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Special Annual Awards
2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Enhanced Learning/ Assessment
8/1/2008
THE USE OF CLICKERS and other tools at WPI has improved efficiency of laboratory teaching, freeing up instructor time for pedagogical interactions with students.
TECHNOLOGY AREA: ENHANCED LEARNING/ASSESSMENT
Innovator: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Employing a constellation of technologies, technologists and educators take laboratory learning and student performance assessment to new heights, creating a single 'community' of student scientists.
Technology has not only enriched learning in laboratory classes at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA), it has enabled educators to better assess student performance. As part of a recent overhaul (technically, still underway), WPI technologists turned to Web 2.0 and other tools to enhance the learning environment in science courses, making content more relevant to the experience and learning modes of students. These technologies also have been used to assess, reinforce, and supplement student learning. Kate Beverage, WPI instructional technology specialist, says the injection of IT has modernized the curriculum so dramatically, many students feel as if the classes are entirely new.
"The electronic nature of the new approach [has] allowed students access to information and pre-demonstrations of lab concepts, procedures, and large data sets for analysis and interpretation," she says. "It truly has changed everything."
The transformation began with a pilot program early this year, when two labs in anatomy and physical biology classes needed a jump-start. According to Beverage, increased student enrollment meant it was becoming more and more difficult for WPI educators to assess the level of student understanding in laboratory science courses. With the majority of lab time devoted to setup and execution of experiments, data collection and analysis were not receiving the same emphasis. Beverage adds that many students did not get the time to focus on whether the data they were collecting reflected their expected outcomes.
At the behest of project lead Jill Rulfs, associate professor and director of the Biology and Biotechnology department, and Laboratory Instructor Michael Buckholt, technology changed everything. Starting in January 2007, technologists applied digital media and communication technologies such as wikis and podcasts from Learning Objects, which were used to enhance the learning environment. Students also were able to log in to the school's Blackboard course management system to gain access to information, demonstrations, and data sets they couldn't access previously.
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