Executive Summary of Results

Indiana University has pioneered the development of linking courses (M302) that help pre-service teachers (PSTs) connect concepts across college and high school mathematics courses. Our vision for this project was to further develop the M302 courses by designing guidelines, templates, and architecture for PSTs production of web-based teaching resources. The guidelines ensured collaboration among teams of students in each course, connecting concepts within larger topics, such as “solving systems of equations.” Within each team, PSTs wrote book reviews, annotated bibliographies for useful web sites, designed tasks and lesson plans, and produced a unifying web page of all materials while explaining the connections. The templates matched the guidelines and made the job of publishing PSTs’ web pages more uniform and streamline, so that little additional support will be required after the first year of implementation. Whereas we are finalizing the search features within the site, the successful production of guidelines, templates, and architecture can be viewed at the resulting web site:

http://linking.education.indiana.edu/

Need for the Project

• How did the project take advantage of IU’s learning environment?
• Did the project lead to collaboration that will help IU improve or expand classroom   and online learning environment?   
• How did the project make use of instructional technology and design?

The instructors of the four M302 courses received training in the use of Oncourse to structure their courses. This included sharing materials related to students’ productions of their web-based products. Because students were organized into teams around common themes, Oncourse was also useful for the students in sharing ideas and individual products with other team members.

The instructors worked with a graduate student to design the web site in which students’ projects were posted, using DotNetNuke (DNN) and Sharepoint. This website also serves to showcase the linking courses collectively, with an attractive presentation of the following: common goals/philosophies for the courses, syllabi, learning objectives, and useful web links. Because the web site was constructed using DNN, the instructors can easily update course information each year.

SharePoint serves as a database for the products once they are submitted by the PSTs. This enables teachers to search for products that might be useful to them. For instance, teachers can search for all products that fit a particular theme, or for products that meet a particular academic standard. This database of products will be revised and expanded with each cohort of students enrolled in the M302 courses.

Use of Technology

The project intent was to demonstrate and implement PDA technology in collaborative, data, and informational gathering school environments. The project goal was to integrate, extend, and enhance existing technology and traditional instruction, student and faculty collaboration and communication, rubric and portfolio based assessment. All within a wireless educator oriented electronic environment.

My project has attempted to increase the student efficiency in learning techniques by providing short video clips which demonstrate correct laboratory procedures. Students will review these before class, so that they will know the expectations for safe and proper procedures. This will shorten the class time needed by the instructor to describe and demonstrate the techniques.

Another set of important procedures that students learn in this course is how to stain bacteria on microscope slides for identification. I am using animations and simulations of these procedures for students to view on-line before they are required to perform the procedures in class. Again, the goal is to familiarize the students with the techniques they will be learning before they arrive in class.

A significant core of tests in the course involve the using proper techniques and procedures that the students have seen on-line and practiced in the laboratory, to inoculate various microbial media. The tests rely upon color changes that take place in the agar or broth. The students gain little by re-practicing the techniques. In this hybrid course, the tests are described in detail, supplemented by video clips and photographs showing how the test is performed and the appearance of positive and negative results.
Students perform these tests in-class only when working to identify an unknown bacteria.

The final section of the course involves studying a survey of medically important microbes. Traditionally, students spent hours reviewing a range of prepared microscope slides during the class period. In this hybrid format, these microscope slides have been photographed at several magnifications so that students can study and learn this material completely on-line. Each organism is linked to information that describes the associated disease and associated medical information.

Instructional Design Plan

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

• What student learning outcomes were expected?
• How did your teaching plan encourage active learning, provide feedback, address respective learning styles, and build collaboration?
• What resources were used? (campus technology support services, etc.)
• Would your project be easily understood and executed by other faculty?

This effort to improve PSTs’ experiences in M302 courses was a collaborative effort from the start. All four M302 instructors were involved in designing the course materials and the web page structure. We expected the PSTs to develop products that would be useful to classroom teachers. PSTs’ efforts in developing these products were also collaborative from the start. They needed to work together to focus on the vertical development (grades 7 through 12) of an important theme in high school mathematics.

Also from the start, we knew that we needed to make the web site easy to use, for three reasons: instructors and course materials might change, products for the web pages needed to be created by students with varying degrees of technology expertise within a one-hour M302 course, and we wanted teachers to find the web site useful. The first of these concerns is addressed by using DNN, as described above. The second and third concerns are addressed by our use of SharePoint as a database for uploading and searching for products. 

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

Because the PSTs are creating products that will be shared with teachers through the Internet, there is authenticity to their work that makes it more meaningful. For example, one team of PSTs produced a PowerPoint presentation that addressed the need for high school students to learn algebra in order to become responsible citizens. The presentation included many mathematical examples and links to useful web sites, illustrating the uses of algebra in everything from sports to democracy. Such examples also indicate that PSTs’ can have an impact on k-12 education that goes beyond their own preparation as future teachers.

Because the web pages include all four M302 courses and can be updated with each new cohort of students, our project will affect large numbers of students over the years of its use (about 75 credit hours are generated from these courses each year).

Assessment Plan

Briefly explain the effectiveness of your assessment plan:

• What measure of a4 May, 2007ach obtain measures of performance?
• Did you feel your measurement was accurate and effective?

We established the following criteria for each team’s collective products (organized around the team’s common theme):

• Team projects will align with all course goals and several learning objectives as listed on the first page of the syllabus [accessible through the M302 web site].
• The projects will include a page articulating the vertical connections made across grades 7-12 (A template for this page will be provided to you).
• All relevant connections to the NCTM and Indiana standards will be made explicit within the various components of the group project.
• The various components of the group project will be integrated so that they offer a consistent and coherent presentation of the theme.
• Team projects will incorporate a variety of resources that will be useful and attractive to math teachers across the state of Indiana.
• The final draft will be free of all grammatical and mathematical mistakes.

These criteria for products are listed in the course syllabi (as are the themes that teams can choose from), and were introduced to each class by the second meeting. We used these criteria in formative assessments of student work as the semester progressed, and we used them again in our summative assessments of final products at the end of the semester. Because the courses are graded using a pass/fail score, students passed the course if they met the criteria.

We feel that, in working with their teams and completing their products, PSTs learned how to organize mathematics and teaching ideas in a connected and meaningful manner. This was evident in the way that their products were integrated with each other around their themes and their references to multiple resources for teaching ideas related to their theme.

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?

In addition to taking classes on the use of Oncourse, the M302 course instructors met in three intensive (lasting several hours each) meetings to discuss the design and implementation of changes to the courses. Having developed common goals and philosophies last year, we focused on developing learning objectives and syllabi that would provide structure for meeting those goals and for aligning with our philosophy.

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?

Our goals were to support the professional growth of pre-service and in-service teachers through the production of use of web-based resources. We have accomplished this goal by creating guidelines and web architecture for PSTs’ continued production of math teaching resources. Because only one cohort of PSTs have posted products so far, and because the search feature is not yet operational, we cannot evaluate the usefulness of the products to practicing teachers.

After the first iteration of the project (Fall, 2006), we learned the importance of making M302 course instruction more flexible to accommodate the various themes that teams had chosen. This will support the teams in their productions, and has the added benefit of forcing the courses to become more student-centered. The instructors teaching this spring (2007) have this in mind.

We have received numerous requests from other universities (including Ithaca, Virginia Tech, and Georgia) to share ideas with them concerning the development of linking courses. The web architecture makes it easy for us to communicate the design and benefits of the courses.

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Last updated: 18 May, 2007

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