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Campus
News |
Humboldt:
Excellence through Undergraduate Research
Dr. Guy-Alain Amoussou
Professor of Computer Science
Director of International Programs
Humboldt State University (HSU)
My passion for undergraduate research is fueled by the reward of witnessing how
it academically transforms our students. In fall 2008, Joshua, a former HSU student,
began his Ph.D. study at the Ohio State University in the Laboratory of Artificial
Intelligence Research. And Jennifer, currently a senior in computer science, who
three years ago claimed to “hate research,” is now applying to graduate school.
My research is interdisciplinary with a focus on design activities related to software
systems. In past years, I have involved my students in two types of undergraduate
research. The first type is in senior capstone courses. The second is in the National
Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) summer Research Experience
for Undergraduates (REU) site. Each summer, the REU recruits 8-10 students countrywide,
freshmen through juniors. It is interdisciplinary, involving students and faculty
from computer science, mathematics, art/graphic design, and natural resources/Geographic
Information Systems.
Sharing Ingredients of Our “Recipe” for Undergraduate Research
Basic questions:
How do I involve students in a process that is engaging, challenging,
and rewarding with clearly defined expectations?
How do I provide an environment that allows students to become creative problem solvers
as well as learn how to write and present their work professionally?
The steps with which we have experimented:
1. Create a research environment
- Assess student skills; organize into project groups; and determine project roles.
- Facilitate a discussion forum on a given topic related to all projects of a capstone
class or a summer REU, where students share on quotes and readings. For example,
I often assign topics around design activities in other disciplines. This creates
a community of peers from which one can draw.
- Involve the entire group of students, regardless of their assigned project, in
activities that encourage creativity, definition of design, or reflections on computational
thinking.
- Under the supervision of a faculty mentor, students are provided with guidelines
to peer review each other’s draft research paper or poster.
2. Define the research
- Define a research project with clear goals, real world application, and clients
who might use/need.
- Assign a project that builds from accomplishments of the previous semester/summer.
- Define clear milestones with dates and outcomes.
- Explain final research experience products as a poster and paper to be presented
at conferences, on or off campus.
3. Provide adequate resources
- Arrange a library orientation on resources available; conduct pilot searches
of papers.
- Guide students through:
- Selecting excellent papers.
- Reading articles, evaluating the title, key words, abstract, introduction,
and conclusion.
- Writing paper summaries, including the title, key words, bulleted summaries
grouped by topics, a ranking of the paper as it pertains to the research, and
the paper reference.
- Provide a series of “how to” tutorials related to writing a literature review
and scientific paper, designing a poster, presenting at a conference, etc. Whenever
possible, and under my guidance, students who have had a successful experience
in these activities will present to their peers.
Some Key Benefits of Undergraduate Research to Students
- Boosting of student confidence.
- Improved work ethic and organization skills.
- Enhanced team-building skills.
- Appreciation of the research process.
- Appreciation of computing, its uses and connections to other disciplines.
- Motivation to go on to graduate school.
Faculty Lessons Learned
- It doesn’t hurt to set high expectations and nudge students from their comfort zone.
- Students rise to our expectations, and the results reward all.
In my best teacher dreams, Joshua and Jennifer are returning to teach at HSU, and
the excellence through undergraduate research continues.
I would like to acknowledge the contributions of my HSU colleagues, Professors Steinberg,
Owens, and Knight, who have been invaluable in helping to make the summer REU programs
successful.
Resources
Attend
an NSF regional grant conference to seek support for undergraduate research.
REU sites are funded around
the country in various disciplines.
Please see the Humboldt REU site.
87
Attend ITL’s Student Success Workshop
Team Sonoma
Chancellor’s Office
November 7, 2008
Faculty developers, associates, and administrators from throughout the CSU attended
a variety of “train-the-trainer” workshops, where topics had been carefully selected
by campus faculty development directors. The follow-up feedback indicates that over
95% (60% response rate) judged the event to be a success!
Workshops & Facilitators
- Universal Design for Learning
Emiliano Ayala & Brett Christie
- LMS Best Practices for Enhancing Active & Interactive Learning
Kathy Fernandez & Laura Sederberg
- Moving from a Face-to-Face to an Online Learning Environment
Jim Julius & Kevin Kelly
- Student Writing and Assignment Design
Carol Holder
- Meaningful Assessment with Rubrics
Mary Allen
- Creating Accessible Instructional Materials
Peter Mosinskis
- Transforming Course Design to Improve Student Learning
Jeff Gold & Kate Stevenson
- Teaching and Technology Horizons: Web 2.0 (wikis, blogs, etc.)
Brett Christie
- Student Engagement in Learning
Ed Nuhfer
- Promoting Classroom Civility
Cynthia Desrochers
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Teaching & Learning
Tips |
Knowledge
Surveys: Being Clear, Organized, and Able to Prove It
Dr. Ed Nuhfer
Director of Faculty Development
CSU Channel Islands
Research (Feldman, 2007) shows that organization and clarity are the most important
instructional factors in promoting student learning. Yet, students frequently rate
instruction lower in these traits. Knowledge
surveys offer a way to boost organization and clarity, and they provide other
benefits, only a sample of which can be described here.
Knowledge surveys consist of numerous (usually about 100 to 300) ordered challenges,
such as test questions, skills, or project tasks. Students interact with the survey
at the beginning, during, and end of the course. Think of every test, quiz, and assignment
that you gave in the last course you taught. Suppose you placed all of these challenges
into one word-processor file, sorted the items in the order students would encounter
them in the course, and then passed that "monster exam" on to students at the first
class meeting the next time you taught this course.
However, instead of asking the students to answer the test items, you asked each
student to self-assess her/his ability on a 3-point scale (3 = high confidence, 1
= no confidence) to meet each challenge with present knowledge. For a 200-item survey,
this takes about 30 minutes to complete online. The result is a crude pre-course
survey of your students’ general knowledge. Although we now use more sophisticated
design logic, the crude design described here will still bring many benefits.
Knowledge surveys offer detailed disclosure of content addressed, when the content
is taught, and a detailed revelation of students' responses (Figure 1). During the
course, the survey provides a learning guide for students and an instructional alignment
tool for faculty. It ensures a course plan that meets desired learning outcomes.
Figure 1. Plot of self-assessment ratings of 115 knowledge survey
items by 79 students in three sections of a sophomore psychology course.
The instructor can use survey results as one estimate of student mastery of course
content; they also are a means of tracking the effectiveness of different classroom
methods. Knowledge surveys provide consistent results and yield reliability coefficients
greater than 0.9. Professors can help students to develop self-assessment skills
during the course by having students again complete a bank of knowledge survey items
that pertain to an upcoming test, and after the test having students do self-reflection
on any disparity between their self-assessments and their actual test performances
and why these differed.
The Science Education Resource Center (SERC, 2008) includes knowledge surveys as
an assessment measure, based upon positive experiences with it by some of the nation's
best geoscience educators (see knowledge
surveys). All courses in the geoscience curricula of University of North Dakota
and Macalester College now have knowledge surveys, and these departments use them
for curricular planning and assessment of learning.
Institutional use of knowledge surveys in all disciplines recently helped Honolulu
Community College move to "exemplary" status in assessment of student learning, when
reviewed for accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Accrediting
Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities.
For more information about knowledge surveys, see Links section at the end of this
e-magazine and/or contact Ed Nuhfer.
Reference
Feldman, K. A. (2007). Identifying exemplary teachers and teaching: evidence from
student ratings. In R. Perry and J. Smart, (Eds.), The scholarship of teaching
and learning in higher education: An evidence-based approach. (93-129). New
York: Springer.
ITL’s
Discipline Research Project, Round #2
Team Leaders’ Planning Meeting
Chancellor’s Office
December 12, 2008
ITL Announces Grant Recipients
Critical Issues in Chinese Language Learning
- Kylie Hsu, Team Leader (Los Angeles)
- Tianwei Xie (Long Beach)
- Jeff Winters (Long Beach)
- Jinghui “Jack” Liu (Fullerton)
- Shijuan Liu (Los Angeles)
- Qingyun Wu (Los Angeles)
- Maria Costa, Faculty Development Lead (Los Angeles)
Critical Issues in Information Literacy
- Monica Fusich, Team Leader (Fresno)
- Caroline Bordinaro (Dominguez Hills)
- Stephanie Brasley (Chancellor’s Office)
- MaryAnn Hight (Stanislaus)
- Christy Stevens (Pomona)
- Tiffani Travis (Long Beach)
- Peggy Perry, Faculty Development Lead (Pomona)
Critical Issues in Learning about Social Justice
- Roberta Herter, Team Co-Leader (San Luis Obispo)
- Jennifer Becker (San Luis Obispo)
- Christina Chavez (Pomona)
- Nancy Erbe (Dominguez Hills)
- Jocelyn Clare R. Hermoso (San Francisco)
- Edythe Krampe (Fullerton)
- Candy Madrigal (San Francisco)
- Shonda O’Neal (Dominguez Hills)
- Jeff Sapp (Dominguez Hills)
- Joe Grimes, Co- & Faculty Development Lead (SLO)
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Events |
February 20, 2009 (Friday)—12:30
to 2:00 p.m.
ITL Spring Webinar Series
Topic: Promoting Student Civility
Facilitator: Cynthia Desrochers
Campuses: East Bay, San Francisco, and Sonoma
Register at your campus Faculty Development Center
March 2, 2009—Proposals Due
12th CSU Teaching & Learning
Symposium
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
March 11, 2009 (Wednesday)—12:00
to 2:00 p.m.
ITL Spring Webinar Series Topic: Universal Design
for Learning
Facilitators: Emiliano Ayala & Brett Christie
To register, please contact Brett Christie
March 27-28, 2009
Discipline Research Project, Round #2
All Grant Recipients’ Workshop
April 24, 2009 (Friday)—12:30-2:00 p.m.
ITL Spring Webinar Series
Topic: Student Engagement in Learning
Facilitator: Ed Nuhfer
FDC, please contact Cynthia Desrochers if you would like to personally host this webinar at your campus.
May 1, 2009
Faculty Development Council Meeting
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
May 2, 2009
12th CSU University
Teaching & Learning Symposium
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
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Links |
Knowledge Surveys
Dr. Steven Fleisher, CSU Channel Islands, recently employed knowledge surveys in
his psychology courses. Interviews* with Dr. Fleisher and his students reveal:
* Use QuickTime Player and Firefox or Safari browser.
Download sample knowledge surveys (.doc format) from the author's
freshman geology course (.doc) and from Dr. Fleisher's psychology course (.doc).
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