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Modern academy traces its roots back to the medieval universities established between the 12th and the 14th centuries [1]. Much has changed in the world of academia during the millennium that separates a modern university from a medieval one.
Given the wealth of research available on what components to include in a syllabus and how that affects instructor perception, there is a lack of research on how to present the syllabus to engage students in learning about the course. Our study examined the implementation of two multimedia syllabi developed for large lecture math courses: a graphic syllabus and a video version. After reviewing their respective syllabi, students were given a syllabus content quiz and course perception survey. Findings indicate no significant difference between students’ syllabus quiz performance and overall survey responses between groups. Students responded favorably to the survey regardless of syllabus type. Last, there was no observed relationship between the length of each syllabus segment video and the frequency at which students watched each segment. Implications of this study will address engagement with the syllabus and provide additional considerations for syllabus development.
Inclusive pedagogy, an intentional approach to creating learning environments that meet the instructional needs of diverse student populations, is critically important and a moral imperative in contemporary higher education. Among the biggest challenges for creating faculty development programming to address the development and use of inclusive pedagogy are the lack of financial resources to support the effort and a lack of centralized institutional staff expertise and resources to inform and support such efforts. This case study gives a model for an institutional collaboration that incorporates experts from a variety of offices to deliver a series of inclusive teaching workshops and incentivizes faculty and instructors by awarding a certificate. We describe the administrative processes for establishing this collaboration and the process of assessing the program, and we review the results after one year of the program’s existence.
As chemistry courses across the country transitioned to remote instruction during the Winter/Spring 2020 term because of the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching teams with undergraduate Learning Assistants (LAs) faced unique challenges to maintain active, collaborative, and inclusive class experiences. While technology access and limitations presented challenges, the technology available through learning management systems, group text-based messaging apps, and video conferencing enabled instructors and LAs to offer synchronous sessions during normally scheduled class time, delivery of asynchronous content, and continued student support. In this article, the collective experiences from general and organic chemistry courses taught with LAs at four institutions are described. Challenges, successes, and lessons learned at these institutions are summarized based on four themes: technology with general remote learning, changes in course structure teaching with LAs, changes in the ways LAs interact with instructors and students, and changes in the lives of the LAs. In many cases, LAs were essential to student success in these novel learning spaces.
Digital badges are credentials earned via a digital presentation to demonstrate the mastery of a technique. They have been utilized in General Chemistry laboratory courses as an assessment tool and to document students’ development of a skill. A digital badge assignment was developed for thin layer chromatography (TLC) and integrated into a laboratory practical exam in a large-enrollment Organic Chemistry laboratory course for science majors. The students filmed themselves carrying out the TLC technique while explaining why specific steps were taken. After completing the filming, they applied the TLC technique off-camera to identify an unknown. Detailed directions, filming prompts, and rubrics are provided for this digital badge. The assignment was updated on the basis of the results from quantitative and qualitative data collected from around 800 students and a dozen GTAs. This data was also analyzed to explore the affordances and challenges of implementing a badge within a laboratory practical. Data included students’ pre- and post-perceptions of their knowledge, experience, and confidence, scores on the laboratory practical and written final exam, and student and GTA responses to short-answer survey questions. The most helpful resources for the badge were the directions, filming prompts, and rubrics, while the challenges included filming oneself, time limits, and uploading videos to the learning management system (LMS). Overall, we believe the challenges students faced with the digital badge assignment were outweighed by the positive cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning outcomes resulting from coupling a digital badge assignment with the identification of an unknown as complementary components of a required laboratory practical.
This exploratory study investigates the influence of active learning pedagogies implemented within Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) on student perceptions of the learning experience in undergraduate PreCalculus. We examine student perceptions of engagement, collaboration, and the perceived effectiveness of active learning for deeper understanding. Survey data from 93 first-semester students at a large public university reveal positive student perceptions of deep learning, increased interest in the course over the term, and favorable attitudes toward the ALC environment. Correlation analysis indicates significant associations between these aspects of the ALC experience, emphasizing the role of affective engagement in academic success. The study also explores interpersonal dynamics, revealing the perceived efficacy of collaborative study practices and student social interactions. Qualitative analysis yielded positive feedback on the classroom environment, technology integration, and the instructor’s teaching style. These findings suggest that active learning pedagogies implemented within ALCs can enhance student perceptions of the learning environment and its contribution to deeper learning outcomes in undergraduate mathematics education.
Robust efforts to improve equity, access, and inclusion are necessary in STEM gateway courses at the undergraduate level. Here, we describe an ongoing course transformation of an extended general chemistry sequence at a large, flagship, research-intensive institution. This course enrolls a diverse group of students who have limited preparation in math or writing. Many of the students are also from underrepresented or minoritized backgrounds, which lends further urgency to the need for equity-oriented course transformation. The transformation itself utilizes an array of evidence-based practices, such as active learning with Learning Assistants as facilitators in lectures and recitations, frequent low- and moderate-stakes assessments, exam wrappers, and mindset and values-affirmation interventions. We discuss the implementation of these reforms in the context of equity, access, and inclusion, as well as implications for instruction and future research on student outcomes.
In this mixed-methods study of large enrollment introductory physics service courses, I investigated students’ perception and use of online education resources as supplements to course-provided materials and activities. Specifically, I focused on the increasing use of popular free online media resources such as YouTube and Khan Academy, and fee-based textbook solution repository services such as Chegg. In the quantitative portion of this study, I surveyed students from three courses on their textbook and online resource usage and found that most students relied primarily on online resources as they navigated the courses, and comparatively few used the textbook regularly. In the qualitative portion, I investigated the patterns and culture of textbook and online resource usage via semistructured interviews and found that students reported using online resources as supplements to, or in place of, the course-provided materials when engaging with online homework or studying for an exam. Students reported using online resources productively to guide learning efforts, but also acknowledged unproductive uses such as copying solutions to mitigate loss of assignment points. I provide suggestions for changes in course materials, practices, and expectations to better engage students in the course and in their learning.
There is a large body of research on how to improve student learning through active learning and metacognition. However, without well-structured guidelines, students do not tend to actively engage with the taught material, peers, and the instructor at a desirable metacognitive level (Deslauriers et al., 2019). To address this problem, a research-driven assessment structure is integrated into a non- traditional course called “Methods for Mathematical Problem Solving” (M2PS). Methods for Mathematical Problem Solving was designed by the author to teach students effective study principles stemming from cognitive science. The assessments include synchronous check for understanding (CFU) assignments to further investigate the taught material through reading assignments and reflective writings, followed by asynchronous quiz reinforcements, and concluded with journaling to ensure successful implementation of the principles into study schedules. This cycle of learning and implementation is carried throughout the 7 weeks of this hybrid course. The classroom culture, grounded on metacognition and active learning, is purposefully modeled by the instructor. In this article, we focus on a sample of assessments that are tailored to enhancing active learning and metacognitive skills. Assessments are employed in a low-stakes, distributed fashion to reduce anxiety over a curriculum built on an abundance of theoretical and empirical research. These assessments can be easily adopted into traditional classrooms with instructors’ deliberate efforts. The purpose of creating these assessments is to improve student learning outcomes by instilling metacognitive skills while turning on the “active learning” mode. The end-of-course celebratory event signified the importance of developing this course, specifically for first-year undergraduates.
