Engaging faculty use of the web in teaching as a basis for designing

Cathy Manduca, SERC, Carleton College

Flora McMartin, MERLOT

Wes Shumar, Drexel University

Ellen Iverson, SERC, Carleton College

Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College

Cathy Manduca, Director of SERC

Ellen Iverson, web development and evaluation

Tale of Two Projects Starting Point: Teaching Entry Level Geoscience

Manduca, Merritts, and SavinaNSF NSDL-0226243 serc.carleton.edu/introgeo

On the Cutting Edge: Professional Development for Geoscience Faculty Macdonald, Manduca, Mogk, TewksburyNSF CCLI-0127141

serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops

What we wanted to find out

How do faculty think about their teaching? How do they make decisions about what to do

in class? What are faculty looking for on the web? How

do they find it? How do they use these materials in their

teaching?

Focused study on small sample

8 structured interviews of faculty with a range of teaching experience

21 additional walkthroughs using scenario-based think-aloud protocol

Iteratively developed coding scheme

What are faculty thinking and doing?

Faculty like to talk about teaching. Most expressed interest in teaching higher order

thinking skills. Decisions about what to do in class based largely on

classroom experience of faculty member and colleagues.

Most faculty use the web a lot. sources that colleagues recommend, Google™ on science topics.

Faculty adapt and create from what they find.

What are faculty looking for on the web?

Information or visuals about science topic Specific data to use in exercise or lab Ideas Relatively few faculty search web for teaching

materials Even fewer think of web as source of pedagogic

information

Starting Point: Designed with this research in mind

Teaching examples searchable by geoscience topic and findable in Google™

Pedagogic information linked with example and tips for use and adaptation

Site developed by faculty colleagues and peer reviewed to increase its ability to become a trusted source

serc.carleton.edu/introgeo

Initial Evaluation Results Examples are extremely popular and spark

creativity Many faculty explore site using examples in a

topic Pedagogic information is placed in a useful

context 7000 hits per month; 1/2 from Google™ Long visits initiated with searches on

pedagogic topics

Next steps Broad dissemination of site Demonstrating use

Case studies Web stats On-line feedback Geo-ed survey

Vocabulary testing Crit Lab/Heuristics

On the Cutting Edge: Websites from Workshops

Creating Coherence Website Use Survey

100 respondents 82 used site and recommended to colleague

2004 Workshop Evaluations 93% find workshop website easy to use 96% plan to use workshop website in future Less than 50% indicate awareness for larger Cutting Edge

website Only 1/8 to 1/3 aware of other workshop/topical websites

Primary issue is recognizing that there is more than one thematic collection

Continuing Evaluation

Who is using the site for what? Interviews Focus Groups Questionnaire Website usage

Earth system and resource type vocabulary testing

In sum Research and evaluation have had big

impact on site design Evaluation in progress for purposes of

demonstrating impact Not yet successful in disseminating

interesting results to larger community