Innovating Online: Environmental Sciences

Dr. James Montgomery and Dr. Margaret Workman see vast potential for online learning in the Environmental Science Program. DePaul's Vision Twenty12 Strategic Plan sets an ambitious course for the University to become a leader in the delivery of innovative, technology-based and flexible high quality educational experiences for its students.

In the fall of 2007 Dr. Montgomery and Dr. Workman were awarded the Quality of Instruction Council (QIC) grant, which will help the Environmental Science Program (ESP) increase its limited online learning experiences for students enrolled in its courses. With the expected increase in both the number of high school graduates in the next two years as well as adult learners, and with the explosion of online learning programs at many American universities, the ESP is poised to develop a variety of online learning experiences for multiple audiences with varying needs.

Dr. Montgomery and Dr. Workman were kind enough to discuss their experiences moving their coursework online.


TC: The Environmental Sciences might be traditionally seen as a field that requires a significant amount physical hands-on work, including field and lab studies. How do you complement this type of learning with an increased online learning presence?

M & W: We are creating an online version of ENV 101 (Introduction to Environmental Science w/o lab). We purposely chose ENV 101 because it does not have a lab, hence, it is easier to design online activities. Despite not having a lab, we are designing this online course to include field experiences for the students, where they have to go to a nearby forest preserve or natural area and make observations and measurements. We may also design some self-guided field trips to the area botanic gardens iTunes site, we decided to extend these types of virtual activities to an online environmental science course. Maggie also saw that podcasting lectures would serve as a "Universal Design" model helping all students, particularly those in the PLuS Program and ESL students.

TC: What has been the student reaction to the increased technology use? Has participation improved, comprehension, retention?

Today's tech savvy students love the use of technology in the classroom. In particular, incorporating technology into the classroom allows students who hate science to feel more comfortable and engaged. The students' reaction in Maggie's Discover class to the iTunes movie assignment has been very positive, with students commenting that they appreciate the opportunity to employ their creative skills in a constructive way. Also, Maggie reports that her podcast lectures (link must be referenced when logged into Campus Connect) have received more hits than Daniel Craig's website! While we have no hard data on participation, the iTunes movie assignment requires all students to be in the movie, so they cannot stand idly on the sidelines and get credit for this assignment. One way we hope to increase student comprehension in our SI Intro Environmental Science class with a lab (ENV 102) is to produce some pre-lab movies demonstrating various types of lab equipment and procedures that the students will be using in that week's lab. They can download the movie onto their iPod and view it before lab while sipping an overpriced latte.

TC: What advice might you give to other teachers, departments, or colleges trying to develop courses with online learning in mind? Is it more effective to think of traditional courses and online learning as mutually exclusive items, if not what is their meeting point?


M & W: We would encourage everyone to consider adopting some aspect of online learning. The important thing to remember nowadays is that students are quite comfy with technology, and they almost have come to expect technology in the classroom (i.e. podcasts, posted powerpoint lectures, chat rooms, blogs, etc). Online learning and traditional courses can be quite complementary, rather than mutually exclusive. Technology is an item in our pedagogical toolbox, and when used properly and judiciously, it can enhance student learning.

TC: Technological limitations aside, imagine a perfect Environmental Sciences online learning environment, what would it look and act like?


M & W: A perfect course would be interactive among the students and the instructor and would incorporate a variety of tech tools including podcasts, blogs, discussion boards, etc. Essentially, such a course would engage students about the world's pressing environmental problems, using a variety of online environmental data that they could model and analyze. However, the best science course involves hands-on investigation. An online course can include this with no drop off in quality.

The Teaching Commons would like to thank Dr. James Montgomery and Dr. Margaret Workman for contributing to the site. If you would like to share your own story, classroom tips, advice, or experiences, please send us an e-mail.

Strategies for Teaching Online

Ron Fernandes
School of Public Service
November 4th, 2008

I would strongly recommend that faculty who would like to teach online first take an online class themselves. This will help put themselves in the shoes of their prospective online students and lead to a better course design. The DePaul Online Teaching Series popularly known as DOTS run by the instructional Design and Development department (IDD) is a great way to do this while learning about online course development. I would also suggest that faculty plan their online course design carefully and in advance in discussion with instructional designers and technology specialists. Complex subjects need strong weekly discussion topics that motivate students to read and actively engage in discussing them. Ideally what happens on threaded discussions needs to duplicate the rich learning experiences our students have in classrooms. For complex courses, get students to apply key concepts while working with software or internet-based tools and then have them post their analyses on discussion boards where they can receive feedback. For example: when teaching finance or statistics online, having students conduct statistical analyses in Excel or SPSS and then posting those results on threaded discussions enables them to learn-by-doing in the supportive environment of their fellow students.

Challenges that come with teaching online

Among the challenges I experienced in teaching online courses is to successfully deal with the new paradigm of online course development: working as a team with instructional designers and technology specialists to develop your course. It is really important to carefully plan all the details of online course in advance and in collaboration with specialists. Also be upfront about your expectations and take control of and responsibility for the course. Instructional designers and technologists are there to support ; it’s still your course. Online courses are a lot less flexible in terms of being able to make mid-course corrections to them. Confusion results more frequently in online courses than in face-to-face courses. In the online learning environment, faculty also need to consider the need to modify their role from being a “sage on the stage” in the classroom to becoming a “guide on the side.” Creating a social presence for students in online courses can be a challenge that can be creatively overcome by careful course design including the selection of instructional technologies (and there are a variety of them), by developing rules for timely responses to student queries, and by incorporating synchronous technologies such as Wimba Live Classroom in online courses.

Taking advantage of available technologies

Wimba Live Classroom is a wonderful addition to online course environments. It allows faculty to add synchronous (real-time) audio and video sessions to online courses. At the School of Public Service Wimba allows us to offer guest lectures, conduct group discussions, demonstrations of software, and engage students in online Q&A sessions in real time. Audio and video interactions enable a richer learning environment for teaching complex topics than asynchronous text-based interactions. Wimba will be incorporated in the Blackboard 8.0 learning management system (LMS) that is being rolled out this winter. I would also recommend that faculty collaborate closely with the Instructional Design and Development (IDD) department and the great instructional design and training support they offer. They should also take advantage of any training on software offered by the Instructional Technology Development (ITD) department.

Do Quizzes Matter?

As reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, several recent studies confirmed that frequently quizzing students on reading material helps them retain what they have learned.

One study, published in Psychological Science, was based on two experiments in which students read passages on scientific topics. In the first experiment, students were assigned to one of two groups. Students in the first group took a test on the material, those in the second group re-read it, then both groups took a test five minutes, two days or one week later. In the second experiment, students read the material and then either (a) took three tests, (b) re-read the material three times and took one test, or (c) read the material four times.

The study's authors found that the students who were directed to review the material reported greater confidence in their ability to remember the material (and, indeed, they performed better on the retention test given five minutes later). However, on the tests taken days later, "prior testing produced substantially greater retention than studying."

References

Glenn, David. (2007, June 8). You will be tested on this.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
-DPU-

Roediger III, H.L., & Karpicke, J.D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning
Psychological Science, 17 (3), 249-255. -DPU-

Related Links

Tests and quizzes: strategies and resources

Giving quizzes with clickers

Give quizzes or tests online

The Benefits of Peer Instruction

When working in groups, do discussions help students gain a better understanding of the material, or do students typically give in to the group consensus or the dominant voice? Early indications from a recent report in Science suggest that students working in groups do tend to improve their conceptual understanding, rather than merely agreeing with another student's answer.

In their study of students taking introductory genetics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, faculty used feedback from clickers to measure student performance on a series of questions. First a conceptual question is posed to the class, next the same question is asked but after peer discussion, and finally a third question, different in content, but requiring the application of the same principles required to solve the first question. As expected, students tended to answer more questions correct when working with the aid of a group, however a welcome surprise was that "students who answered both question 1 and question 1 (after discussion) incorrectly still appeared to learn from discussions with peers ... Of these students 44% answered question 2 correctly, significantly better than expected from random guessing." (Smith, M.K. et al., 2009, p. 123) These results help support the theory that students engaged in discussion gain a stronger conceptual understanding of the course content.

Read more from Inside Higher ED.

References

Lederman, Doug. (2009, January 5). Proving the Benefits of Peer Instruction. Inside Higher Ed.

Smith, M.K., Wood, W.B., Adams, W.K., Wieman, C., Knight, J.K., Guild, N., Su, T.T., (2009, January). Why Peer Discussion Improves Student Performance on In-Class Concept Questions. Science. 323(5910), 122-124. DOI: 10.1126/science.1165919

Related Links

Collaborative learning techniques by the Teaching Commons.

Using clickers for peer instruction by the Teaching Commons.