| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 11, 2013 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | March 20, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1347605 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Ellen Carpenter
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2013 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $743,133.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $855,563.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2015 = $112,430.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
426 AUDITORIUM RD RM 2 EAST LANSING MI US 48824-2600 (517)355-5040 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
East Lansing MI US 48824-1226 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
S-STEM-Schlr Sci Tech Eng&Math, IUSE |
| Primary Program Source: |
04001516DB NSF Education & Human Resource 1300XXXXDB H-1B FUND, EDU, NSF |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
This project is leveraging the core ideas and ten years of experience of the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) to address the preparation of future STEM faculty to use evidence-based teaching. Although the nation has invested in understanding undergraduate learning and developing evidence-based teaching and learning practices, research shows that most current STEM faculty do not incorporate these practices into their own teaching. This project is developing the use of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and associated on-line learning modes to engage large numbers of STEM future faculty and to prepare them to implement and advance evidence-based, high-impact teaching practices. The CIRTL Network, now composed of 23 research universities that produce 22% of the nation's STEM PhDs, is well-positioned for this work, which is addressing four process objectives: (1) development of two MOOCs that prepare future STEM faculty to implement and advance evidence-based, high-impact teaching practices; (2) development and implementation within the CIRTL Network of three modes of implementation of these MOOCs: (a) Open Individual Participation; (b) MOOC-Supported Learning Communities; and (c) Blended-Learning Courses; (3) evaluation of future faculty participation and their learning of evidence-based, high-impact teaching practices across the three implementation modes; and (4) offering the MOOCs to the nation on available platforms, and disseminating supporting materials for varied implementation modes throughout the CIRTL Network and the nation.
The intellectual merit of this work is based on the design of the proposed MOOCs, which are aligned with key findings of cognitive science and discipline-based education research about student learning, such as student engagement and inquiry, collaborative learning, and the value of diversity. The MOOCs are building upon the CIRTL teaching-as-research process which involves learning what is known (including ongoing knowledge-access skills), developing a plan for teaching a scientific concept, acquiring ongoing knowledge-access skills), developing a plan for teaching a scientific concept, acquiring data on student learning, and reflective iteration. MOOC topics include: learner-centered teaching and learning practices drawn from (discipline-based) education research; information-access skills allowing future faculty to stay abreast of advancing knowledge; skills for promoting active and collaborative learning activities, such as problem-based teaching and learning, peer instruction and use of learning communities; formative and summative classroom assessment strategies; and techniques for creating inclusive learning and learning-through-diversity. Additionally, the MOOC-Supported Learning Communities and Blended-Learning Courses offer new approaches to integrate an online learning environment with supportive local learning communities in order to deepen student learning. A variety of sources of data will be collected to understand the composition of student participants, student learning, student satisfaction, and student use and adaptation of learning materials. Data will be collected using a variety of pre- and post-course assessments, as well as platform-provided metrics.
The broader impacts of this work rest on the large number of future faculty who will be prepared to use evidence-based teaching strategies through the CIRTL MOOCs. It is estimated that 1100 students will complete the CIRTL MOOCs each year. Based on a recent needs assessment within the CIRTL Network, it is estimated that there will be 200 participants per year in MOOC-Supported Learning Communities (MSLCs) from the CIRTL Network alone (with very high completion rates). Lastly, the content of the proposed MOOCs is available to anyone across the nation to reuse, revise, or redistribute into Blended-Learning courses or other learning experiences. By introducing widespread learning about evidence-based teaching practices through MOOCs, MSLCs, and Blended-Learning Courses, many more STEM future faculty across the nation will be prepared as excellent teachers.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The impact of the CIRTL (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning) Network is substantial; nonetheless there are many STEM future faculty (doctoral students and postdocs) who do not have access to professional development opportunities in teaching and learning. Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are tools that have potential to impact a large number of STEM future faculty. This project leveraged the core ideas and products of CIRTL to develop MOOCs that can prepare large numbers of future faculty to implement and advance evidence-based, high-impact teaching practices. Our team also proposed to deepen the learning of evidence-based teaching practices for future faculty through two additional implementation modes that leveraged our MOOCs to foster associated learning communities.
Our goal was to develop MOOCs and associated online learning modes that prepare large numbers of future STEM faculty to implement and advance evidence-based, high-impact teaching practices.
Our objectives included:
1. Develop two MOOCs that prepare future STEM faculty to implement and advance evidence-based, high-impact teaching practices;
2. Develop and implement within the CIRTL Network three modes of implementation of these MOOCs: a) open individual participation; b) MOOC-Centered Learning Communities (MCLCs); and c) blended-learning modules;
3. Evaluate future faculty participation and their learning of evidence-based, high-impact teaching practices across the three implementation modes;
4. Offer the MOOCs to the nation on available platforms, and disseminate supporting materials for varied implementation modes throughout the CIRTL Network and the nation.
Through 11 total offerings of two MOOCs on evidence-based undergraduate STEM teaching, intentional support for facilitated MCLCs, and open access to course materials, we met a need among mainly doctoral students and postdocs (20,297 total enrollment) for pedagogical professional development that often is unmet by campus resources. Our MOOCs were entitled: An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching and Advancing Learning Through Evidence-Based STEM Teaching 2.0 (an earlier version was revised). We analyzed participants’ course activity, engagement, and outcomes using data from online course platforms (eDX) and voluntary pre- and post-course surveys. Our course material can be accessed at: stemteachingcourse.org.
Course completion required participants to pass quizzes, peer-graded assignments, or a combination of the two. These assessments required understanding course material, including the videos and readings. During seven offerings of our “introductory” course, completion ranged from 10-17% (averaged 13%), and with four offerings of the “advanced” course completion ranged from 6-12%, with completion increasing after the course was revised. The average course completion rate of our introductory course is more than double the rate of most non-professional and non-degree MOOCs (e.g., Jordan 2015). While completion is one indicator of participant engagement in MOOCs, we encouraged participants to use course materials however it would support their development. In assessing engagement, we focused on those who engaged in significant ways with the course materials, as a proxy for learning. We define “learners” as participants who completed at least two quizzes, completed a peer-graded assignment, or watched videos from at least three of the six course modules.
Learners in our introductory course represented 22% of those enrolled. Learners fell into two groups: “completers” (64% of learners, or 14% of all enrolled) who participated in quizzes and peer-graded assignments, and “auditors” (32% of learners, 7% of enrolled) who primarily watched course videos. Approximately half of the auditors did not meet the course completion criteria but still participated in all six modules of the course by watching a module video or taking the module quiz. Thus, 78% of the learners engaged continuously with material throughout the course, indicating a high rate of retention beyond the first two weeks.
MCLC Facilitator’s expertise and the similar professional goals of participants provided a structure that distinguished MCLCs from ad hoc student meet-ups that are common in MOOCs, leading to greater course completion rates by MCLC participants. During our project, 134 unique universities worldwide offered at least one MCLC to support learning of the MOOC content.
Asynchronous, online learning in conjunction with synchronous, in-person learning (MCLCs) is a unique model with potential to be effective in professional development domains beyond teaching. Additionally, while our model benefited doctoral students and postdocs the fact that current STEM faculty also took our MOOCs and participated in MCLCs suggests this structure might be useful for early-career academics on numerous topics.
We demonstrated the effective delivery of pedagogical professional development through MOOCs to future STEM faculty with the potential to significantly impact undergraduate STEM education across the US. Our design combined flexible, asynchronous content with optional, supported and facilitated in-person MCLCs, all within a network of STEM faculty and educational developers. Our model can successfully be used in many contexts to overcome barriers where learners seek professional development in constrained settings.
We collaborated with the CIRTL Network to create and adopt a plan for sustaining the MOOCs after project completion. The plan was implemented in Fall 2018.
Last Modified: 03/11/2019
Modified by: Henry Campa
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