Course Redesign ePortfolio Showcase

This project is an attempt to improve student learning in an introductory E&M physics class. The class is taken by over 1000 science and engineering students annually and is on a key path, and therefore potential barrier to graduate for many Cal Poly Pomona students. This course is one of a number of attempts to use a flipped classroom structure to study student learning in such classes. We are collecting data on student learning via research-based assessment tools in both the flipped and traditional classes to assess the impact of this pedagogical strategy, with the goal of improving student persistence and eventually graduation rates.

The project is aimed at integrating an effective learning tool, the Koondis platform, into STEM education - in this case in physics and chemistry. The Koondis platform (learn.koondis.com) is a structured interaction which automatically creates "select teams" (the Estonian term is a "koondis") for STEM students with specified roles. While the tool can be used in a variety of ways, an effective introduction into building a Koondis structure in a course is to use it as a homework "sandbox". We describe the results of rewarding students for effective teamwork and leadership in their Koondis in this ePortfolio.

The project is aimed at integrating an effective learning tool, the Koondis platform, into STEM education - in this case in physics and chemistry. The Koondis platform (learn.koondis.com) is a structured interaction which automatically creates "select teams" (the Estonian term is a "koondis") for STEM students with specified roles. While the tool can be used in a variety of ways, an effective introduction into building a Koondis structure in a course is to use it as a homework "sandbox". We describe the results of rewarding students for effective teamwork and leadership in their Koondis in this ePortfolio.

The project is aimed at integrating an effective learning tool, the Koondis platform, into STEM education - in this case in physics and chemistry. The Koondis platform (learn.koondis.com) is a structured interaction which automatically creates "select teams" (the Estonian term is a "koondis") for STEM students with specified roles. While the tool can be used in a variety of ways, an effective introduction into building a Koondis structure in a course is to use it as a homework "sandbox". We describe the results of rewarding students for effective teamwork and leadership in their Koondis in this ePortfolio.

We have constructed a fully online course in introductory physics at the calculus-based level providing students an authentic means of interacting with both the instructor and their peers as members of a local scientific community while deeply engaging the scientific process. Through the use of an innovative online interaction tool, Learn.Koondis.com, we aim to provide 1) excellent preparation for downstream STEM coursework, 2) an authentic experience of physics as an academic discipline and career, and 3) and affordable and flexible online course.

This project aims to improve student learning in CSUF's introductory, calculus-based mechanics course, a "bottleneck" course primarily taken by engineering and physics students. Rather than a traditional lecture+textbook format, the redesigned course implemented active learning strategies and a flipped classroom model of instruction using the SmartPhysics platform. The course also incorporated supplemental instruction.

This is a new means for lecture capture that utilizes a glass screen that acts as a transparent whiteboard. The instructor writes on the screen, and a camera on the opposite side records the video. The instructor is now facing the camera. Students viewing the video are able to observe the nuances of problem solving as their professor teaches physics principles while facing them. And the instructor is not required to write backwards! The writing becomes forward with a simple horizontal flip of the image (done in software or with a mirror, like Ambulance in your rear-view mirror).

Our traditional calculus-based mechanics course, taken by some 400 science and engineering majors each semester, had not been significantly changed in several decades. In order to improve student outcomes, we have been converting the course such that (a) there is excellent coordination across sections, (b) there are on-line resources for students to use outside of class, (3) there is more interactive learning and student group work in the labs than before, (4) there is in-person tutoring and exam preparation available, and (5) there is an additional support course for students not yet ready for Physics 50. The project is a collaboration between teaching faculty, physics education researchers and masters students studying student learning.

In 2011 we started a program on our campus aimed at improving student success in STEM disciplines through a flipped classroom facilitated by Learning Assistants (LAs). Currently more than 400 students and 30 learning assistants benefit from the program every semester. Last year's eportfolio presents preliminary statistics. We applied for a second year grant with two main goals. Goal number one is to continue to improve and carefully grow the program by supporting faculty and LAs. The second goal is to build a learning skills website to provide resources that can help students improve their metacognitive skills, and learn how to learn. The LAs become better learners for participating in the program, and we want to extend these benefits to as many students as possible.

Physics 141 is a difficult course for many engineering, science, and physics students at Cal Poly. I want to improve student success and engage students more actively in the learning process by including online videos, in-class active learning worksheets and problem sets, and online assignments in the curriculum.

Physics 204B is the second course in the calculus-based introductory physics sequence taken by almost all STEM majors. It introduces many of the fundamental concepts electricity and magnetism and, more broadly, in the application of scientific principles. The Physics 204 series is also often the first series of courses taken outside of mathematics which applies trigonometry and calculus intensively and has a consistently high DFW rate (30% on average). We propose to introduce Perusall, an online learning tool designed to turn personal readings into engaging collective activities to both help students create an active learning community outside of the classroom and also to help the instructor easily identify difficulties by generating "student confusion reports".

A flipped classroom redesign for a Modern Physics upperdivision course. Classroom face-to-face time is used for virtual labs, problem solving, and creative reflective activities. At the end of the semester students create videos to reflect on their learning and on how materials relate to their knowledgebase and experiences. Several computer games are used to engage students as well as a trivia game.

We introduce four concepts on the first day of class: Momentum, Energy, Forces, and Motion, starting very simple and increase complexity for the first 6 weeks, adding trigonometry in week 7, repeating the process for rotational mechanics for the last three weeks. Providing ~ 100 videos online leaves class time open for demos, discussions and peer instruction. I continue to learn from my students as we engage in considerable reflection about what we are doing and how we feel about it.

Physics 204C is the last of three courses in the calculus-based introductory physics sequence taken by many STEM majors. It introduces many of the fundamental concepts in physics and, more broadly, in the application of scientific principles. This course has a high DFW rate consistently (10-15%).

In order to further enhance student engagement in class and promote active learning strategies, we will introduce a new tool, Perusall, to improve student preparation for class sessions. Research has consistently shown that interactive engagement strategies enhance learning gains and improve students attitudes in physics courses. Perusall is a web-based service which integrates with the course textbook, monitors student reading, groups students to discuss readings, and automatically evaluates student responses to prompts. The introduction of Perusall will improve student preparation for interactive class time.

To encourage more student engagement in class with more challenging and relevant examples and applications, we propose to "flip" the course and provide basic lecture content in online videos. The videos will have embedded questions and post video, skill building exercises. We will develop clicker questions to foster conceptual understanding and in-class work-sheets for group activities that step students through more complex examples and/or challenging applications.

We propose to "flip" the course by enforcing pre-class textbook reading, replacing traditional lectures with reading quiz, brief lectures, spending most of the class time guiding the students to actively doing worksheets, as well as providing supplementary materials including instructor-made videos, so that we can expect more student engagement inside and outside of class, and improve the student understanding and performance.

Our learning goal is to have students learn physics by engaging in authentic scientific practices. Physics is an experimental science. With separate lab and lecture, the challenge is to have students engaged in experimentation during lecture time. We will use online videos of physics experiments during lecture time to bridge the lab-lecture divide. Students will be engaged in authentic scientific inquiry during lecture time using the videos.

Big Ideas in Cosmology is a 3-module curriculum that is being developed by a team of faculty and staff in partnership with Kendall-Hunt/Great River Technologies. The curriculum uses interactive learning objects incorporating real data within a hybrid or online format. This transforms the class from a primarily lecture and book-based course to a more engaging format that builds important STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) skills. Existing textbooks and "proven redesign" methods using multiple-choice test banks following templates administered through Moodle do not engage student thinking beyond Bloom's taxonomy level 1 (remembering). Our redesigned course is based on peer-reviewed education research into astronomical misconceptions, and engages students through additional taxonomy levels including understanding, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. These learning objectives are important to future student success in STEM fields, as well as other fields that require the development of critical thinking abilities. During spring 2014, we tested Modules 1 and 2 with Astronomy 100 and Modules 2 and 3 with Astronomy 350 in a hybrid, "flipped-classroom" format. In the summer 2014, we are offering both courses in a purely online format. Extensive evaluation is being conducted, including pre- and post- content knowledge assessment, and a study of learning attitudes.

The broad goal of this project is to increase student success in calculus-based introductory physics, specifically introductory mechanics. As this course is the first university Physics course for the majority of science and engineering students at Cal Poly Pomona, it is a prerequisite to all subsequent physics courses and hence the critical point at which to set students on a positive trajectory for learning physics. My class is "flipped." Students view multi-media prelectures and answer checkpoint questions before the class session devoted to the material. Class time is devoted to mini-lectures reinforcing the on-line prelectures, in-class worked examples and exercises emphasizing quantitative problem-solving strategies, and interactive "think-pair-share" questions emphasizing key physics concepts. The course redesign utilizes smartPhysics, developed at the University of Illinois.

As an instructor for fundamental physics since 2007, I encounter students with very different background. Most of them are just graduated from high schools, who choose engineering or science as their major but not even have enough Mathematics skills or good study habits. Over the years I have seen ~20-35% failure rate (DFW grades) in my class (depending on semesters), not only students feel frustrated, I am quite stressed by the result. The purpose of this project is to decrease the gap between students and increase student success rate in my PHYS 4A/Mechanics and Wave Motion course. Particularly, I am adapting smartPhysics, which has well built prelecture activities and online homework system, so that I can increase class practice for students to work on examples and perform more demonstrations in class meeting time.

Flipped classroom is the pedagogy behind the redesign of these two courses, which can also be tailored to a Hybrid-online format. Students watch, listen, and interact with online content on their own time and come better prepared to take more active roles in class discussion, group work, and problem solving practices. The method allows instructors to use the precious class-time for more demanding cognitive tasks: tackling difficult problems, working in groups, peer instruction, researching, collaborating, crafting and creating. We utilized SmartPhysics multimedia online course content developed at the University of Illinois.



We compared the learning, attitudes, and experiences of students in flipped classes with the traditional lecture sections in a controled research study. Our research indicates that students in the flipped class overall did better than control group. In addition, student attitudes regarding the course and online material were very positive. They enjoyed the flexibility associated with the online prelectures, felt they were easy to use, and found presentations and the examples to be effective in helping them to learn physics.

At Cal Poly Pomona, introductory physics classes are taught through 3-unit lectures and 1-unit lab. There is no recitation section to allow students for more practice with the instructor. Such lack of practice adversely affects student learning in all introductory classes including PHY 133, which is a calculus-based course on introductory electricity and magnetism. Flipped classroom approach has potential to remedy the situation. By moving most of the lecturing to online vewing of materials along with questions answered ahead of the lecture, the instructor can plan the class time for many other activities, such as more in-depth conceptual questions, comprehensive lecture demos, and problem solving. One other aspect of the project is that most of the assessments are done online. Homework is done online at smartphysics.com, and 4 midterms are given on Blackboard. I believe that frequent assessments ensure more regular study of the material to improve student learning.

Changing from traditional lecture based teaching involves redesigning an entire course to achieve better learning outcomes and lower costs for students by taking advantage of the online technology. It requires completely rethinking the way we deliver instructions by utilizing a concept of "flipped" teaching, turning the teaching content into video course, allowing students to view lectures at home and using a valuable class time for collaboration and discussion.

The broad goal of this project is to increase student success in calculus-based introductory physics, specifically the first or mechanics quarter of the course. The class will be "flipped" with class time devoted to in-class problem solving, with emphasis on examples, exercises, and clicker questions. Students will view multi-media prelectures and answer checkpoint questions before the class session devoted to the material. The course redesign will utilize smartPhysics.

The broad goal of this project is to increase student success in calculus-based introductory physics. The class will be "flipped" with class time devoted to in-class problem solving, with emphasis on examples, exercises, and concept questions. Students will view multi-media prelectures and answer checkpoint questions before the class session devoted to the material. The course redesign will utilize smartPhysics developed at the University of Illinois.

We aim at constructing a fully online course in introductory physics at the calculus-based level that will provide students an authentic means of interacting with both the instructor and their peers in the course as members of a local scientific community while engaging this challenging material. Through the use of an innovative online interaction tool, Social Homework by Edudotonline.com, we aim to provide 1) excellent preparation for downstream STEM coursework, 2) an authentic experience of physics as an academic discipline and career, and 3) and affordable and flexible online course.

PHYS 100AL is the laboratory that accompanies the first algebra-based introductory course on Physics. Due to increased demand, we are having difficulty offering enough sections of this laboratory course unless we renovate and create a new physical laboratory. A way to solve this problem is to "hybridize" the PHYS 100AL. This will allow us to double the capacity of these labs so we can offer fewer sections but still accommodate more students. Our hybrid lab comprises 6 in-class labs which are the traditional labs done in a controlled environment employing specialized and more sensitive equipment plus 6 take-home labs which are experiments that students perform outside on their own schedule. These take-home labs are "wet labs"; they are actual experiments performed with physical objects and not simulations performed on a computer. This reminds the students that science does not happen only inside a lab but is all around us. It also reinforces the importance of errors in any measurement as the take-home labs tend to be less precise due to the simpler equipment used. We also took this opportunity to update the lab manual to introduce the use of EXCEL in data analysis. In addition, although errors in measurements, their treatment and propagation of errors are emphasized in the old lab manual, we find that the majority of the students have a very poor understanding of what they are doing and are not able to interpret their use. The redesigned lab manual incorporates changes to address this problem.

We are redesigning and flipping these four lower division science courses so that in class time is spent in group problem solving, discussion, and other research-based high engagement activities. Our ultimate goal is to increase student learning and overall success in STEM disciplines. This proposal is supporting faculty in these efforts and because these are large enrollment classes it relies heavily on students who work as Learning Assistants (LAs) in the classroom. The program has been shown to improve student understanding of content knowledge, engage faculty in course transformation, and to increase the number and quality of future high-school science teachers.