EDUCAUSE | lecture

Evidence of the efficacy of Active Learning

markmorton — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 17:21:00 -0500

One of the faculty members at my university teaches large classes of students (in Accounting and Management), and he's eager to implement Active Learning into these courses. An obvious challenge, however, is that the students themselves tend to be skeptical of Active Learning; they are familiar with the Sage on the Stage approach, and thus they are often reluctant to embrace a teaching strategy that is not a straight lecture. To help address this challenge, I've offered to attend the instructor's course (at the beginning of the term) with a view to making a presentation (and facilitating a discussion or debate) about Active Learning. Essentially, I want to persuade the students that Active Learning can improve their performance, and therefore they should welcome their instructor's Active Learning teaching strategies. In preparation for this, I reviewed a number of studies of the efficacy of Active Learning, extracted the most salient passages, and pulled them together into a single document. That document is attached. If you have any other suggestions of studies (in peer-reviewed journals) that affirm the efficacy of Active Learning, please let me (and others) know by posting a comment. -- Mark

Basing Lecture Self-Appraisal on Multiple Intelligence Interactivity

slister — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 09:32:00 -0600

We're coming to the end of our Triple A project - Today, I'm focusing on the "ACTION" section of which one part includes a lecturer's self-appraisal of their lecture based on five domains (visual, auditory, cognitive, physical and verbal) see http://triplealecture.pbwiki.com/Tool3TaskSelfAppraisal (password is "lecture"). For the first phase of the project, we are going to use a rating system linked to points that gives the lecturer a certain percentage within each domain. The lecturer will receive feedback for each domain as follows:

Lecturer's % which is based on points assigned to rating for each question divided by possible questions (minus those identified as not applicable)
For More information on this Domain visit......

I came across this interesting ( http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/mi/w1_interactive1.html) interactive which assesses and interprets one's propensity for certain intelligences. I'm thinking we might be able to use M.I Snowflake technique (from the Concept to Classroom website) for the Lecture Self-Appraisal Tool but I wonder if it would be any more informative than a simple table with percentages....

Podcasting Lectures - If We don't, They will!

slister — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 12:54:00 -0600

This may be old news but I think there is a lesson to be learned. I just read an article in the Denver Post, "Student says he fears for safety" where a student doesn't want to return to high school after having received numerous threats in myspace.com* due to the fact that he recorded, and then his father made public, his World Geography teacher's rant about the US President. This follow up article explains the Teacher's side and follows what ensued including:

Teacher Jay Bennish also promised school district administrators that he would make sure future classroom talks immediately offered opposing points of view, his lawyer David Lane told KHOW-AM radio in Denver.

and here you can learn what the president had to say besides:

Yes, I think people should be allowed to criticize me all they want, and they do.

Perhaps there is something good to come out the idea of Podcasting lectures. What would all lectures 'look' like if the lecturer knew their talk was being 'broadcast' elsewhere? Would it improve the quality of information delivery and ultimately, the learning for students?

Mr. Bennish is saying, upon reflection, he would approach the subject differently - I'm thinking, had he been doing his own podcasting of his lectures, he would have arrived at this decision prior to his lecture.

The classroom door is opening wide - but is it the teacher's or student's hand on the door knob?

*Note - I didn't want to gloss over the whole idea of the internet and bullyism - Unfortunately, this blog is not really a forum for such a topic, but it's one that needs to be discussed - In workshops I have presented I have supplied resources on this topic. Visit: http://www.newmediaworkshops.com/2006/blogs.htm

P.S. http://secure.eonstreams.com/koa_am/GeoTeacher.mp3 (20 megabytes) & a blog posting about the incident on Michelle Malkin: http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004689.htm and another article worth the read, "Indoctrination of Our YOuth" by Dr. Walter Williams.

Do Podcasts Justify the Lecture Method of Teaching?

slister — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:13:08 -0600

Are we going to see an increase in the lecturing method on campuses across the continent? Despite my work in the Triple A Lecture Intervention Project, I truly thought lecturing would become instinct as the PlayStation generation hit post-secondary institutes. I thought the only ones keeping lecturing alive as a viable teaching method were traditionalists who had no interest in applying alternative learning modes.

Then along comes a medium that attempts to mate dinosaurs and virtual pets. Is podcasting causing a revival in the lecture method? But we barely got to see a glimpse of constructivism in the lecture hall and co-operative learning methods were just poking their heads in the door! Now we’re back to information delivery.

Although this bodes well for the Triple A project in which I am involved, where we’re determined to improve the effectiveness of the lecture method, I’m still a little skeptical whether podcasts are the way lecturing should be going. Our project looks at lecturing from 5 learning domains: verbal, auditory, visual, cognitive, and physical. Without much investigation, I’m thinking that a podcasted lecture only touches on three domains: auditory, cognitive and a weak physical domain perhaps.

Before students start relying on podcasted lectures for test reviews or follow-up on a missed classes, I think they should consider a few points:

There’s no short cut – Unless a professor’s going to take time to edit their lectures, a two hour class will still take two hours to listen to as a podcast. (Perhaps in the future we will train ourselves to listen faster than normal speech speed, though)
Learning from a podcast would be an easy task for an auditory learner but what about visual learners – will taking notes from the podcast be enough?
What if the student has questions or is just not getting it – our Triple A product is trying to tweak lecturers into the learning needs of a variety of learners and making sure that their delivery suits as many different learners as possible. There is not a lot of room for different learning modes in a podcast.

Our project is also suggesting that in a lecture there should be some sort of engagement activity every 20 minutes. This will not go over well in a podcasted lecture – it will make for very poor sound or muffled dead air. What makes the best podcasted lecture? Not the ones with a lot of questions either – you can rarely hear audience questions on conference or lecture podcasts – the best podcasted lectures will be the ones that are strict information delivery by someone with a dynamic, interesting voice. Does that someone have to be in a lecture hall? I think not, in fact, for quality sound, a studio would be the best place. I’m not sure I’m comfortable where this is heading…..

Don’t get me wrong… I actually like the OPTION of podcasted lectures (it's a great plus for auditory learners!) but I fear that, youth being youth, we will see an increase in coursecast learning – is this the best teaching our tax dollars and institutions can offer? Studies please!!!

Podcasting Lectures…it’s just a craze, right?

We're in the final part of phase 1 for the Triple A project...visit our wiki here:

http://triplealecture.pbwiki.com/FinalPhase1ProjectPlan (password: "lecture" without the quotes)

Online material decreases class attendance?

hes8 — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:10:30 -0600

If you build a web site, will they still come? Come to the lectures, that is.

I'm referring to a "complete" web site. One with all the lecture slides, videos (or at least audio recordings) of the lecture, all the lecture handouts, etc.

The conventional wisdom says that there is no effect on attendance. Cf. the Educause presentation on Duke's iPod experience, "faculty did NOT find that lecture attendance decreased significantly with recorded lectures"

A recent article in the LA Times gives a different view - and a more controversial one. This article, Why go to class? Just go onlineEven friends' notes no longer needed by Stuart Silverstein, Los Angeles Times appeared in the Jan. 25, 2006 Raleigh NC, News&Observer.

It starts with an example of a UC-B class with an enrollment of 200+, which, after having a terrific web site established, ended up with "But there was one problem: So many students relied on the technology that, at times, only 20 or so actually showed up for class."

Is this good, bad or irrelevant? How does it/will it affect learning outcomes?

I have some thoughts on these issues, and I tend to come back again and again to active learning and student engagement. I'll say more about this later - for now I'd like to see what reactions others have.

Triple A Lecture - Global Team Meeting... NOT!!

slister — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 10:37:53 -0600

Last night the Triple A Lecture Intervention team attempted our first online global meeting - Let me say, right off, it didn't work - HOWEVER, it was definitely worth the energy. We will try again!

I used the Meeting Planner at the Time and Date website here: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html to figure out a suitable time for our team members who live in United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland/Ontario/Manitoba Canada. The most suitable time seemed to 2am GMT (Luckily, we have no one on our team from Europe!).

We were planning to use an Elluminate meeting room. Here are a few things I will do the next time I organize such a meeting:

Provide the illuminate "first time user" link so that everyone can trouble shoot prior to the meeting date/time - (I believe some members may have experienced a Java plug-in problem).
Provide a "back up" chat area link so that if the meeting room doesn't work we can jump into the chat room and still 'talk' - ( Last night there were three people in the meeting room but we could not talk to each other... but hey, it was fun playing with the icons!).
Have ready a group email so that I can fire off an email to all attendees explaining what is going on.

Well, I'll chalk it up to experience, take a deep breath, follow my own advice and then, plan another global team meeting!

TV Ontario Hosts the "Canadian Idol" of lecturing!

slister — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:07:24 -0600

It’s being billed as, “Reality TV with a high IQ”. TVOntario, the public television station in Ontario, , has embarked on the tough task of discovering Ontario ’s best lecturer. Every week for 5 weeks, two lectures battle it out from behind the podium and then viewers are asked to rate the performance. On November 12th the numbers will tallied and the winner announced.

So what makes a good lecture? What does it look like? This TVO project will give the Triple A Lecture Intervention Team (http://www.newmediaworkshops.com/tripleAlecture/ ) a rare chance to view highly skilled professionals who have welcomed the camera into their classroom and opened themselves for scrutiny. I’m hoping we will be able to access the lecturers and their lectures beyond the show’s short life span.

To learn more about the TVO project check out:

http://www.tvo.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Microsite.woa/7/wo/EubQvmmtpBRbE7E8o4l1e0/0.0.0.71.45.18.26.3

(while the voting is on, a webcast of the lecture is available - but unfortunately, the video portion quits halfway through leaving only the audio for the rest of the lecture)

Use this link if the one above doesn’t work: http://tinyurl.com/8czfs