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EQE 693, Environmental Risk Assessment,
Spring 2001
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Teaching an Engineering Graduate
Course Using Web-based Pedagogy: Methods, Results, and Costs.
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EQE 697 used Blackboard for ECM. Blackboard does not handle websites well. Hence the course instructional modules were kept on the instructor's faculty web site.
The students were referred to both an "Overview" and "Syllabus" which together gave them all the basic administrative information: textbook, instructor's address, fees, and registration process. The Overview was used in pre-course marketing. The syllabus also gave them the outline of the learning modules. Students were instructed to review the Announcements section of Blackboard at least twice a week.
There was no required textbook or readings from a textbook. The learning process started with the student opening the index page of that week's learning module. The index usually had a brief text overview of the sub-modules, sometimes a global summary of where this module fit into the course, then a choice of sub-modules to start. Finally the index page had some notes on homework assignments.
The learning sub-modules teach by text instruction, sometimes supplemented with a small amount of graphics. The pedagogical method of the learning sub-modules was the students' interaction with the computer. This page is the best example of interactivity in EQE 693, 2A, page 1. It requires interaction, gathering information from a different web sites, and by hyperlinks to brief but informative pages on different web sites. On 5A page 1 the student is sent to a publicly available web site. This particular site has a tutorial. It introduces some important terms and has graphics. The next page 5A page 2 has only text with an inserted graphic. Note this page does not require interaction. Ideally it would. Here are some that likewise do not require interaction. But note the text is short and these equations need to be introduced somehow. 6A page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4 Here I emulated how I would present this material in class on a chalkboard. There is little interaction with the computer. On the next page 6A page 5 I used "alert boxes" and asked the students to calculate based on the equations they have just seen. The alert boxes have the correct answer. If the students get each right answer the next calculation follows. Note this interactivity is similar to CBT. The next page 6 develops the concepts and uses a hyperlink to a government publication and a series of questions. The next pages are poor examples of web-based pedagogy, because they are meant to be a reference source for student. Some of these pages would be appendices in a textbook on this subject. This course did not have a textbook, but there are certain charts and tables the students need. These pages tell the students where they can find the material and provide hyperlinks. Here as the instructor, I would expect the students to scan the pages, but not attempt to memorize any of the material. See page 7 and page 8. Lastly,
Here is a method for teaching mathematical principles using "frames" with a mathematical program popping up in left-hand window. (You will need Excel to see these.) Click here. Then on the right-hand frame click the hyperlink "here." This method of interactivity calls for the student to type some numbers into the spreadsheet and find a function. This is used to teach a mathematical concept, albeit a simple one, and get the student to start working with Excel. Later more complex concepts are introduced.
The discussion groups sought to help the student learn by interacting with other students. The discussion groups are located on Blackboard. The format I used was to pose a question and ask the students to answer the question. They were also asked to read and comment on at least one other student's answers. The questions were chosen to encourage a diversity of responses. The class was divided into two groups of 7 or 8 students. To view a discussion site, go to Blackboard, Spring 01, EQE 693, and log on as fssss and your password is fssss. (Sally Student). Go to the COMMUNICATIONS page, GROUP PAGES, your alter-ego, Sally, is in the Polycyclic Group, so click on that word, then click on Discussion Board, then Module 5 has a nice example of a discussion. Click on the "+" signs. Beyond student-to-student interaction for its own sake, the discussions hoped to sensitize student to the variety of human responses to some issues.
Almost every week the students were asked to send a document to the instructor via Blackboard's electronic dropbox that asked at least one question about the material in the current module, and to write a few lines about any problems they had accessing the material or quirks about how their browser handled the material, or point out any typo's or glitches in the material. This document was answered directly to the student via Email. Here are two examples of student participation homework, Student 1, Student 2.. All or most of the questions and answers were collated into a "Closure Sub-module" for each module. Here is an example Module 4 Closure. Participation homework was given credit, 20 to 25% of the homework grade that week. This encouraged interaction with instructor each week. When the questions were repeated in the closure module, I deleted the questioner's name. I felt the anonymity might encourage questions. Since I was giving homework credit for any question, there were some instances where some students appeared to force a question to collect credit rather than ask a thoughtful question. These were not too common and I did not perceive it as a problem.
Most modules had a homework quiz. This was a multiple choice test that was designed to be easy if the students had worked through the module, but difficult if the students had not worked the module. These modules used Blackboard's electronic quiz format. Here is a screen capture of a quiz. You can see an actual quiz by logging on as fssss again. Click on the ASSIGNMENTS folder, then quizzes, and then look at Module 02. You will see a typical homework assignment. One difficulty with Blackboard's electronic quizzes is that if the quiz taking is interrupted, the quiz aborts and the student cannot log back onto that quiz. For quizzes that require calculations or other time consuming efforts, I put a copy of the quiz questions into the learning module, so the student could work out the quiz answers before logging on to the electronic quiz. Then the electronic quiz in Blackboard was just a matter of clicking the answers. The quizzes were set so that when they were done, the student saw which of their answers were correct. This is similar to CBT, but it often led the students to use the incorrect answer to ask a question in the participation module, so indirectly it led to participation. The electronic homework quiz sometimes had short answer or essay questions. These were graded separately by the instructor.
The paper required references, and for this the students were given several lessons in professional use of literature and web searching. They were also given a primer on use of the UAF Rasmuson Library's database searches and electronic services including interlibrary loans (ILL). My instructions for the paper required each student to get at least one paper from the primary literature via ILL using electronic tools. Most did not do this, and I was disappointed. The library has developed an excellent system for serving remote students with ILL papers. I sensed the use of the databases was underutilized. There may have been an element of unfairness because on-campus students could use these services more easily than remote students. Part of the problem is that the library has several different services with various license agreements and this requires several different passwords or arrangements for the remote students to get connected. An on-campus student sitting in the library can quickly get a reference librarian to help. A remote student might become frustrated, even though the electronic systems were working properly, one character mistake in a password or minutia of password and dial in numbers will result in error codes being sent to the student and consequent frustration.
Here are 3 papers that received grades of A+, A-, and B- papers. Each paper was sent to two other students for review. The papers that are hyperlinked are prefaced with the instructor's grade and comments followed by the comments of the student reviewers. I have placed a hyperlink to the start of the actual paper if these comments were lengthy.
The final exam was unremarkable, the results were not much different than I would have expected with a similar take-home exam with in-class students. Here are three student exams that received, high, middle, and low grades on that exam..