I will be conducting this research in my Bio Sci 106: Organismal and Environmental Biology class.  This is an introductory course that is required for students who are biology majors.  However, the class also has a significant number of enrolled students who are not biology majors, but who need to fulfill their degree with a science lab course.  The varied background and abilities of the students creates a challenge for me in effectively teaching the important concepts of the course.  By having students participate in this research project, I hope to get them actively involved in their own learning, which will then help me determine if this improves their understanding of the course material. 

This research project will be carried out throughout the semester in Spring 2006.  I teach two section of Bio 106; while the lab sections meet separately, the lecture is presented to both sections together.  My research will focus on the lecture portion of the class, which will minimize the effect of external circumstances such as the classroom environment and time of day, since the lecture meeting is the same for both sections.  Participation in this project will be mandatory and will be worth 10% of the students’ overall grade. 

During the first week of class, I will provide an orientation lesson to Blackboard and have students complete an online survey about their learning preferences.  The goal of this survey will be to have the students become more familiar with the use of Blackboard as well as to inform them of the idea that there are “multiple intelligences” and that their learning preferences may be an indication of the type of intelligence(s) that they may be strongest in.  I will also use the results of this survey to interpret the success of the research project at the end of the semester. 

During the first third of the course I will present the students will the learning outcomes for each class period, then have them complete an online quiz (“check for understanding”) every week to determine how well they have learned the important concepts from that lecture.  During the next two thirds of the course I will have the two sections alternate in the assignments that they are asked to complete.  One section will be required to participate in weekly online discussions in Blackboard and generate a list of learning outcomes for each week’s lecture after I have presented the lecture.  The second section will also have an online forum where they can participate in online discussions, but it will not be a required forum.  In addition, this section will be given a list of the learning outcomes for each class period, so they will not be required to generate them on their own.  Each student in both sections will then submit to me, using the digital dropbox available through Blackboard, three quiz questions that address the learning outcomes.  I will compile the most appropriate questions in an online quiz, and have students from both sections take the quiz.  During the last third of the course, I will have the sections switch so that the section that did not have to generate their own learning outcomes will have a chance to do so.  In this way, both sections will participate in the active learning portion of the assignment, as well as serving as an appropriate control during the time period when they do not.

In order to obtain a quantifiable measure of the research project’s effectiveness, I will use the students’ midterm and final exam grades, as well as their grades for the online quizzes.  I will compare the grades for both sections from the beginning of the semester (before the interactive assignments began) with the grades throughout the remainder of the semester.  I will also compare the grades of the section participating in the interactive assignment, with the section that is not (during the last two thirds of the semester). 

In order to provide a more qualitative measure of the project’s success, the students will also complete an online evaluation of the research project at the end of the semester.  They will be asked whether they found the interactive activities helpful in improving their learning and if so, in what way.  They will also be asked whether they liked having an online component to the class and found it a helpful resource, and if so, which aspects of online learning they found most helpful and enjoyable.  Students will also be asked to reflect on the results of the survey they completed at the beginning of the semester regarding their learning preferences, and whether the research project assignments were successful in meeting those preferences.

The goal of my research project is to specifically answer the following questions:

1. Do students perform better on exams when they are required to generate course learning outcomes themselves, as opposed to reviewing instructor-generated learning outcomes?

2. Does incorporation of a mandatory, interactive, online component to the course help improve student performance on exams compared to a situation where there is no such online component?

3. Does the incorporation of a mandatory, interactive, online component to the course help improve the learning experience for a student compared to a situation where there is no such online component?

1. I will use the quiz and exam scores from the first third of the semester as a benchmark (control group) to determine the initial performance level of the students prior to any research manipulation.  I will then split the class into two sections.  For the 2nd third of the semester, one group will be the experimental group, and the other group the control.  For the last third of the semester, I will switch the two groups so that the experimental group becomes the control, and vice versa.  In this way, I will have a control group throughout the semester.  By analyzing the grades of the control group throughout the semester, I will be able to determine if, and how much natural improvement there is in the student grades, and adjust for this when evaluating the results of the experimental group.  In doing so, I will remove the effects of grade improvements that are not due to the research project.

2. I will use the exam scores from past semesters of Bio 106 in order to determine whether exam scores have improved overall during the course of the research project compared to semesters where students did not participate in this research project.

3. I will have students in my current Bio 106 class (Fall 2005) complete a survey at the end of the semester regarding the quality of their learning experience in this course.  I will ask them to evaluate the effectiveness of the course in meeting their specific learning needs, what resources they utilized in the course, what other resources they would have liked to be able to use, etc.  I will conduct a similar survey at the end of my research project next semester in order to compare the qualitative results of the project, compared to a semester where I did not conduct the research project.

The ITL course that I completed is EDU 090: Strategies for Success in Online Teaching.  The technologies that I learned in this course and that I will be using are the teaching tools available through Blackboard, such as the discussion board and digital dropbox.  I will also create online quizzes and link them to my Blackboard class account in order to have the students complete them outside of class time and have their answers e-mailed to me.  This will not only allow the students to experience an additional, and more interactive, learning environment, but it will also allow me to conduct my research without taking up too much face-to-face class time.  One of the pedagogical theories that we discussed in EDU 090 that applies to this research project is the idea that there are “multiple intelligences” and that online instruction can meet the various needs of students with different types of intelligences and learning preferences.  A traditional, face-to-face class can sometimes be limited in the number of different ways the course material is presented, either due to time or physical constraints.  By having students 1) participate in online discussions to create appropriate learning outcomes for their lectures, 2) create quiz questions that address those learning outcomes, and 3) take the online quizzes that are the product of their, and their peers’ work, I will be able to create a more interactive, varied, and student-centered learning environment.  In doing so, I hope to determine the effectiveness of using such a learning environment in improving student success.