Abstract:

Successful completion of introductory science and mathematics courses is a necessary prerequisite for university students to complete programs in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines. These courses have been found to be a particular barrier for first-generation college students as well as for students from minorities who are underrepresented in the STEM disciplines. Delaware State University is a 4-year public university founded as an 1890 land-grant institution. Its student population is predominantly made up of students who are first-generation underrepresented minorities. Many students have attended under-resourced public school systems and have had limited experience extracting information from textbooks. As part of an effort to improve student success in first-year science courses, two new courses were developed for biology students that were to use a flipped-classroom model of instruction. The foundation of the model was to develop course-specific videos which used the textbook as the basis of instruction. Students watched the videos prior to the class that was devoted to that particular section of the textbook. The videos not only provided explanation of the material in the textbook section but also demonstrated how to extract meaning from the material presented in the book. In class, students worked collaboratively on questions related to the specific textbook section. After all responses were submitted, the answers were reviewed and the best answers were pointed out as well as answers that had common errors or showed specific misconceptions. Over four years of development and change, the software and material used to facilitate and assess student learning evolved along with the available technology. By the final year of development content videos with embedded questions were delivered through the website EDpuzzle while classroom assessment was managed through the Learning Catalytics system available from the textbook publisher, Pearson. This presentation will demonstrate the integration of these different elements into a coordinated system for content delivery and assessment. Additionally, I will present results from student attitude surveys and analyses of student outcomes that demonstrate the impact of these pedagogical tools. Results were mixed, with minimal impact on student success and attitudes in the first semester course but dramatic improvement over baseline in the second semester.

Keywords:

Active Learning, Educational Software, Student Attitudes.