Copyright © 2014 - Curt Hill Marshalling Technology for Education Curt Hill Computer Systems and...

Copyright © 2014 - Curt Hill

Marshalling Technology for Education

Curt HillComputer Systems and Software Engineering

Valley City State [email protected]

Introduction• There has been considerable

interest in the notion of a flipped or inverted classroom– Requires student to be responsible for

their own learning outside of class– Class time is used for what is not

understood in this way

• Most often exercised in large lecture classes

• This describes an attempt to flip an unlikely class

• Institutional emphasisCopyright © 2014 - Curt Hill


The Class• CSCI 160 – Intro to Structured

Programming I• Taught 8:00 MWF using IVN

– 8 students at VCSU – have laptops– 4 students at WSC – in computer lab

• Online resource: VCSU MEP– The textbook substitute and giver of

assignments

• Online resource: VCSU Web Tools– Giver of daily quiz

Technology • Some pieces of technology are

essential– Others get in the way

• Technology Used– Interactive Video Network is both, but

is a necessary evil– VCSU-MEP is used instead of textbook– DevC++ IDE is free software– The VCSU Web Tools – Tegrity is a recording tool


Class Cycle• Between classes complete VCSU MEP

reading• Take quiz, 5-15 minutes• Discuss quiz questions, 5-25 minutes

– Lengthy discussion of harder problems

• Demonstration or presentation – all remaining time, except next bullet– Often skipped in favor of previous

• Announce what needs to be done prior to next class – 5 minutes

• All but the first item is recorded via Tegrity – Especially helpful for remote sites


Course History• Traditional face to face in last

millennia• VCSU MEP becomes standard early

2000’s– 2010 was last of these– C++Builder was IDE

• 2011 became IVN class– No text other than VCSU MEP– C++Builder and Visual Studio

• Flipped in 2013 – DevC++


VCSU Web Tools


• Online system– Many features, but the quiz is only

one used

• Easy to make multiple choice or survey questions

• Questions are released at a specified time and stay open for a limited time

• Each student must have a login• Results may be monitored in real

time

VCSU-MEP

• Online learning resource discussed in several papers

• Used with a login on a Java enabled browser

• Numerous interactive objects besides normal text content

• Records student progress• Assigns projects when milestones

have been accomplished


Strengths• The students know that there is an

online quiz to start class• The quiz problems that are well

done are ignored• The problems can be dealt with

immediately• This is a teachable moment

– It is all about extemporaneous teaching of exactly what is needed

– If students asked questions this would not be as necessary


Work


• This was much more labor intensive than previous editions

• All the PowerPoints existed from previous classes– Delivering them is no-brainer

• Generating quiz questions and more demonstrations did turn out to be real work

• Almost like a first offering of a class

Commentary


• The advent of IVN for this class killed numerous in-class exercises in groups

• VCSU Web Tools allowed something similar to be re-introduced

• The level of in-class interaction is not yet to where it should be

Evolution of an Instructor


2012 2013Slides before test 1 384 201

Slides before test 2 337 159

Slides before test 3 343 21

MC quiz questions(work alone)

0 79

MC quiz questions(work together)

0 24

Test PerformancePercentage right for Multiple Choice Questions


Test 1 Test 2 Test 3

2013 62.07% 44.83% 60.00%2012 38.46% 16.67% 30.00%2011 54.84% 35.00% 58.80%2010 65.52% 56.21% 65.56%

Test Performance


Performance Commentary


• The Blue Ribbon class was 2010– Of the seven who started, six finished,

four have IT jobs today

• The class of 2013 is the second best of the classes and usually finishes close to that of 2010– Does this class have the raw talent?

• This is a long way from educational research standards but suggests that this may be a promising approach

Nearly Last Comments


• Should only be used for classes with which the instructor is very comfortable

• Never surveyed the students on their preferences– Could not continue in the follow up

class– One student asked why we did not

continue

• Will do this again

[email protected]


Copyright © 2014 - Curt Hill Marshalling Technology for Education Curt Hill Computer Systems and...

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