Executive Summary of Results

Digital Media Services developed a set of templates for faculty to use to develop interactive web-based activities for their courses. Four templates were created: electronic flash cards, image drag-and-drop, concept matching (text drag-and-drop), and a quiz ("Challenge") game. Students in my hybrid (50% in class, 50% online) PSY P324 Abnormal Psychology course used these activities to re-learn material from their General Psychology course, learn new (rote) material for this course, and to study for exams. Most students used the materials frequently and found them interesting and enjoyable. DMS is developing a web interface ("InLeT") so these templates can be made available to any IU faculty member who wishes to develop such activities for his or her course.

Need for the Project

IU Kokomo is moving most of its accelerated evening college courses to a 50% face-to-face, 50% online (hybrid) mode. Students come to class one evening a week for 2.5 hours, then work online for another 2 - 3 hours per week. Online activities which present new content need to be interactive, interesting, and easy to download and use, or students won't use them. Macromedia Flash games and activities would work very well, but they are not easy to program or build. This project paid for Digital Media Services at IUPUI to develop three Flash modules or templates - flash cards, a "Challenge Game," and drag-and-drop activities - which faculty can modify (without needing to know Flash) to present content to students.

Use of Technology

Currently, a faculty member who wishes to develop interactive content using Macromedia Flash would need to either hire someone to do the programming, or learn to program him- or herself. These modules would make it possible for a non-programmer to develop interactive content for any course.

The original proposal stated that Digital Media Services would finish their development of the modules in June 2003. I would insert my content into the modules, and use it in my PSY P324 Abnormal Psychology course in the first quad (first 8 weeks) of Fall 2003. However, as of this writing (November 26, 2003), the programming for the modules has not been completed.

However, I was able to use the activities themselves in my class. DMS simply programmed each one for me. So I can assess what students thought about the activities, but I cannot assess how easy it is for non-programmer faculty to use the templates to develop activities for their own courses. DMS assures me that the programming will be done soon, so I hope to be able to recruit other faculty to use them in the Spring 2004 semester.

Instructional Design Plan

Describe how the use of technology used supported your teaching approach:

• What student learning outcomes were expected?

I expected that most students would be able to:

• explain basic information that they should have brought to this upper-level course from their General Psychology course,
• define basic terms in Abnormal Psychology,
• describe the basic functions of a neuron, and
• categorize mental disorders by lists of symptoms.

I also expected that students would elect to use the Flash activities, that they would find them helpful in supporting their learning, and that they would enjoy working with the materials.

• How did your teaching plan encourage active learning, provide feedback, address respective learning styles, and build collaboration?

In this 50% online, 50% face-to-face course, most of the students' online time was spent in asynchronous discussion. The Macromedia Flash activities were used either to present new material that we did not have time to cover in class, or to reinforce material presented in class, online, or in the textbook. I designed a Challenge Game to help them review the prerequisite material from their Introductory Psychology course, and a second Challenge Game to help them review for the final exam. There were three drag-and-drop activities, all designed to reinforce information presented in the text or in online PowerPoint presentations. The Electronic Flash Cards were used simply to review terms and definitions in each chapter.

Each activity has built-in feedback; in fact, the main purpose of designing such activities is to give students prompt feedback. The Challenge Game tells them whether their answers are right or wrong. The drag-and-drop activities let them know immediately whether their placement of the terms on the image is correct or not. The Electronic Flash Cards present the correct term and definition, so students can compare their own answers to the ones on the flash cards.

• What resources were used? (campus technology support services, etc.)

Digital Media Services has placed these materials on a server and is developing a website "InLeT" so that these templates may be used by other Indiana University faculty. The SBC grant paid for DMS programming services.

• Would your project be easily understood and executed by other faculty?

Digital Media Services is developing an interface that will allow other faculty members, with minimal training, to use these templates to develop Challenge Games, Flash Cards, or Drag-and-Drop activities appropriate to their courses. Other faculty at IU Kokomo have in fact used this interface with ease. We have presented information about this project at several statewide conferences, and faculty from many institutions have expressed interest in using these.

Potential to Impact Student Learning

Clearly define how your project improved student learning - include specific examples of how your project:

• Fostered depth of learning
• Supported efforts to improve retention
• Fostered the learning of large numbers of students
• Has broader applications that will affect learning K-12 or community environments?

Students self-reported via an anonymous survey and in classroom discussions that they found the materials useful. Most students used the materials several times during the semester; many students used the materials (especially the flash cards) every week. These materials were meant to replace rote presentation of to-be-memorized material in class¯thus they were meant to allow students to learn the basic material quickly so we could spend class time looking at more advanced levels of learning, such as application, interpretation, and critical analysis. The materials allowed students to prepare for the limited amount of class time available in this accelerated hybrid course. In addition, the materials permitted students to increase their "time on task"¯the amount of time they spent with the course information¯in a relatively enjoyable way.

The accelerated evening college is designed for part-time adult students, many of whom have jobs, families, and a long commute to the campus. They appreciated having these materials available to them at home via Oncourse so they could study and prepare for class at their convenience.

Student grades increased, especially on test items directly related to the materials presented. In particular, their correct use of vocabulary terms (presented via electronic flash cards) increased. Their ability to correctly diagnose cases improved when they used the Drag-and-Drop concept matching to study.

Assessment Plan

Briefly explain the effectiveness of your assessment plan:

• What measure of assessment was used?
• How did your approach obtain measures of performance?
• Did you feel your measurement was accurate and effective?

I used Oncourse Test and Survey tool to collect data from my students on how much they used the online activities, how much they liked them, and how much they thought the activities helped them learn the material. Most of the students filled out the survey, and I think they were honest, though it is hard to tell. Unfortunately, I neglected to obtain IRB approval for the study, so I cannot report these data.

Plan for Colleague Development

Describe your role and activities as a mentor:

• What mentoring activities were implemented to assist colleagues?
• How did you help to develop colleague's instructional technology skills?
• How do you think your contributions to the Knowledge Base will help colleagues planning similar projects?
• Is your project approach potentially applicable to other contexts or disciplines?
• What tips would you offer?

The Flash programmer, Jay Hagenow, and I presented information about this project at the April 2004 IHETS All-Partners Conference and at a Virtual Brownbag broadcast to many of the colleges and universities in Indiana in February 2005. In addition, I presented information on this to all the teaching centers in the IU system in October 2004. IU Kokomo's teaching center staff have been training IU Kokomo faculty to use the templates to develop their own activities (currently the InLeT web interface is open only to IU Kokomo faculty). We are hoping that soon DMS will be able to open the InLeT web interface to all IU faculty. Information and training materials will be available to the teaching centers throughout the IU system.

Final Comments on Project Results

• Do you think you met the goals of your project?
• What, if anything,would you do differently?
• Did you have any unexpected outcomes? (positive or negative)
• Would you recommend this teaching approach to colleagues?
• What other comments or suggestions would you offer to complete this report?

Once the InLeT web interface is completed, and any IU faculty member can create Flash-based web activities for his or her students, the goals will have been met. Certainly I am happy with how my students used these materials in my course and have recommended it highly to other faculty.

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Last updated: 18 May, 2007

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