Promoting Academic Excellence at UNL

ITLE Year 1 Teaching and Learning with Technology Grants

Teaching and Learning with Technology grants of from $5,000 to $25,000 each to encourage partnerships to improve teaching using technologies in innovative ways.

DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERACTIVE ENGAGEMENT COMPONENTS FOR A LARGE-ENROLLMENT INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS COURSE ($12,050)

Kevin Lee, Physics and Astronomy
Stephen Ducharme, Physics and Astronomy
Carl Lundstedt, Anthropology and Geography

Major advances in physics and astronomy instruction have been developed over the past two decades with learner-centered methods proving the most effective. Nearly all Physics and Astronomy classes are taught using these approaches. The grant will fund pre-class materials, in-class materials, and post-class materials.

In pre-class, a Web-based system will let students familiarize themselves with class material so that in-class time may be spent applying the concepts. In in-class, students will discuss conceptual questions among themselves and vote on answers to problems, providing a snapshot of the class's understanding. Students also will spend time collaborating on exercises with the instructor and graduate students circulating to provide guidance. In post-class, students work advanced problems online with hints and comments incorporated into them. Recitations further build skills through group problem-solving.

PREPARING INTENTIONAL STUDENTS USING TECHNOLOGY ($25,000)

Charles Ansorge, Educational Psychology
Linda Pratt, English
Paul Erickson, Information Services
Marie Barber, EE&O Instructional Design

This grant's interdisciplinary partners will work together to sponsor a series of six highly interactive workshops focused on innovative ways of using technologies to improve teaching and the redesign of courses. Five key areas will be addressed:

Students should be intentional learners, defined as the ability to deal with the unknown or unscripted problems. Technology provides a means toward best practices in redesigning instruction and achieving quality enhancements and increased student learning. Best practices will also highlight strategies that cross disciplines and grade levels. Improvement of online education can bring learning effectiveness, access, and student and faculty satisfaction. Finally, technology in classrooms and courses appropriately applied will provide a dynamic, futuristic and passionate participatory learning environment for students.

JUST-IN-TIME TEACHING AND LEARNING IN GENERAL BIOLOGY AND HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY LABORATORY COURSES ($22,800)

William Glider, Biological Sciences
David Woodman, Biological Sciences

The General Biology lab, taken concurrently with a General Biology lecture, enrolls about 1,200 students annually, and is popular for Arts & Sciences students completing a required lab credit. The Human Physiology lab, also taken concurrently with a lecture, enrolls about 500 students annually.

Both lab courses have functional Web sites. There are three programs to be put into place to strengthen these labs. Just in time learning activities will be built into both labs. This consists of a series of online questions that students will be required to answer before coming to lab. A series of online sample quizzes will be created for use by students to review for the weekly quizzes. A series of interactive PowerPoint presentations will be created for the teaching assistants, with the aim of standardizing material presented.

VISUAL RESOURCES/UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DIGITAL INSTRUCTION INITIATIVE ($22,500)

Edward Forde, Art and Art History
Joan Giesecke, University Libraries

The Department of Art and Art History has an art slide collection of more than 100,000 slides that are used annually in more than 40 courses. The slides eventually age and become discolored, and are accessible by only one instructor at a time. This project will completely change the instructional use of visual images by building a new university digital archive. A partnership between the Department of Art and Art History and University Libraries will build and establish the archive.

The grant is sought to create a digital archive of the slides and train faculty in the use of the digital images in classes and how to link the content with Blackboard courses. Specific image databases can be set up for any class, and the images will be accessible to all university instructional programs, faculty and students.