PROJECT SUMMARY

To ensure that future generations of engineering, science, and other technological practitioners are equipped with the required knowledge and skills to continue to innovate solutions to solve societal challenges, effective courses or instructional modules that incorporate best pedagogical and assessment practices must be designed and delivered. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educators typically come from STEM backgrounds and have little or no formal STEM education training.Their approaches to learning, instruction, and assessment mimic the experiences they were exposed to as students and are not necessarily informed by scholarship in the area of how people learn. The road to effective STEM instruction starts with a well-conceived and constructed plan or curriculum that includes the tight alignment of content, pedagogical approaches and assessments, around the learning objectives, and draws upon best-practices in each of these areas. An information technology (IT) tool that can guide STEM educators through the complex task of course design development, ensure tight alignment between various components of an instructional module, and provide relevant information about research-based pedagogical and assessment strategies will be of great value.

THIS PROJECT AIMS TO CONDUCT RESEARCH TO DEVELOP A FRAMEWORK FOR OUTCOME-BASED COURSE DESIGN PROCESS AND TRANSLATE IT INTO A SEMANTIC WEB-BASED SOFTWARE TOOL. THIS PROJECT SEEKS TO:

  1. Identify deficiencies in user interactions with existing course design tools
  2. Obtain consensus opinion on representation of the required knowledge (learning taxonomies, pedagogical and assessment strategies, and help data) for designing an instructional module or learning environment
  3. Develop the instructional module development (IMOD) system using user-centered design methodology
  4. Assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and usability of the IMOD system in creating outcome-based course design
  5. Assess user’s satisfaction with the quality of the course design documentation generated by the IMOD system
  6. Assess the impact that the use of the IMOD system has on users’ knowledge of outcome-based course design process.

INTELLECTUAL MERIT

A well-designed and constructed course plan or curriculum is an integral part of the foundation of effective STEM instruction. The proposed project is expected to make contributions to both the theory and practice of instructional design. This project will (1) Significantly improve our understanding of outcome-based instructional design process; (2) Provide a new validated framework and software system for building faculty expertise in outcome-based instructional design, and pedagogical and assessment strategies that can be applied to STEM courses; (3) Facilitate improved documentation of course design that can be used for accreditation and to evaluate scholarly teaching activity of instructors. Improved faculty expertise and course designs, we believe, have the potential to stimulate significant pedagogical improvements and student learning in undergraduate and graduate STEM education.

BROADER IMPACT

Studies show that for 95% of new faculty members, it takes four to five years, through trial and error (the most common method of gaining expertise in teaching), to deliver effective instruction. The IMOD system will facilitate self-paced instructional development training while the user creates his/her course design with the added benefits of being free to all who are interested, accessible almost anywhere through a web browser, and at any time that is convenient. We believe that this project is very strategic and is much needed in the field of undergraduate STEM education in both 4-year universities and community colleges. Dissemination of this project will be done through workshops, seminars, online demo videos, and webinars thereby improving adoption of the software by faculty. Additionally, the wider dissemination of the instructional design process framework and software described in this proposal will likely be of interest to K-12 and other research fields and communities.
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PROJECT SUMMARY

To ensure that future generations of engineering, science, and other technological practitioners are equipped with the required knowledge and skills to continue to innovate solutions to solve societal challenges, effective courses or instructional modules that incorporate best pedagogical and assessment practices must be designed and delivered. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educators typically come from STEM backgrounds and have little or no formal STEM education training.Their approaches to learning, instruction, and assessment mimic the experiences they were exposed to as students and are not necessarily informed by scholarship in the area of how people learn. The road to effective STEM instruction starts with a well-conceived and constructed plan or curriculum that includes the tight alignment of content, pedagogical approaches and assessments, around the learning objectives, and draws upon best-practices in each of these areas. An information technology (IT) tool that can guide STEM educators through the complex task of course design development, ensure tight alignment between various components of an instructional module, and provide relevant information about research-based pedagogical and assessment strategies will be of great value.

THIS PROJECT AIMS TO CONDUCT RESEARCH TO DEVELOP A FRAMEWORK FOR OUTCOME-BASED COURSE DESIGN PROCESS AND TRANSLATE IT INTO A SEMANTIC WEB-BASED SOFTWARE TOOL. THIS PROJECT SEEKS TO:

  1. Identify deficiencies in user interactions with existing course design tools
  2. Obtain consensus opinion on representation of the required knowledge (learning taxonomies, pedagogical and assessment strategies, and help data) for designing an instructional module or learning environment
  3. Develop the instructional module development (IMOD) system using user-centered design methodology
  4. Assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and usability of the IMOD system in creating outcome-based course design
  5. Assess user’s satisfaction with the quality of the course design documentation generated by the IMOD system
  6. Assess the impact that the use of the IMOD system has on users’ knowledge of outcome-based course design process.

INTELLECTUAL MERIT

A well-designed and constructed course plan or curriculum is an integral part of the foundation of effective STEM instruction. The proposed project is expected to make contributions to both the theory and practice of instructional design. This project will (1) Significantly improve our understanding of outcome-based instructional design process; (2) Provide a new validated framework and software system for building faculty expertise in outcome-based instructional design, and pedagogical and assessment strategies that can be applied to STEM courses; (3) Facilitate improved documentation of course design that can be used for accreditation and to evaluate scholarly teaching activity of instructors. Improved faculty expertise and course designs, we believe, have the potential to stimulate significant pedagogical improvements and student learning in undergraduate and graduate STEM education.

BROADER IMPACT

Studies show that for 95% of new faculty members, it takes four to five years, through trial and error (the most common method of gaining expertise in teaching), to deliver effective instruction. The IMOD system will facilitate self-paced instructional development training while the user creates his/her course design with the added benefits of being free to all who are interested, accessible almost anywhere through a web browser, and at any time that is convenient. We believe that this project is very strategic and is much needed in the field of undergraduate STEM education in both 4-year universities and community colleges. Dissemination of this project will be done through workshops, seminars, online demo videos, and webinars thereby improving adoption of the software by faculty. Additionally, the wider dissemination of the instructional design process framework and software described in this proposal will likely be of interest to K-12 and other research fields and communities.