| Fellows: |
Donald R. Adams, Al Jergens, Kristina Miles, Elizabeth Riedesel,
Etsuro Uemura |
| Proposal
Title: |
"Digital Re-purposing of Veterinary Videotapes: Development and
Use of Video Clips in the Veterinary Curriculum" |
| Description: |
A digital video capture and editing station will be established
in the Interactive Media Laboratory of the College of Veterinary
Medicine, with which to create a library of digitized video clips.
The library will serve instructional needs by providing electronic
video sequences in the following three areas:
- computer tutorials, interactive programs, and presentations
in four anatomy courses,
- presentations and interactive course materials developed
by other college instructors, and
- re-purposed existing videotapes of veterinary medical content
for transmission as digital packets to distant client workstations
(distance education).
|
|
| Fellow: |
Robert M. Anderson, Jr. |
| Proposal
Title: |
"Interactive, Asynchronous Delivery and Administration of Instruction" |
| Description: |
The introductory course in the electrical engineering curriculum
will be modified for interactive, asynchronous delivery to on- and
off-campus students through web browsers and the Internet. The instructional
system will include on-line tutorials and computer grading of student
responses submitted to the computer. Thus, this system will provide
access to learning materials and virtually instantaneous feedback
to students 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Others' experience
with such instructional systems indicates that student learning,
increased convenience for non-traditional students, and potential
increases in both recruiting and retention can result. |
|
| Fellows: |
Chiu-Shui Chan, John Maves, and Carolina Cruz-Niera |
| Proposal
Title: |
"Constructing and Reconstructing Notable Buildings to Establish
a Virtual Library for Teaching Architectural History" |
| Description: |
This proposal intends to model buildings in synthetic environments
to set up an electronic library for teaching architectural history.
This library provides an immersed environment for viewers to walk
in and see the inside of the building. Research methods involve modelling
a building, then assigning colors, texture, and materials for realistic
rendering to display in the Virtual Reality (VR) environment for
navigation. This VR library includes constructing and reconstructing
several famous historical and contemporary buildings. The purpose
is to combine information technology and VR technology to build an
interactive environment for perceiving architecture that cannot be
seen three-dimensionally. This will provide a new visual tool and
learning experience to strengthen teaching and learning of the undergraduate
history courses to achieve Goals One and Two of the Strategic Plan,
and to meet the potential challenge of the future possibility of
a virtual university in the 21st century. |
|
| Fellows: |
Karen B. Donaldson and Carlie C. Tartakov |
| Proposal
Title: |
"Antiracist Education for ISU Administrators and Faculty" |
| Description: |
The long term goal of the project is to enhance the antiracist
curriculum and environment of faculty and administrators from each
college. The primary initial effort of this project is to sponsor
seven faculty retreats (1 per college) and one administrators' retreat
during the 1997-1998 academic year (fall and spring semesters). |
|
| Fellows: |
Catherine L. Kling and Joseph A. Herriges |
| Proposal
Title: |
"Active Learning in Introductory Economics with a Focus on the
Environment" |
| Description: |
Economics has historically been a non-experimental science and,
as a result, the pedagogical techniques of the field largely revolved
around the lecture format. Even in recent years, as the empirical
field of experimental economics has become a well-respected component
of the research field, the pedagogical tools of the profession have
remained primarily of the lecture format. In this project, we intend
to adapt some of the experimental techniques that we have been applied
in research situations for use in the classroom. In so doing, we
are not breaking entirely new ground as there is a small, but growing
group of economics instructors around the country that have been
turning to these tools as a way to motivate students with more "hands-on" experiences.
However, the application of these tools to environmental economics
has received relatively little attention to date. We also intend
to investigate and adapt various World Wide Web based applications
for use in introductory environmental economics classes.
The active teaching tools are of two main types. First, we propose
to develop a series of participatory elements, some of which will
be done in class, others of which will be undertaken in the computer
lab. Second, we propose to design and implement a series of World
Wide Web based simulations wherein students will be taught economic
concepts through interactive experiences. |
|
| Fellows: |
James Kurtenbach, Robin Roberts, Donna Kienzler, and Carol David |
| Proposal
Title: |
"Writing in the Business Curriculum: A Collaborative Approach Incorporating
Critical Thinking into a Frontier Accounting Course" |
| Description: |
This project proposes a collaboration between the Departments of
Accounting and English to implement a curriculum for a sophomore
frontier course in accounting which enrolls 100-200 students per
section. The target course, Accounting 284, troduction to Financial
Accounting, required for business majors and widely used as an
elective by agriculture, engineering, and liberal arts students,
presently includes no writing assignments. The proposed course design:
- assigns students weekly entries into a writing journal to promote
critical thinking on the ideas and issues presented in the text
and lectures;
- introduces writing principles into the classroom educational
process;
- requires students to prepare two formal papers addressed to
audiences in the business disciplines; and
- provides individual tutoring sessions to assist students in
preparing their graded written work.
|
|
| Fellows: |
Barbara Licklider, on behalf of Patricia Carlson, Kathy Hinders,
and others |
| Proposal
Title: |
"Project LEA/RN: Leadership Development" |
| Description: |
LEA/RN Leadership Development is a response to the growing interest
among faculty regarding new models of teaching that place student
learning at the center of the educational experience. A core set
of faculty members on campus have completed facilitation training
in order to continue and strengthen faculty development. Participants
in LEA/RN Leadership Development will:
- use effective group facilitation skills;
- demonstrate knowledge and practice of effective teaching
skills;
- enhance student learning, particularly in 100/200 level
courses;
- initiate cross-departmental/college curriculum development;
and
- form a cadre of faculty to provide assistance to others
Within an environment that incorporates research-based components
of effective faculty development, participants explore pedagogical
and learning theories and their implications for effective teaching.
LEA/RN Leadership Development maximizes faculty expertise to achieve
the strategic goals to improve the quality of undergraduate education
inherent in the strategic plans of the University, colleges, and
departments, and establishes a university-wide network to support
continued improvement. |
|
| Fellows: |
Radha Sarma, Judy Vance, and Loren Zachary |
| Proposal
Title: |
"Enhancing Student Participation in Course and Curriculum Changes" |
| Description: |
Research in education has shown the benefits of involving students
in assessing the educational system, the course syllabus, and, in
the long run, the overall curriculum. Some advantage of such an involvement,
for the students, include developing a deeper understanding of the
curriculum and increased overall awareness of the field. For the
faculty, the advantage lies in developing an increased awareness
of the students' needs in today's ever-changing world. The purpose
of this proposal is to exploit the advanced World Wide Web (WWW)
technology to enhance student participation in course and curriculum
changes.
The explosive development of internet-based WWW has provided
a powerful set of tools that enable the dissemination of information
to a vast group of people in a timely and efficient manner. The
WWW is currently being used in many courses to disseminate information
regarding the course syllabus, homework, and projects. However,
this is a passive, one-way exchange of information from the faculty
to the students that substitutes the homepage for handouts. The
important question to be answered as a result of this propsal
is "Can we exploit this rapidly growing technology to provide
a forum for the students to become actively involved in organizing
and assessing course content and overall curriculum while interacting
closely with faculty?"
This proposal outlines an approach by which students participate
in using the WWW to organize, assess, distribute, and exchange
information relevant to courses and, in the long run, the overall
curriculum. In addition to using an almost universally accepted
medium for information interchange, this approach also provides
the added benefit of keeping students abreast of evolving technologies
and prepares them better to exploit future developments in the
revolutionary area of communication through the WWW. |
|
| Fellow: |
Charlotte Thralls |
| Proposal
Title: |
"An Integrated Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Approach to Learning
Teams" |
| Description: |
There are currently five colleges at Iowa State using the learning
team concept and including English 104/105 in the core curriculum.
As interest in this concept continues to grow, there is a greater
and greater need for coordination between the various colleges and
the Department of English. The Miller grant will be used to design
a university-wide writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) initiative
that will bring about a more coordinated and coherent learning team
curiculum. This project is a three-step process that will:
- use the current B.E.S.T teams in Biology as a test model
for a WAC approach;
- gather data about existing and potential learning teams
and investigate the possibility of introducing a university-wide
WAC initiative; and
- prepare a report that will include recommendations and an
action plan for implementing an integrated, cross-disciplinary
WAC program.
|
|
| Fellow: |
Kenneth Windom |
| Proposal
Title: |
"Computer Assisted Learning in GEOL 201: Geology for Engineers
and Environmental Scientists" |
| Description: |
GEOL 201, Geology for Engineers, is one of the most important courses
taught by the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences.
It has an annual enrollment of over 200 students majoring in civil
and construction engineering, professions that require fundamental
comprehension of geological materials and geological processes. To
serve this audience better, the course has been redesigned around
a pedagogy utilizing computer-based learning. The computer is used
as: a presentation device, both in the classroom and as a tool for
student-directed remedial and review exercise; a gateway to the Internet
and the World Wide Web, including instructor-designed links to additional
resources coupled with electronic communication. This proposal seeks
to enhance this computer-based learning through the development of
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) models through which students
can run interactive computer simulations of geological processes,
which are governed by natural laws and driven by natural forces,
to determine the effects of human engineered changes to specific
geological systems. The major objective is to allow each student
to become an integral part of his or her own instruction, through
interactive means, by the use of available computer technology. |
|
| Fellows: |
Douglas N. Yarger, Rex Thomas, and Pete Boysen |
| Proposal
Title: |
"The Next Level in Using Technology for Student-Centered Learning" |
| Description: |
The purpose of this project is to create a curriculum which will
enable and support students' efforts in doing authentic science activities
within the classroom environment. In particular, platform-independent
Java technology will be used to implement student-centered interactive
learning. The application of multimedia technology in this context
of natural learning is an important step in the development of a
model of education which will substantially strengthen students'
interest and understanding in science as well as their capacities
for learning science. |
|
