IMPROVING STUDENT LEARNING IN LARGE CLASSES VIA TECHNOLOGY-ASSISTED LECTURE ACTIVITIES

At UW, physical geology is a large enrollment class taught in a lecture/lab format that has limited student involvement. To create a better learning environment, two types of active learning components were added to the class two years ago. The more common are short in-class activities conducted at least once a class session utilizing an electronic student response system. More involved and extensive activities, lecture activities, occupying the entire class session are conducted every two weeks. These combine mini-lectures, multimedia, electronic quizzes and worksheets and involve tasks that students must complete using previously learned principles. Activities fall into three categories: summations review a subject area; extensions introduce principles/processes not previously covered; and applications uses previously learned principles to solve new problems. Activities are presented as Web pages using a variety of media: photos, line-drawings, animations/simulations, videos, panoramas, etc, and are not available until the day of the activity. They are introduced in a short mini-lecture that places the activity in a real world context. Principles needed for the project are briefly reviewed and an electronic quiz administered. If a majority answers incorrectly, misconceptions are addressed before continuing. When most students answer correctly, activity task(s) details are presented and a worksheet handed out. Students can work alone or with their neighbors. During this period, the instructor, lab coordinator and TAs circulate through the lecture hall assisting students. After the majority of students have completed the activity, the solution is discussed by the entire class thereby allowing students to check their worksheets. After this discussion, another electronic quiz is administered accessing student understanding of the solution. Because the quizzes are online, they are available to students who missed class as well as for later study. Students who attend a given lecture activity do materially better on exam questions in that content area. Lecture activities exist for the rock cycle, igneous rocks, geologic time, structural geology, groundwater, Earth’s interior and plate tectonics. They can be accessed at http://tmf.gg.uwyo.edu.