Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology

Michael Troyan, Instructor
Scott Miller, Lecturer
Stephen Hopkins, Assistant Professor
University Park

Introduction:
Over the past few years, courses have been evolving from traditional face-to-face courses to completely online and hybrid courses. During the redesign, faculty and instructional designers have been looking for effective strategies to engage students. Instructors also gained a greater awareness of which aspects have been most effective and create improvements with each new revision. Three courses have gone through this evolution in the fields of biology, astronomy, and music. The panel will discuss student interaction with course materials, with each other, and with the instructor.

Each of these courses are similar in that they are all general education courses with large student enrollment. In the case of Intro to Astronomy, Miller tells, the move to an online course was natural. Hopkins admits that updating the tutorials for his course (The Evolution of Jazz) as a blended learning model (which involves meeting with students half of the time in the classroom along with the online instruction) has been very effective.

What was it about your course that made it a good candidate for blended learning?
General education courses tend to make good candidates for blended learning by nature of the level of introduction to the material, says Hopkins. "It's a question of identifying the fundamentals that can translate to online, for example, virtual keyboards." Troyan observes that in his experience, the University is attempting to make scheduling easier for students and are looking for courses that would be adaptable for online. Miller explains that in his Intro to Astronomy course, the content works really well online because there are some things you can't experience in a regular class. He illustrates this with a demonstration of a few interactive models on-screen, such as one showing a photon traveling through "The Radiative & Convection Zones" through the layers of the interior of the sun. This type of interactive media really can enhance the course. "We were able to creatively use technology tools to enhance pedagogy."

What have you decided to do online versus in the classroom?
What you're in a sense trying to do is create the equivalent to the classroom experience. So adding things like discussion boards can supplement the interaction -- it gets student involved. They get to interact with each other. The concept of BL is the best of both worlds. In most cases, you can't simply take course notes and stick them online. There's a big technology toolbox--tools that can expand what we offer to students. "You need to choose the proper tools for the job, admits Troyan, it's not a simple thing."

Audience Question: How long to take to develop?
In general, it takes a year to move coursework online and another year to enhance it with original animated artwork. In terms of flash animations, the faculty has the opportunity to come up with ideas and a programmer makes it happen.

Troyan says the walk-away message is that "If you are intending to teach online, it is a 24 to 7 job." It requires more work than a regular course, for example, doing email from home... even on weekends. "You take as much time as you give it."