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Boston University CONECTS
Collabora6on and Network Enhanced Course Transforma6ons Benne? Goldberg, Alice White, John Marston, and Paul Blanchard; Boston University, Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering
A New Model of Change: build local learning communi6es of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students in departments and colleges that locally collaborate to transform courses
Learning Assistants in 8 STEM departments, 140 per year:
A Learning Assistant is an undergraduate student who assists in teaching a course they have taken before.
1. LAs take a School of Educa6on 2-‐credit course on STEM teaching and learning 2. LAs are integrated into weekly teaching staff mee6ngs 3. LAs facilitate & promote ac6ve learning in student-‐centered, small-‐group class
environments
Learning Assistant/Instructor
Learning Assistants impac/ng 3000 students
Faculty early
adopter
Faculty early
adopter
University Center of Teaching
and Learning
Faculty early
adopter
Faculty early
adopter
Faculty early
adopter
Faculty early
adopter
Faculty early
adopter
Tradi6onal change model
BU STEM Educa6on Ini6a6ves
Faculty early
adopter
Faculty early
adopter
CIRTL trained grad students Undergrad
Learning Assistants
Faculty early
adopter College
Faculty early
adopter Peer-‐trained
grad students
Undergrad Learning Assistants
Faculty early
adopter
Faculty early
adopter
Department
Faculty early
adopter
STEM Pedagogy trained Postdoc
Faculty early
adopter
Faculty early
adopter
Faculty early
adopter
Undergrad mentors
Inter-‐Departmental
Distributed Network ins6tu6onal change model
TF Peer Mentoring Program Mo/va/on: Teaching Fellows (TFs) need feedback on their classroom prac6ce § Faculty don’t observe or provide TF feedback. § Courses in pedagogy don’t address this. § TFs expressed need for teaching feedback.
Goals: § Experienced grad stds mentor first year TFs in
classroom teaching efficacy and challenges. § Opportunity for grad students to con6nually develop
and improve their teaching prac6ces.
Outcomes show TFs have developed key teaching skills, and changed their percep6on of teaching. Gains in skills:
§ providing meaningful feedback to students § becoming a reflec6ve teacher and improved
awareness of the challenges of teaching § managing a classroom, using a blackboard properly § using technology in the classroom
BU-‐CIRTL: Preparing Future Faculty § BU is part of the na6onwide, NSF-‐funded CIRTL network,
focusing on training next genera6on of teaching faculty. § BU-‐CIRTL impacts ~250 Ph.D. STEM students in Physics, Biology,
Chemistry, and BME, and growing. § Local efforts are supplemented by online courses, e.g. Diversity
in College Classroom, TAR in STEM Courses § Immediate on-‐campus impact evidenced by development of graduate students like Joe Hardcastle.
Ver6cal Learning Communi6es built from Peer Learning Communi6es
Peer Learning
Communi/es
Peer Learning Students learn from peers
Peer Teaching Peers teach students
Peer Mentoring Students mentor students
Studio Physics: High engagement ac6ve-‐learning
Students Faculty
Technology
Enhancing student-faculty interactions, both online and in-class
Students engaging with the material & each other, owning learning process
Faculty structuring as well as assessing the learning experience
Lecture Disc Lab Online Pre-lecture
Online Homework
Office Hours Online Forums
In-person, hands-on, and minds-on
Outcomes: § Be?er CLASS and FMCE outcomes – 25% learning gains § Much lower DFW rate in studio v. lecture (3% v. 9%) § Be?er grades on tests and in the course overall § A gender gap consistent with recent research § Faculty adop/on – faculty learning laboratory § Diffusion of innova/on to many other courses
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Normalized gain
studio lecture
Section N DFW # Rate
studio 241 8 3.3%
lecture 198 19 9.6%
Differences in Peer Teachers
RULE ENG Sophomore-‐level Mechanics -‐impac6ng 400 students/yr
§ RULE course transforma6on § Peer-‐instruc6on around group
problem solving. § Digital tablets used to document
and share the students’ work to facilitate class-‐wide discussion.
§ Instruc6onal team of faculty, graduate teaching fellows, and undergraduate learning assistants.
§ Team assists group work in class and meets weekly to prepare for upcoming course topics.
§ Con6nued improvement in learning outcomes.
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Quiz � Exam 1 � Exam 2 Final
Score (%
)
Tradi6onal, S12 RULE Pilot, S12 RULE, F12 RULE, S13
Caleb Farny, Mech Eng
Flipped Intro to Programming § Mech Eng: Flipped core MATLAB programming for 1st yr engineers. § Pre-‐class online learning modules with learning outcomes, class
goals, func6ons and important concepts plus lecture videos. § Instruc6onal team of faculty, graduate teaching fellows, and
undergraduate learning assistants work together in class to engage small groups in a completely ac6ve learning environment.
Stormy A?away, Mech Eng
§ Large-‐scale revisions of introductory courses for STEM majors. § Calculus discussions stress group work and peer instruc6on. § Student response system Learning Cataly6cs used in all sec6ons
of first semester calculus in Fall 2013. § Probability and Stats 2-‐sem for STEM majors uses PI with clickers
in class and discussion boards outside of class. § Discussion boards engage through instructor posed ques6ons to
elicit discussion, and students are rewarded if they par6cipate. § Studio lab/project sessions with large and small group projects
led by professorial faculty.
RULE Calculus and Sta6s6cs -‐ impac6ng 1000 students/yr
RULE Differen6al Equa6ons § RULE: Large scale revision of the tradi6onal, sophomore-‐level
differen6al equa6ons course funded in part by NSF Grant DUE-‐9352833.
§ Numerical and qualita6ve techniques to develop deeper conceptual understanding.
§ Online and textbook materials used at more than 300 colleges and universi6es across the country.
§ MOOC on BUx in Spring 2015, part of the edX consor6um. Paul Blanchard, Bob Devaney, Dick Hall, Math and Stats
Andrew Duffy, Manher Jariwala, Benne? Goldberg, Physics
Kathryn Spilios, Biology Manher Jariwala, Physics
Joe Hardcastle, Grad Std Physics Manher Jariwala, Physics
RULE: Redesigning the Undergraduate Learning Experience § Center for Excellence and Innova1on in Teaching support for large
STEM intro course redesign § Departmental ownership of course – Chair sign-‐off § Evidence-‐based; Ac6ve-‐Learning; Peer Instruc6on; Project-‐based § Evalua6on of learning outcomes Janelle Heineke, SMG and CEIT
STEM Educa6on Ini6a6ves Office of the Provost
Contact: [email protected];
Benne? Goldberg [email protected]
Building the classroom
Designing the learning experience
Measuring learning outcomes
Training the teaching staff
10 Mathema6cs and 5 Sta6s6cs faculty
