboard) to facilitate learning in multiple modalities. ANSC 212: Applied Animal Physiology is a F2F course required in the curriculum that has enrollment of 50-70 students and has been supplemented with learning objectives facilitated by course management software for more than 10 years. To encourage student completion of required reading prior to lecture, students must pass an open-book on-line quiz in ELMS based on the required reading to obtain a PDF file of the PowerPoint handout prior to the lecture. To develop student understanding of peer-reviewed research literature and the role it plays in news media coverage of science and to develop critical thinking ability students are encourage to use the ELMS Discussion Board feature to post links to related news and research article items and to then write an interpretive summary of the items that critically evaluates whether the news item is supported by the points in the research article.

Undergraduates seem to spend more time using social media software, especially those designed with mobile computing platform capabilities, than they do with course management software like ELMS. Facebook (FB) is a example of social media software popular with undergraduates. One reason for FB's popularity is the ease of user customization and third-party software development of applications. One of those applications is 'courses', and a 'course' for ANSC 212 has been developed. Not intended to compete with ELMS, the FB course was established to facilitate organization of study groups among students and their operation/function.
Session Recording by Panopto, Inc. (click the "Captions" tab for a transcript of presentation)
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Curriculum Transformation of a Large Introductory Psychology Course
Charles Stangor and Julia O'Brien, Psychology Department, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

The presentation will describe the transformation of Psychology 221, a large introductory level course, using funds provided by the Curriculum Transformation Project. We have been successful in enlarging the writing and critical thinking components of the course, while at the same time reducing the graduate student teaching demands. We believe that the transformation provides a model for transformations of other large courses.
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Technology Quiz Results (PDF)

Comparing Students' Learning in Online and Classroom Sections of a Core Graduate Course
Trudi Bellardo Hahn, College of Information Studies

Two sections of a core course in a graduate professional program, one online and the other in a traditional classroom, were compared from both student and faculty member perspectives, using two methods. The first method used a learning-focused feedback tool called SALG (Student Assessment of their Learning Gains, http://www.salgsite.org/about). Developed with NSF funding, SALG is a well-established tool that asks students to rate how certain components of a course (e.g., course materials, collaborative work, and assignments) helped them to learn, understand concepts, and master skills, affected their enthusiasm for the course or subject area, and moved them toward achieving the course goals. For this study, SALG was customized for the specific learning goals of the course.

The second assessment, from the faculty perspective, was to compare students performance on the final essay exam that was the same for the two sections. In addition to the instructors, an outside evaluator independently graded the assignments.

The study goals were to demonstrate whether or not method of delivery (online vs. classroom) makes a difference in learning and to use the findings to improve teaching by modifying current practices. The SALG results and the final exam grades were compared to see whether there are group differences tied to the delivery mode. One finding was that online class members were generally more confident of their understanding and skills at the beginning of the class, but felt that they made fewer gains in these areas over the semester. Face-to-face students started out more enthusiastic about the subject of the course and made greater gains in enthusiasm. Nevertheless, students in the two classes generally came out at about the same level of understanding and skills as measured by the final exam.
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Urban Plan: A Classroom Simulation
Alexander Chen, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, School of Architecture

Urban Plan is a role playing simulation game originally developed for high school students by the Urban Land Institute. It is designed to teach the principles and practice of urban revitalization. Armed with a box of “Legos” and an Excel pro forma spreadsheet, teams of students take on the role of a real estate development firm responding to a city Request for Proposal (RFP) for a grant to revitalize a community. They prepare a proposal and meet with practicing real estate professionals, who provide an initial critique. One week later, each team presents its final proposal to volunteers from the Urban Land Institute acting as the City Council. Based on their oral presentations, the City Council makes a judgment and awards the grant.

This presentation will describe the efforts to bring the Urban Plan Game to Honors undergraduates as well as graduate students in planning at Maryland. The evidence suggests that this simulation is one of the more rewarding activities experienced by students. The presentation will describe the changes employed to make the simulation appropriate to the course objectives of a University course. Based on journal comments and other written materials, it will assess the impact that such activities have had on student learning. Finally, it will how this model might be applied to other courses and other classroom activities.
Session Recording by Tegrity, Inc.
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The Pedagogical Relevance of Video Games in Academics: An Example from Psychology
Kent Norman, Psychology Department, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

In the past few years, video games have become more than just a passing form of entertainment for young people. They have become visual and narrative art forms, media for training and education, and avenues of personal expression and social interaction. The pedagogical relevance of video games in academia is only masked by differences in terminology and preconceived notions about what is science and what is worthy of study.

In this presentation, we will look at how the passion for video games and their increasing wealth of examples can be leveraged into an interest and understanding of our academic disciplines. As an example, I offer my new course, “The Psychology of Video Games and Entertainment,” in which basic concepts and theories of sensation and perception, learning and memory, thinking and problem solving, and judgment and decision-making are taught in the context of video games. Students are quick to see the relevance of competition, schedules of reinforcement, motivation, and social comparison in video games and are more than willing to spend time researching the ideas in popular games.

Finally, it will be suggested that the relevance of video game world extends into many other disciplines in the social sciences, arts and humanities, and beyond.
Presentation (PDF)

In PSYC 334, The Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships, I have approximately 150 students. I want my students to write about the subject, but I don't want to grade 150 papers. So, I put my class into groups of five and assign them a question about relationships (such as, "I get jealous when my significant other talks about his/her ex. What should I do about it?"). The students are assigned to their groups on the Groups section of ELMS (powered by Blackboard). They are assigned to write a wiki page using the Learning Objects wiki tool on ELMS. The wiki page should address the question using relevant research from Psychology journals. Each student is required to add one article of relevance to the wiki every month, and at the end of the semester, the group edits the page together to hand in.

The benefit of using the Wiki tool is that I can see who added what and when. The tool shows me what percentage of each page was contributed by whom. The tool also tells me what day/time a contribution was made, and it even shows the change from one draft to another. At the end of the semester, I posted a survey on ELMS asking if there was a member of the group that did not contribute an equal amount. The results are easy to tabulate and I can easily check how much an individual student did, or did not, contribute to the project.
Session Recording by TechSmith via Camtasia Relay (iPod Video format)
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Multimodal Collaboration in English 101
Tom Geary, English Department, College of Arts and Humanities

In consciously attempting to transform my English 101 pedagogy from sage-on-the-stage, Neo-Aristotelian lectures to a student-centered, reciprocal space of knowledge creation, I have found wikis to be the most helpful tool. In the fall 2008 semester, my English 101 class collaboratively constructed a course wiki that served several purposes: an encyclopedia of rhetorical concepts, grammatical rules, and research guidelines, each illustrated with unique examples; a space for collaborating on multimodal texts, such as the Group Rhetorical Analysis, and commenting on each other's progress; and a Web tool used to reinforce the visual design components of multimodal literacy. Though the project was overwhelming at times for students not familiar with Web 2.0 technologies, it helped reinforce the social nature of knowledge and empowered students who frequently participated in the collaborative environment.

In this presentation, I would like to review the benefits and shortcomings of using a wiki in a first-year college composition course and explore other options for using this technology in the classroom. By designing wiki pages with text, visuals (images and video), and links, students are composing multimodal pages designed for a target audience. Could this replace the traditional essay as we continue to incorporate technology in our writing classes?
Presentation (PDF)

The Center for Teaching Excellence Summer Institute for Teaching the New(er) Technology: A Roundtable Report
Panel facilitated by David Eubanks

CTE collaborated with the Office of Information Technology in summer 2008 to host its second summer institute during which 10 members of the faculty developed uses of newer technologies in their undergraduate courses. Applicants submitted proposals to implement an instructional technology.

Over three days, CTE, OIT, and expert users of blogs, wikis, clickers, ELMS, and other technologies offered introductions to the pedagogical values (and limitations) of each, and participants refined their adoptions of a selected tool. During the 2008-2009 year, participants have made at least one of these tools part of their undergraduate courses. In this roundtable session several institute participants will showcase their projects, discuss their experiences, and offer recommendations on future implementations of technologies available to all faculty at the University of Maryland.
Session Recording by Panopto, Inc.
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Assess More and Profess Less: How Using Clickers Can Improve the Effectiveness of Your Teaching
Kathryn Anderson Alvestad, Department of Measurement and Statistics, College of Education

Recent research indicates that formative assessment is a powerful tool that can significantly enhance student learning. Although there are numerous classroom assessment techniques that can be implemented—either formally or informally—to gather information during a lecture about how students are learning, clickers may be the single most useful strategy for higher education.

This presentation will describe the research supporting the use of formative assessment to improve student learning, provide a step-by-step demonstration of how to produce assessment items embedded in PowerPoint slides, and demonstrate how clickers can be used during lectures to gather continuous input about student learning.
Session Recording by TechSmith via Camtasia Relay (iPod Video format)
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Fifty Red Dots: Experience with a Novel Student Response System
Peter Shawhan, Physics Department, College of Computer, Math and Physical Sciences

Looking for a way to make my introductory physics class more interactive, I thought about using clickers. But on a suggestion from a friend, I decided to try something different: laser pointers! Students responded to occasional "clicker-style" questions by pointing their lasers at labeled areas on a screen. It worked well as used in my class, though it would not be the right choice for all class situations.

I will describe what I did in class, hand out laser pointers and give audience members a chance to try it for themselves, discuss what I learned from the experiment, and summarize the pros and cons of a laser-pointer response system compared to clickers. I should mention that I'm not trying to undermine the use of clickers, but I see this as a way to get instructors to think more about exactly what they want a student response system to do for their class and how they can accomplish that.
Session Recording by TechSmith via Camtasia Relay (iPod Video format--start at 21:30)
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Clickers in the Undergraduate Classroom: Success Stories and Cautionary Tales
Evan Golub, Computer Science Department, College of Computer, Math and Physical Sciences

There are different ways to use "clickers" with the students in a class, from taking attendance, to performing "dial sessions" during a topic, to opinion polls, to pop quizzes. Bringing clickers into our classrooms has become easier and more cost-effective as the University has installed receivers in technology classrooms across the campus and standardized student devices. There are numerous anecdotes and some articles describing how educators can capitalize upon clickers to improve student learning, exploration, and retention of core information and ideas. During my session, I will use a case-study approach to discuss these issues and, in some cases, present information that contradicts some common assumptions.

The session will explore the ways in which I have used clickers, and introduce what I see as some of the challenges and some of the benefits that might exist for faculty members considering integrating clickers and the associated pedagogical techniques across an entire semester of one of their courses. The discussion will include the question of whether changes to performance, engagement, satisfaction, or other metrics occurred when an established course was modified to have daily clicker components.

Seniors Run $100 Million Corporations: Computer Simulation Adds Hands-on Decision Making Experience
Rhonda Reger, Department of Management and Organization, R. H. Smith School of Business

Computer games and simulations are becoming more realistic and sophisticated. Our students come to us, in many cases, with significant gaming experience. In the realm of business, popular games like Roller Coaster Tycoon and, to some extent, Sim City, provide realistic elements of running businesses, and our students want more. Luckily, academic computer simulations have also kept pace—gaining in sophistication and realism—while also being based on leading edge theories and research on effective business practices. Thus, a computer simulation provides an ideal learning environment that is both educationally sound and fun for students.

In this presentation, I will discuss the pros and cons of using computer simulations based on my experience teaching the honors section of the capstone Business Policy course with the Capstone simulation from Capsim. In this virtual world, teams of students compete against each other over an 8 year time horizon, making decisions in R&D, Production, Marketing, Finance, TQM/Sustainability, and Human Resources. They are judged against a balanced scorecard of metrics representing the outcomes expected by key stakeholders of a high technology company (in this case, the sensor industry). Some of the benefits of a computer simulation include: application of analytical models learned throughout the business school curriculum, practice of teamwork and leadership skills, development of complex decision making skills in a safe environment, and engaged, student-focused learning.
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How to Use the Global Simulation System in a Language Class
Dorothee Polanz, French Department, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures

I will present my experience with the Global Simulation system in my language classes. I used it at the intermediate level for composition classes and it was always a great success. The global simulation system requires the students to create a identity (in this case French) in order to build an entire world (from job to family) based in the targeted country. The instructor choose a city in France and the whole class virtually "live" in it for the semester. Therefore, all the material and references are authentic. The process allows students to be creative and coherent within their "new" world. The Discussion Board in ELMS (powered by Blackboard) is an excellent place for all the students to post announcements, letters, requests about their life in the building we all live in.

Moreover, I would like to stretch the importance of the choice of the city. Indeed, the French Department has two programs based in Nice and Montpellier, two Southern French cities, and using the global simulation system in one of two towns would greatly prepare the students who want to study abroad.
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Everest—The Process of Implementing a Teams-based Simulation into a Large Lecture Section
Mark Wellman and Naveed Chaudhry, Department of Management and Organization, R. H. Smith School of Business

Creating and implementing an effective, team leadership activity for a large lecture section is a daunting task. This challenge was carried out in BMGT364, Management & Organization Theory, through the use of a Web-based simulation developed by Michael A. Roberto and Amy C. Edmondson (Harvard Business Press). “Everest – Leadership and Teams Simulation” places five to six students in a group, each taking on a different role in a team attempting to summit Mount Everest. In order to do so, each member in the group must effectively communicate information that others may or may not have, including weather, health, hiking speed, oxygen, among other necessary information. This simulation tested the students’ ability in effectively leading and participating in a team setting, overcoming information asymmetries, and weighing personal task completion versus team effectiveness.

Implementation of this technology into the classroom will be discussed, along with problems encountered during its administration. Included in this discussion will be how students prepared for the simulation, how their performances were evaluated, and the management of time constraints. The effectiveness of the simulation will also be explored, with the use of a reflection piece written by each student group serving as the support. These accounts will show how students viewed their team synergies and process losses, how well they were able to compromise personal and team task completion, and most importantly how group leaders were able to adapt to interest asymmetry and provide psychological safety.
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Practicing What We Teach: Communication Across Cultures
Rashi Jain, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education

The increasing diversity in the classrooms in U.S. schools is paralleled by the increasingly diverse university classrooms in terms of both student populations and the instructors who teach the students—a result of the increasing enrollment of first and second generation immigrants as well as international students in undergraduate and graduate programs in universities across the U.S. Many of the international graduate students, in turn, teach coursework as part of their assistantship assignments, and add to the varied teacher body at these sites of higher education.

The presenter found herself in one such scenario where, as an international graduate teaching assistant, she independently instructed a 400-level course in a setting where she and her students collectively represented cultural, racial, and linguistic diversity. The course was titled ‘Understanding cross-cultural communication for teaching English language learners" and had the over-arching objective of understanding cross-cultural issues that students and their teachers are likely to encounter in classrooms and to acquire knowledge and techniques to facilitate their success. The course content mirrored, in many ways, the realities of the specific 400-level classroom, and the instructor found herself endeavoring to practice what she was teaching. In the presentation, the presenter will share insights of how she organized her instruction to negotiate the classroom dynamics with varying degrees of success. She will share specific skills, knowledge, and dispositions that she and her students brought into the classroom to establish successful cross-cultural communication, and use evidence from instructional materials used in the classroom and student-generated data, along with support from published literature and research in her presentation.
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In Tandem: Group and Cross-Cultural Learning in a Transatlantic Interdisciplinary Seminar
Sonja Duempelmann, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

This presentation will deal with the development of, and the experiences and lessons learnt from, a transatlantic and interdisciplinary tandem-seminar that I am currently teaching at UMCP. The graduate seminar entitled "Berlin-Washington: Capital Urban Spaces and Transatlantic Exchange" is a collaborative venture with the Center for Metropolitan Studies of the Technical University Berlin and is offered (almost) concurrently by my colleague Jun. Prof. Dr. Dorothee Brantz in Berlin. In addition to the regular class meetings the seminar includes a live Web conference session with the Berlin students, a one-week study tour to Berlin and a one-week return visit by the students from the TU Berlin.

In my talk I will present the idea, objectives, program, and assignments as well as the funding that we sought and received from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to support the respective group study visits. I will discuss the challenges posed and opportunities provided by cross-cultural and group learning as exemplified in this tandem-seminar, and will examine the effect that the use of different media such as Web conferencing, student course blogs, and film have had. I will conclude my presentation by pointing out the lessons I learned from this experience.

Introducing the Mobility Initiative Pilot Project
Barbara Hope and Fred Morris, Office of Information Technology

The Mobility Project is an initiative of the University of Maryland that is sponsored by the Office of the Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Office of Information Technology. It is a pilot program to enhance the student education experience by examining the role that mobile Internet access devices might have in the future of instruction, learning and social growth of students on campus.

The presentation will detail Mobility Project pilot goals, the current state of the pilot, our successes and lessons learned, and the future plans and objectives.
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Using Classroom Clickers to Respond to Academically At-Risk Students
Janet Thiel and Andrea Peimer, CAPS, College of Education (University Counseling Center)

Student responses captured via the use of clickers (Personal Response Systems) within a Winter Term Study Strategies course are used to further understand an at-risk student population. Faculty reviewing these student responses may develop a better understanding of students at risk academically, as well as the various functions of student response systems within the regular classroom. The pros and cons of clicker usage will also be presented.

The majority of students in this six-day course/workshop were recently placed on academic probation or about to be dismissed from the university. Questions about study habits and preferred learning strategies were used to generate class discussion. The anonymous posting of multiple choice and yes/no answers to lead questions enabled the instructor to discuss topics from fact rather than presumption.

Teaching Assistants on Incorporating Literature and Independent Projects in Lab Courses
Yi-Tak Lai, Gili Marbach-Ad, Ann C. Smith, and Wenxia Song, Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, College of Chemical and Life Sciences

We present results on implementing Literature-based learning (LBL) and Experimental Design Projects (EDP) in a senior-level immunology lab course to promote active and research-oriented learning. LBL and EDP utilize primary research articles and projects to supplement student learning of immunological lab techniques and their applications in biomedical research. Teaching assistants in this lab setting have a major leading role. We interviewed five TAs for their feedback, perspective, and attitudes towards their role. They reported that this practical approach had improved the students interest, understanding, and application ability in the subject, as indicated by the student feedback (Parent et al, 2005).

Childhood, Imagination, and Visualization: Photography and Creative Expression in Children's Books
Barbara Tyroler, Art Department, College of Arts and Humanities

The presenter will share a multi-media presentation of a course that explored the integration of different disciplines, of photographic technology and traditional print, and of pairing the craft and theory of bookmaking with newer, more immediate technologies.

Introducing Computational Tools into Undergraduate Biochemistry Laboratory Course
Soheila Ebrahimian, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Chemical and Life Sciences

This course is designed to introduce students to many of the experimental tools used by a modern biochemist, and to prepare them for the modern laboratory situation in which the computer and bench are intimately linked. This course provides students with practical training in modern biochemical techniques (including bioinformatics and computer programs), experience in conducting and reporting logical and consistent investigation with a sense of how real research projects are conducted, and opportunities for students to communicate science in an effective and professional style through written reports and oral presentations. Students feedback from two semesters will be presented and discussed.

Implementation of Learning Style Methods to Enhance Student Achievement in a Cooperative Learning Environment
Amy J. Haufler, Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health

Introduction to Kinesiology (KNES 200) is specifically designed to respond to the developmental needs and learning attributes of first semester freshmen who have identified Kinesiology as their major. Presently, evidence-based cooperative learning strategies are incorporated into the course. However, some students have difficulty making the transition to assuming the responsibility, cultivating the independence and engaging in requisite teamwork to support their learning process in this environment. Developmentally, these students appear to be ill-equipped to accept or benefit from the paradigm shift from high school, consisting largely of teacher-centered instruction, to recognizing and embracing the responsibility for their learning as expected and necessitated when cooperative approaches are employed.

The purpose of the proposed project was to interface learning style methods with existing cooperative and experiential instructional strategies to improve the quality and effectiveness of peer teaching. It was expected that benefits extend to the individual via enhanced learning self-awareness, to the class by increasing the learning community cohesion, and beyond Introduction to Kinesiology through transfer of functional knowledge and essential skills. A four stage project was planned to include a comprehensive review of the learning style literature as is applicable to college-aged students, a critical examination of existing assignments and assessments to determine relevance to learning style methods, revision and/or creation of assignments and assessments.

Wikis as a Tool for Presenting Scientific Posters
Laura A. Cathcart and Ann C. Smith, Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, College of Chemical and Life Sciences

An important component of becoming a scientist is learning how to communicate information in the form of a scientific poster. Organizing a scientific poster presentation in a large enrollment science course is logistically challenging. To overcome this challenge, we have implemented the use of the wiki tool in ELMS (powered by Blackboard) for our students to collaboratively create scientific posters. Students in BSCI 223: General Microbiology designed “scientific poster wikis” during the Fall 2008 (295 students) and Spring 2009 (286 students) semesters. The students worked in groups of three on a laboratory project to gather data about microbial life in “mock” environmental soil samples. As sections of the project were completed, the students published their findings in wikis. Once the students finished gathering data, they built a formal scientific poster in the wikis. The final wikis were viewed by all of the students in each laboratory section (18 students).

In addition to the logistical benefits of implementing the use of wikis for scientific posters, we noticed several other advantages to using this technology. The online collaborative format of the wikis allows students to add information to the wikis on their own time schedules, without coordinating group meetings. Embedded in the wiki technology are comment features, so that students can easily communicate with their group members about the construction of the wiki. The wiki format allows the course instructors and teaching assistants to monitor the progress of groups as portions of the project are completed and allows students to “present” their data to their lab section at the completion of the project.

Engaging Students with Food: Teaching Research Methods in a Cohort Program Evaluation Course
Jennifer Gibbs, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Research methods can be an intimidating curriculum for students, raising anxiety among students, challenging their engagement in the course and impeding learning. Introducing concepts (i.e., conceptualization, survey development, data collection and analysis) tied to a food theme reduces anxiety while engaging students. Quantitative analysis (based on pre- and post-assessments) of this teaching method measure whether student learning improved through the course and qualitative analysis assess student satisfaction and whether students believed the instructor was invested in their learning. Suggestions for applying this teaching method to other courses will be discussed.

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