In 2014, 11 proposals were submitted to the Innovations in Teaching with Technology Awards. The Academic Technology Advisory Council awarded a total of $86,060 for the following four proposals.
An Interactive Simulation Environment for Learning Statistical Concepts
Sheila Barron, Department of Psychological and Quantitative Foundations, received $34,600. An understanding of descriptive and inferential statistics is important in many fields of study as well as in day-to-day modern life. However, students often report that statistics courses are difficult and taking an introductory statistics class has been associated with a decrease in interest in the field of statistics. This project aims to develop an interactive simulation environment to introduce statistical concepts in the social sciences. I propose a one-year study to demonstrate “proof-of-concept” for the use of a statistics game to facilitate learning in applied statistics.
Enhancing Research Experiences for Undergraduates
William Hedgecock, Department of Marketing, was awarded $28,010 for a course that will train students to use a variety of traditional and non-traditional techniques, such as focus groups, online surveys, prediction markets, text analysis, heart rate analysis, eye tracking, and facial expression encoding to address problems that are relevant to government and business.
Development of an Immersive Virtual Reality Tool for Learning Laryngeal Anatomy and Physiology
Jerald Moon, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, received $14,350. Students in training to pursue a career in speech-language pathology are required to attain a firm understanding of both normal and disordered laryngeal anatomy and physiology. It is the intent purpose of this project to explore the concept of applying emerging virtual reality technologies to immerse students in the anatomy of the larynx in such a way that they can gain unique perspectives of both form and function through the delivery of rich content and the ability to interact and explore in a way most meaningful to each individual learner. We plan to utilize Oculus Rift as a virtual reality platform to display a modeled larynx as an immersive learning environment.
Elements of Success: Supporting Student Learning in Chemistry
Samuel Van Horne, Office of Teaching, Learning, and Technology, received $9,100. We developed Elements of Success, a customized dashboard interface in ICON for helping students learn in General Chemistry I. The dashboard, which was developed by analyzing student learning outcomes in past iterations of the course, provides feedback to students about how they are doing on various course components and makes recommendations about how to improve their outcomes. With the assistance of the Innovations Award, we will study the outcomes of the first implementation of Elements of Success to determine whether usage of this system was associated with improved learning outcomes in the course. We will also gather user feedback to plan a revision to the dashboard interface. With the assistance of programmers and data analysts, we will improve this customizable tool that may, in the future, benefit students in other courses at the University of Iowa.