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Fifth Annual Rensselaer Colloquium
on Teaching & Learning
May 16 - 17, 2005
The Office of the Provost held the Fifth Annual Rensselaer Colloquium on Teaching and Learning on May 16-17, 2005. This year's colloquium brought to Rensselaer some exciting keynote speakers and offered talks by our own faculty. The colloquium was open to all faculty, graduate students, and teaching staff.Program
Day 1
May 16
Refreshments available
Welcome & Introduction 4050 CII
Prabhat Hajela,
Vice Provost & Dean of Undergraduate Education,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Morning Keynotes (ID# M1) 4050 CII
M. Dayne Aldridge, Sc.D., P.E.
Dean and Kaolin Chair of Engineering, Mercer University
Assessment and Convergent Change
Assessment of outcomes as a basis for accreditation is providing a vehicle for change in engineering education around the world. A brief background of Engineering Criteria 2000 and its initial impacts are presented. The current forces of change are shown to be much broader than those that pushed the introduction of new accreditation criteria in the early nineties. The spectrum of current change is described and found to require convergence of the many programmatic views held by academics. The potential for convergent change and the role of assessment as a vehicle for convergence are explored.
Dr. M. Dayne Aldridge received the Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from West Virginia University and the Doctor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University
of Virginia.
Dr. Aldridge was a member of the electrical engineering faculty at West Virginia University from 1968 until 1984. While at West Virginia University he founded the WVU Energy Research Center in
1978 and was Director until 1984.
Dr. Aldridge was at Auburn University from 1984 to 1999. While at Auburn he was Professor of Electrical Engineering. He served as Associate Dean for Research of the College of Engineering prior
to 1989. In 1989 he became founding Director of the Thomas Walter Center for Technology Management and was appointed as the Thomas Walter Eminent Scholar in Technology Management in 1994. He served
in both capacities until 1999.
In 1999 Dr. Aldridge became Dean of the School of Engineering at Mercer University. He presently serves as Dean and Kaolin Chair of Engineering.
Dr. Aldridge is a Fellow of IEEE, ASEE and ABET and is a Registered Professional Engineer. He is a past president of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. He was co-principal investigator of
the ABET Regional Faculty Workshops that were funded by the National Science Foundation, industry and ABET. He received the IEEE Educational Activities Board Meritorious Achievement Award in Accreditation
Activities in November 2002 and the IEEE Industry Applications Society Distinguished Service Award in October 2004. Dr. Aldridge has served the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET in several
capacities including chair and presently serves as Adjunct Accreditation Director for Engineering.
Break
Linda Suskie,
Executive Associate Director, Middle States Commission
Achieving Middle States’ Expectations for Assessing Student Learning
This presentation will help you understand what Middle States expects RPI to achieve in assessing student learning. It will explain why Middle States and other accreditation organizations are increasingly focusing on assessment, what they consider “good” assessment, and steps the RPI community can take to ensure that assessment activities are useful, helping the faculty provide even better educational opportunities.
Linda Suskie is Executive Associate Director at the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Prior positions include serving as Associate Vice President for Assessment & Institutional Research at Towson University and as Director of the American Association for Higher Education’s Assessment Forum. Her nearly 30 years of experience in college and university administration include work in assessment, institutional research, and strategic planning.
Ms. Suskie is an internationally recognized speaker, writer, and consultant on a broad variety of higher education assessment topics and has been an active member of numerous professional organizations and groups. Her latest book is Assessment of Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide. Among her other publications are Assessment to Promote Deep Learning and Questionnaire Survey Research: What Works.
Ms. Suskie has taught graduate courses in assessment and educational research methods and undergraduate courses in writing, statistics, and developmental mathematics. She holds a bachelor’s degree in quantitative studies from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in educational measurement and statistics from the University of Iowa.
Lunch - BBQ on the Quad
Afternoon Workshop (ID# M2) 337 DCC
Anne L. Fay
Director of Assessment, CMU
Using Assessment to Support Student Learning and Gauge Curricular Success
Designing assessments that map clearly onto course and curricular goals can be a challenging task. In this session we will examine a cognitive-based strategy that can guide the design of assessments so that they are aligned with curricular and course goals. Using this strategy as a framework, we will explore a range of assessment methods and strategies with specific examples of assessments used by faculty in various domains. Major emphasis will be placed on designing assessments that support student learning and can be used to gauge course and departmental curricular objectives.
Anne Fay is the Director of Assessment for the Office of Technology for Education and the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at Carnegie
Mellon.
Dr. Fay received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1990), where she conducted research on the acquisition of computer programming skills. During
her tenure as a post-doctoral fellow with the James A. McDonnell Foundation in Cognitive Studies in Educational Practice she conducted research on the acquisition of scientific reasoning skills and
on instructional interventions to support the development of reasoning skills in children. From 1992 – 1996 she served as a research associate at the Learning Research and Development Center at the
University of Pittsburgh. During this time she designed cognitive-based assessments for middle school science curriculums and was also awarded a grant to work with the Society of Automotive Engineers
to design classroom assessments and a program evaluation for a multidisciplinary engineering-design curriculum for middle schools across the country. She has served as an assessment consultant for various
NSF and Department of Education grants in the areas of engineering, technology, and science education.
In her current capacity she conducts faculty workshops on assessment and works with individual faculty and departments on designing assessments for educational grants and projects. Current assessment
projects include the design and analysis of an online course evaluation instrument, research on the role of metacognitive prompts in statics problem solving, the impact of laptops and Tablet PCs in
design and computer science courses, the use of computer-based collaborative tools in student project courses, and the educational impact of a remote antennae lab. In addition to her assessment work,
Dr. Fay teaches courses in cognitive and developmental psychology, research methods and real world applications of cognitive science.
Charles Malmborg
Defining and Assessing Program Level Learning Objectives
An overview of the process of establishing and assessing learning objectives for the undergraduate program in Industrial and Management Engineering is provided. Specific aspects of the assessment process are described and the application of assessment results for guiding the curriculum and course development process is illustrated through a case history. Lessons learned from the first full round of formal assessment are summarized. This is followed by a faculty panel discussion dealing with learning assessment.
Debbie Kaminski
Remarks on ABET Visitations
Panel Discussion, Q & A
Kevin Craig, Debbie Kaminski, Charles Malmborg,
Lee Odell, Pamela Théroux
Day 2
May 17
Morning Speakers: 4050 CII
Innovations in Teaching and Learning at RPI
Refreshments, Welcome & Introduction
Michael Wozny and Alan Derochers (ID# T1)
Experiences With Streaming Video Libraries in Signals & Systems
We will discuss our experiences over the past four years with use of streaming videos of Signals and Systems problems and solutions. Our talk will include data we have gathered on student usage and correlation with student grades.
Debbie Kaminski (ID# T2)
Gearing Teaching Style to Learning Style in an Introductory Thermal - Fluids Course
Students learn best when teaching style matches learning style. The Kolb Learning Style Instrument was used to measure preferences among students and to identify students at risk in an introductory
engineering course. A series of on-line learning modules, which included demonstrations, field trips, and experiments, was used to supplement course instruction and to aid students with minority learning
styles. Student assessment of the modules indicates strengths and weaknesses and provides guidelines for further development.
Doug Baxter (ID#T3)
Automatic Grading Program for an On-line Course in Solid Modeling
The use of the computer as a teaching aid in large courses is becoming widespread. The benefits of using a computer to disseminate and collect information from a large number of students is well understood. However, the setup time necessary to prepare for each semester can be large. In addition, once data is collected, it must be properly evaluated and then the required information must be disseminated to the student, the grading program and the teaching staff.
This paper will present efforts to further automate the data flow in Rensselaer’s freshman computer graphics and computer aided design course. It shall be seen how engineering students in the freshman graphics and computer aided design classes are evaluated in the three areas of visualization, documentation, and the application of fundamental engineering relations to solid models. Students submit their work to the computer for evaluation. The students’ work (geometry and documentation) is subjected to a series of tests. The goal of the automatic grading is to evaluate both the correctness and behavior of the geometry and documentation. In addition, the assessment examines specific skills and skill growth. For students who have little difficulty in completing the assignments, this automated grading allows them to do laboratory work prior to the laboratory session if desired. By examining the student’s performance, the computer is able to determine which students are having difficulty in a particular skill or concept, alerting the student’s instructor and thus providing early intervention and correction targeted to these particular skills and concepts. This helps the teaching staff to focus on the needs of the student. In addition, the teaching staff is freed from much of the course grading setup and spread sheet manipulation.
Break
John Hughes, Chris Moore,
and Greg Hughes (via the Internet) (ID#T4)
Global Reach for the Rensselaer Classroom
Technologies for on-line collaboration have emerged that enable the breakdown of geographic limits in education and collaborative research. Video and voice over IP, collaborative software and real time application sharing allow the traditional boundaries of the classroom to be expanded to literally anyplace on Earth with a computer and access to the Internet. Imagine the possibility of bringing a world class expert from their laboratory into your classroom for a 30 minute, interactive discussion of an emerging technology, or collaborating remotely via voice and data with research colleagues in real time, or the ability for inter-campus or inter-continental student collaboration on class or research projects. This session will discuss the enabling technology and techniques needed to facilitate this major shift in what can be considered a classroom.Michael Hanna, Brad Lister, Carl McDaniel, Robert Palazzo, Harry Roy (ID#T5)
Pedagogical Innovation in Life Science Education
Building on a foundation of traditional studio and work conducted at the Anderson Center over the past several years, we have developed a Next Generation Studio course in biology that leverages emerging technologies and connects research on teaching and learning with classroom practice. By combining the benefits of face-to-face studio with the power and flexibility of web-based learning, this innovative course aims to improve student learning and provide faculty with a rich set of research-based, interactive exercises. Participants in this session will:
- Learn how course web sites can become “virtual studio classrooms” that prepare students for upcoming classes through active learning, team work, and review.
- Experience an Interactive Learning Activity
- Understand how learning in Next Generation Studio courses is assessed through conceptual diagnostics, online reviews, and formative evaluations of student understanding.
Lunch - Great Hall, DCC
Afternoon Workshop
Refocusing the BS in IT Program Core (ID# T6) Lally 102
David L. Spooner
Professor and Associate Dean of Science
The Bachelor of Science degree program in Information Technology consists of an interdisciplinary core set of courses along with a student-chosen concentration. This core set of courses has evolved
from year to year, but is essentially similar to what it was when the program began. The goal of this workshop is to take a critical look at the set of courses currently in the core and whether these
courses continue to provide the optimal educational experience for students in the IT degree program. The workshop results will be a valuable guide for the IT Curriculum Committee in the months ahead.
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The Lois J. & Harlan E. Anderson Center
for Innovation in Undergraduate Education
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
CIUE 3119 CII
110 8th Street
Troy, NY 12180-3590
518.276.4831
518.276.4852 (fax)
http://ciue.rpi.edu