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Nancy Perrin
John Rueter

Improving Student Outcomes in Large Courses

The PSU-FIPSE educational technology team was formed by Professor John Rueter and Associate Dean Nancy Perrin. PSU-FIPSE Project is supported by the U.S. Department of education, under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), and Portland State University.

Introduction

Many campuses are facing an increased prominence of large courses in their curricula due to diminishing resources. Many of those same campuses are in the process of incorporating technology in their curricula. Portland State University has recently completed a 300 seat multimedia classroom, Harrison Hall, with three screens, internet, laser disk, video, and campus network access. As this classroom comes on-line, the impact of educational technology in large classes on student learning can be examined. This project is designed to:

1. improve student's experiences in large classes;
2. establish an infrastructure that helps to implement technology, including faculty and curricular development; and,
3. evaluate the effectiveness of educational technology on student learning and cost efficiency.

This research grew out of an earlier Oregon State System of Higher Education (OSSHE) grant to enhance student productivity. In that project, we used a faculty-teaching-faculty model to train faculty in educational technology. The focus of these sessions quickly turned to teaching, rather than how to use the technology. We found the broad exposure to a range of applications helped faculty choose appropriate technology and that early feedback from peers led to efficient development of classroom technology modules. This project resulted in an increase demand by faculty to teach in the large classroom. The FIPSE project builds on the OSSHE grant incorporating faculty and curricular development with a research design to determine the effectiveness and cost efficiency of educational technology.

Faculty and Curricular Development

During a week-long summer work session, faculty participating in the project will be exposed to a range of technology including multimedia presentations, internet, electronic study guides and tutorials, simulations, e-mail, and threaded discussion groups. Faculty will redesign their courses to integrate technology and assessment. The feedback from assessment not only will be used to inform students but also faculty and the research team on the integration of technology in the classroom. Faculty will participate in the project for two years. In the first year, they will redesign their courses integrating multimedia and e-mail. During this time they will be moving to a digital platform for their course. In the second year, tutorials and pre-enrollment self-assessment quizzes will be integrated in the courses. Pre-enrollment self-assessment quizzes are computer-based quizzes that students can take anonymously over the internet. They are designed to test the student's pre-requisite knowledge for the course. The quiz will help students determine if they know the relevant requisite material, and if not, where they can go to fill in their knowledge gaps. The digital media that faculty created in the first year of the project should be easily transferred into tutorials and pre-enrollment self-assessment quizzes. By phasing technology in over the two year period, we will be able to determine the effect of the different types of technology on student learning.

Research Design

Each academic year, the redesigned technology courses will be compared with non-technology courses. Fifteen faculty from a variety of academic departments (biology, chemistry, geography, health education, psychology, and sociology) will participate in the summer work sessions to redesign their courses. These faculty should teach between 2,100 to 2,400 students each quarter in Harrison Hall, Portland State University's new multimedia classroom. Each course will be matched to a control course without technology. In some cases, these courses will be taught by the same faculty, and in other cases, the faculty will be different. However, both the technology and control courses will be large (over 100 students). Data from students will be collected at the beginning and end of each quarter in order to determine what students learned.

The technology and control faculty will work together to determine a set of common questions to be included on the final exam. In addition, student's attitudes toward technology, general and course specific motivation, and satisfaction with the course will be collected. Data on faculty attitudes and satisfaction also will be gathered. From the University student information system, student completion rates will be tracked. Faculty and teaching assistants will keep workload logs and costs of hardware and software will be monitored.

The technology and control courses will be statistically compared on the research variables at both the pre-test (beginning of the quarter) and post-test (end of the quarter) data collection points. Changes in student learning, attitude, and satisfaction will be examined while controlling for student motivation. The associated hardware and software costs as well as faculty and teaching assistants workloads also will be statistically compared.

Peer Review and Dissemination

During the third year of the project, the focus will turn to peer review of faculty technology portfolios and dissemination of technology modules. Course revision and creation of technology materials can be viewed as a form of faculty scholarship. Like all forms of scholarship, this material should be peer reviewed and disseminated. National peers will be asked to review faculty portfolios and technology modules will be made available on the internet.

Nancy Perrin
Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Portland State University
(503) 725-3514
perrinN@pdx.edu

Contact Nancy Perrin, or John Rueter. Written by John Moulton for the PSU's FIPSE Project coordinated by Nancy Perrin and John Rueter, © 1998. Last updated by Chris Miller on June 19, 1998. For more see the About Page.