GLASS: Group Learning At Significant Scale via WiFi-Enabled Learner Design Teams in an ECE Flipped Classroom

Ronald F. DeMara; Soheil Salehi; Baiyun Chen; Richard Hartshorne

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Conference: 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Publication Date: June 24, 2017
Start Date: June 24, 2017
End Date: June 28, 2017
Conference Session: Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 4
Tagged Division: Electrical and Computer
Page Count: 18
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--28408
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/28408
Download Count: 591

Paper Authors

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Ronald F. DeMara University of Central Florida orcid.org/0000-0001-6864-7255

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Ronald F. DeMara is a Professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) at the University of Central Florida with 24 years of experience in Electrical and Computer Engineering disciplines. His educational research interests focus on classroom and laboratory instructional technology, and the digitization of STEM assessments. He has completed over 200 technical and educational publications, 34 funded projects as PI/Co-I, and established two research laboratories. He serves as the founding Director of the Evaluation and Proficiency Center (EPC) in CECS, and is an iSTEM Fellow. He has developed 7 Computer Engineering courses which have been added to the UCF catalog as the sole developer, plus as the co-developer of 2 courses. He received the Joseph M. Bidenbach Outstanding Engineering Educator Award from IEEE in 2008.

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Soheil Salehi University of Central Florida orcid.org/0000-0001-5998-8795

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Soheil Salehi received his M.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering in 2016 from Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL. He has also been a Graduate Teaching Assistant for Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of University of Central Florida since 2014. His educational interests are innovations and laboratory-based instructions, technology-enabled learning, and feedback driven grading approaches. He is the recipient of the Award of Excellence by a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the academic year of 2015-2016 at University of Central Florida.

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Baiyun Chen University of Central Florida

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Dr. Baiyun Chen is an Instructional Designer at the Center for Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida. She designs and delivers faculty professional development programs and teaches graduate courses on Instructional Systems Design. Her research interests focus on using instructional strategies in online and blended teaching and learning, professional development for teaching online, and application of emerging technologies in education. She has published 15 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and delivered more than 50 presentations at international and local conferences and event and served as the Co-Managing Editor of the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository.

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Richard Hartshorne University of Central Florida

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Richard Hartshorne is an Associate Professor and Coordinator for the Instructional Design & Technology program at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He earned his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on educational technology production and technology and teacher education from the University of Florida. Prior to his tenure at the UCF, Richard was an Assistant and Associate Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for seven years and a physics instructor at Ed White High School in Jacksonville, FL for seven years. At the University of Central Florida, his teaching focuses on the integration of technology into the educational landscape, as well as instructional design and development. His research interests primarily involve the production and effective integration of instructional technology into the teaching and learning environment. The major areas of his research interest are rooted in technology and teacher education, the integration of emerging technology into the k-post-secondary curriculum, and online teaching and learning.

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Abstract

The Group Learning At Significant Scale (GLASS) approach is developed to increase the scalability and efficacy of student design teams during group sessions of a Flipped Classroom (FC), as well as conventional modality courses. GLASS utilizes freely-available collaboration tools to facilitate instructional delivery, assessment, and review of teams that leverage campus WiFi connectivity, along with a pedagogical approach using excerpts from actual data sheets and open Internet resources. This immersive collaborative design experience is interwoven on a weekly basis with the technical content provided via video during the preceding week. The instructor manages multiple design teams to conduct a weekly Challenge Problem during in-class time. First, students are randomized by the Learning Management System into small groups. Second, a challenge problem is provided, delivered via WiFi-enabled laptops, tablets, or smart phones, forming virtual design teams, regardless of where students are seated. Third, students utilize their WiFi enabled devices to discuss the challenge question via chatroom-style dialog channels alongside a solution whiteboard and/or figure drawing space, while utilizing open resources on the Internet to postulate a solution. Fourth, once the design team concurs that their results are complete, they submit their answers to the Learning Management System (LMS) for auto-grading and score-recording in the grade book. Credit is earned by correctly answering each designated question sub-part, which provides partial credit. Throughout the team design activity, the instructor monitors the assignment progress online in real-time, including windows for each design team showing a solution draft as it is constructed, and providing feedback via each group’s designated chat channel. LMS statistics are available in real-time for the auto-graded answer of the first design team having a correct solution, dubbed the Pioneer Group, which receives a bonus after its group leader presents their solution to the class. GLASS was piloted within a FC-format ECE course titled Computer Organization, with an enrollment of 116 students, and also trialed within the courses Software Engineering and Healthcare Systems Engineering, having enrollments of 140 students each. Results indicate attainment of learning outcomes while making group sessions significantly more tractable for large enrollment courses and bringing useful insights to the instructor while learning is transpiring. Student perceptions indicated that 71%, 70.1%, and 60.3% of respondents agree or strongly agree that the GLASS tools/procedures were sufficiently easy to learn, that group sessions promoted useful interactions with classmates, and that the collaboration mechanisms enhanced abilities to solve engineering problems, respectively.

Citation
Format

DeMara, R. F., & Salehi, S., & Chen, B., & Hartshorne, R. (2017, June), GLASS: Group Learning At Significant Scale via WiFi-Enabled Learner Design Teams in an ECE Flipped Classroom Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28408

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The Group Learning At Significant Scale (GLASS) approach is developed to increase the scalability and efficacy of student design teams during group sessions of a Flipped Classroom (FC), as well as conventional modality courses. GLASS utilizes freely-available collaboration tools to facilitate instructional delivery, assessment, and review of teams that leverage campus WiFi connectivity, along with a pedagogical approach using excerpts from actual data sheets and open Internet resources. This immersive collaborative design experience is interwoven on a weekly basis with the technical content provided via video during the preceding week. The instructor manages multiple design teams to conduct a weekly Challenge Problem during in-class time. First, students are randomized by the Learning Management System into small groups. Second, a challenge problem is provided, delivered via WiFi-enabled laptops, tablets, or smart phones, forming virtual design teams, regardless of where students are seated. Third, students utilize their WiFi enabled devices to discuss the challenge question via chatroom-style dialog channels alongside a solution whiteboard and/or figure drawing space, while utilizing open resources on the Internet to postulate a solution. Fourth, once the design team concurs that their results are complete, they submit their answers to the Learning Management System (LMS) for auto-grading and score-recording in the grade book. Credit is earned by correctly answering each designated question sub-part, which provides partial credit. Throughout the team design activity, the instructor monitors the assignment progress online in real-time, including windows for each design team showing a solution draft as it is constructed, and providing feedback via each group’s designated chat channel. LMS statistics are available in real-time for the auto-graded answer of the first design team having a correct solution, dubbed the Pioneer Group, which receives a bonus after its group leader presents their solution to the class. GLASS was piloted within a FC-format ECE course titled Computer Organization, with an enrollment of 116 students, and also trialed within the courses Software Engineering and Healthcare Systems Engineering, having enrollments of 140 students each. Results indicate attainment of learning outcomes while making group sessions significantly more tractable for large enrollment courses and bringing useful insights to the instructor while learning is transpiring. Student perceptions indicated that 71%, 70.1%, and 60.3% of respondents agree or strongly agree that the GLASS tools/procedures were sufficiently easy to learn, that group sessions promoted useful interactions with classmates, and that the collaboration mechanisms enhanced abilities to solve engineering problems, respectively.
AU  - Ronald F. DeMara
AU  - Soheil Salehi
AU  - Baiyun Chen
AU  - Richard Hartshorne
CY  - Columbus, Ohio
DA  - 2017/06/24
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - GLASS: Group Learning At Significant Scale via WiFi-Enabled Learner Design Teams in an ECE Flipped Classroom
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/28408
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--28408
ER  -