College of the Canyons -- Title III
The Institute of Teaching and Learning
Instructional Innovation Classroom Research Proposal
Title:  BSP05K
Number Of Students: 58-60 students
Level of Stipend:  Level One


In the space below (attach additional pages if necessary), present a statement of your proposed research project (approximately 500-1000 words), including a description of the scope and nature of your project, the design or the outline to be followed.  Include objectives, activities, timelines, evaluation methodology, and/or benchmarks that will provide progress measures for your project.  

The objective of this project is to determine whether the use of student designed web tutorials facilitates learning of subject content and online literacy skills.  Online research relies heavily on the ability of the individual to distinguish sites that are appropriate, reliable, and accurate from sites that are not.  My classroom research project will concentrate on the general question, “Does the creating, exchanging, and taking of web tutorials increase content knowledge, quality of work, and online literacy skills in my Biosci 221 Microbiology classes?”  I created a web tutorial assignment for several reasons.  I hope to increase content knowledge, reinforce information from the lecture and text in a format that traditional aged students are familiar with, increase the skills of students who might not be familiar with online research, and help students develop critical assessment skills for online information.  I believe that adding an online research aspect to a traditional class can be more motivating than a traditional research paper.  I have also found that when students know that another student will be taking their tutorial the quality of their work seems to increase and they seem to be more motivated.

My project will take approximately 7 weeks in the latter part of the course, during a major section on bacterial taxonomy, diagnostics, and disease.  I will be following the progress of two sections of Biosci 221; approximately 58-60 students.  At the beginning of this part of the course the students will be assigned a web tutorial project I call “Make One, Take One”.   The students will pick a topic (topics will be fairly specific to avoid repetition) to research online and will choose four appropriate websites.  They will create tutorials involving these four sites.  The tutorials must include background information on the topic, 4 sites, 20 questions, and a final 10 question quiz.  When these are completed they are turned in to me (with an answer key), and exchanged at random with other students who then take the tutorial—answer the question, take the quiz, and comment on the quality of the tutorial.  These completed tutorials are turned in to me for final assessment.  The tutorial is in lieu of a traditional research paper and is worth 10% of their final grade.  Students will also be assessed on the content information via section exam.

In addition, one section of Biosci 221 will receive in depth instruction in online research via a library tour and/or me, including review of appropriate sites.  The other class will not attend a tour and will receive only basic instruction/guidance.  I will survey the students regarding if/how the project increased their online literacy skills.

As part of my end of the semester survey/course evaluation I will ask students about the effectiveness of the tutorial project: Did the exercise facilitate their learning of material?  Did the exercise increase interest in the topic?  How did the fact that the tutorials are exchanged with other students effect your motivation to create a quality project?  In what ways, if any, did this project increase you skills in online research?

What teaching strategies/learning concepts/pedagogical theories/technology skills did you gain knowledge of through the Institute of Teaching and Learning courses that you will apply to your classroom research?

The web tutorial project was born out of the IT&L course EDU 090 Strategies in Online Teaching.  In science classes, we hope to take students on a field trip during the term.  This is very difficult in an online class.  The web tutorial was presented in EDU 090 as a way for students to take a virtual field trip—to read, explore, and see images they might not see in class.  I have used this technique in my online classes and students have expressed that they enjoyed it and learned from it.  This term in my microbiology classes I decided to use this assignment because field trips are not usually taken.  In addition, in EDU 090 and also EDU 082 Teaching in the Community College and EDU 091 Case Studies in College Teaching a common teaching problem was addressed:  student motivation.  Designing, exchanging, and taking a peer’s tutorial is an attempt to increase interest and motivation to both learn content and to create a quality product.  Most students, especially traditional aged students, are very comfortable browsing online and many already use websites for supplementing course information.  So although the idea came out of the online strategies class I decided to add it to a traditional onground course.  In EDU 082 the technique of surveying students was presented.  I have now incorporated surveys at the beginning of the class (interest survey), middle of the course, and final survey.  I will incorporate assessment of this project into the final survey.  I believe that periodically surveying students, and acting on the feedback received, increases the quality of the classroom environment, a subject examined in EDU 082 and 091.

What do you (as an instructor) hope to learn from your research?

For the students, I hope to incorporate an online assignment that is motivating and effective into a traditional course.  I hope to increase the student’s content knowledge, motivate them by using a tool they already use in their daily lives (web), and increase their online literacy skills.  As an instructor I hope to learn whether or not this assignment is effective because it is in lieu of a traditional paper. Though it is a fair amount of work for the student and instructor it is, hopefully, less than a traditional research paper.  Because the amount of content knowledge acquisition is high in science classes I look for techniques that will increase efficiency in learning.  So I hope to answer the following questions:  Should I continue to use the assignment?  Should I revise it?  How much instruction on online research do the students need?  Is this an effective way to efficiently increase student content knowledge?  Finally, surveying students has proven to be an effective learning tool for me.  Feedback from the students helps me assess my delivery, format, etc.  I know that the students feel empowered and engaged when they are allowed to affect what happens in the classroom, and this increases the quality of the classroom environment.  The feedback I receive increases the quality of instruction they, and subsequent students, will receive.