APPLICATION OF THE “JUST-IN-TIME TEACHING” APPROACH IN A THIRD YEAR TECTONICS COURSE

A third year course entitled “Tectonic Evolution of North America” (EOSC 332; 40 registered students) in the Dept. of Earth & Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, is currently being redesigned as part of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative. The goal of this transformation is to substantially improve the level of comprehension and retention of lecture material by students. The course includes several new features. First, detailed course and module level learning goals have been developed to help students focus on the key concepts in this very broad subject. Second, detailed online notes (Powerpoint format, with extensive accompanying notes) for each lecture topic are made available to students several days before the topic is to be discussed in class. Students are required to read the web notes, plus any accompanying reference material, and complete a short online quiz on the material (typically 6-8 multiple choice questions per lecture, each linked to specific learning goals) approximately ten hours prior to the lecture. Quiz results are tabulated by a TA and reviewed by the professor immediately prior to the lecture; this information allows the professor to tailor lectures “on the fly” to focus on specific portions of the material that students are finding the most difficult, while spending only limited time on material that most students understood with little difficulty. In-class activities targeting specific lecture-level goals, and in particular stressing conceptual links between different portions of the lecture material, are offered during most lectures. An online course management system includes a discussion board that allows the professor to respond promptly to questions to the entire class. Other innovations include timeline assignments that stress the progressive nature of continental growth, as well as reading assignments from extensively annotated scientific papers to help students learn how to skim technical literature. Results of the course transformation process thus far indicate an improvement in the conceptual understanding of the course material by the students. The “just-in-time” approach to lecturing has been particularly effective in identifying and targeting problem areas that might not have been obvious using a more traditional lecture format.