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Statement of Questions Addressed Findings, Interpretations, and Analysis Discussion, Recommendations, and Conclusions For questions
regarding the WASC Self Study contact the WASC
Coordinating Office Statement of Questions Addressed
Background In order to address these questions, the subcommittee had first to understand how to define the "use of technology in teaching and learning" and to develop consistent terminology in order to ask the appropriate questions. To develop this understanding, these issues were researched through literature, on the web, and through many discussions with faculty who are currently involved in using technology for teaching and learning. Technology is used in teaching and learning in the following ways:
Technology utilizes facilities such as:
The modes of teaching with technology might be categorized as follows:
Technology Issues Much has been written about technology issues and education today. A number of authors suggest that the use of technology in education occur in three phases. First is the acquisition of hardware, including networking. Second is training faculty in the use of the technology, including software. Third is the integration of the technology with teaching and learning. It is essential we keep in mind that "Good teaching is more important than good hardware" (Jamie McKenzie, Educational Technology Journal (web), December 1998). Too often we see only the technology and forget that the primary goal is for students to learn. Authors such as Steven Erhmann have suggested that technology can both increase access to education and improve the quality of education. These will become important issues as Cal Poly increases the use of technology. Often the issues of the quality of teaching and learning are overlooked. We need to understand how technology can be used to improve teaching and learning, and not just added to the way we currently do things. Another thread that runs through the literature is the integration of technology into teaching and learning. Beyond courses that teach students how to use the technology (e.g. introductory computer skills courses) or that deliver course content on the web, courses are beginning to integrate technology to explore discipline specific problems. The integration of technology into teaching and learning is relatively new to many programs and so it might be an area appropriate for university wide support in the upcoming years. Assessment Issues The specific assessment of the use of technology in teaching and learning is relatively new and not yet well defined. Access to the technology can be relatively easy to measure, but quality issues are still illusive. The quality issues are beginning to be explored in papers and at conferences, but more needs to be done to understand clearly the uses of technology in teaching and learning. A later section of this report will discuss assessment in more detail. During fall and winter quarter of 1998-99, the WASC Subcommittee on the Use of Technology in the Teaching and Learning Process at Cal Poly met to refine and carry out our mission. After reviewing the issues, the committee chose to develop a survey in order to determine:
Throughout this period the committee members reviewed teaching/learning literature and developed a framework for the survey. It was decided that we would try to obtain the input of the entire faculty as well as from a random sample of faculty members if sufficient faculty participation was not acquired. It was further decided that this would be a web-based survey with user identification providing the needed security of information. This framework included sections on demographics, course delivery questions, student learning questions, assessment, faculty use of technology in the classroom, student use of technology outside of the classroom, barriers to technology use in teaching and institutional problems limiting the integration into the courses. This survey was then reviewed and modified several times based on suggestions from the committee members and other members of the campus community. After the survey was developed to its near final form, it was beta tested on line by committee members and other outside reviewers. The rollout period was scheduled for the end of April 1999. In order to encourage full faculty participation, a letter from Provost Paul Zingg was e-mailed to each faculty member. This letter included information on the potential planning benefits of this survey. In addition the members of the IACC went to their appropriate academic divisions and encouraged their deans and the department heads to have faculty members complete the extensive survey. After two weeks, a reminder letter was sent to each faculty member and to the deans to encourage participation in the survey and the planning process. As the surveys came in the data was analyzed by SPSS and updates of survey question response frequencies were provided to the committee members. When the committee members were satisfied that a representative survey response (either sample or total) had been acquired, the frequency tables were completed for the entire survey. Additional statistics were also computed. These results were analyzed and included in the final report. Findings, Interpretation, and Analysis Survey results and analyses The results of the online survey of faculty regarding their uses and interests in integrating information technologies into their instructional efforts resulted in 201 valid responses, a 24% response rate. Although much valuable information can and will be obtained from additional analyses, summarization, and follow-up (e.g., focus groups), the following analyses provide valuable insight into the various ways in which faculty use technologies, and the many different issues and concerns they have about doing so. Demographic Information All the colleges were represented in the respondents, with more than 30% of the Full-time Equivalent Faculty (FTEF) in two colleges responding, while one college had less than 18% of its FTEF respond (Table 1). Table 1. College Affiliation
Overall % Response 24.2% Positions of Respondents
Of those responding, more were enthusiastic about using technology in teaching and learning than those reporting merely an interest in technology use. The respondents were either enthusiastic about using technology (59.2%), or interested, but skeptical (40.8%); nobody selected the available option of being "totally against" the use of technology in teaching their courses. Attitude toward use of technology in teaching and learning
Nearly all respondents teach at least one lecture course per year while only 2.9 percent teach any courses via distance learning. Some faculty teach 12 lectures a year, while others teach in a variety of modalities. Of those who reported teaching activity in lecture mode, nearly 62 percent of their load was in lecture mode, with the rest distributed across other modes. The faculty who teach in studio modes average 47.3 percent of their whole teaching load in that mode. Of those who teach computer based studio classes, such courses comprise 23.6 percent of their teaching load. Annual Teaching loads and modes
Faculty generally reported that the ability to demonstrate disciplinary specific simulations or scenarios was the most important reason for using technology in their classes. Equally important was providing convenient, 24 hour access to course materials through the use of technology. Access was reflected by faculty as the most important reason for using technology. The relative importance of using technologies to reach students with different learning styles, or to stimulate the interest of students in course materials ranked slightly below access. The frequency distributions of responses indicating the degree to which respondents agree with nine reasons for using technology are shown in this link: Frequenciesreasons for using technology to teach courses (Appendix II.2.A) The following table summarizes the respondents rankings of the three most important reasons for using technology. Relative importance of reasons for using technology in teaching courses
Student Learning Faculty believe that technology facilitates student learning most importantly by helping students grasp basic knowledge, and by encouraging students to become responsible for their own learning. They also indicated that technology increases student-faculty interactions, and helps students comprehend difficult concepts. Frequency tables summarizing faculty opinions about how the use of technology facilitates student learning as measured by their level of agreement with five statements is summarized at this link: Frequency Table (Appendix II.2.B)
Importance of use of technologies on impacting student learning
Two thirds of the respondents did not report on any assessment of the impacts of using technology in their courses. Of those who did, more than ¾ tried four or more different techniques of assessment. There clearly need to be some guidelines and assistance for faculty to assess the impacts of integrating information technologies into the curriculum. Assessment methods used by respondents
Use of Technology in and out of the Classroom Cal Poly faculty make extensive use of instructional technologies in their classroom activities. In addition, they expect or require their students to use information technologies in many of the courses they teach. This link shows the statistical summary of such uses of information technology by faculty in the classroom, and by students outside of class: Classroom Use of Technologies The proportion of faculty using traditional instructional technologies (overhead, 35mm projectorsnot computer or networkbased technologies) is greater than the proportions using particular information technologies. However, more than 71% of the respondents reported using a combination of information occasionally or nearly all the time across all modes of instruction. Of those reporting such a level of use (either occasionally or nearly all the time), the average number of courses per individual faculty per year in which such use occurred was 16, or 70.4% of the courses taught by these faculty. This table summarizes the use of information technologies in the classroom by category of technology.
Detailed information about the extent to which Cal Poly faculty use information technology in their instruction is summarized in this link: Class use of new technology # classes (Appendix II.2.D) Data collected in the survey allowed some analyses of the extent to which faculty respondents use different categories of instructional technology. Responses indicating occasional or nearly every class session utilization were lumped together and considered to be active use, whereas responses of "rarely" were considered to be non-use. Results for use of presentation software, audio and/or video conferencing, demonstration of software, and traditional (non-computer) technologies are summarized below. Presentation More than a third (37.5 percent) of the faculty who use presentation software in the classroom occasionally to nearly all the time do so in all (100 percent) of the classes they teach. This suggests that presentation information technologies are found to be useful in all modes of instruction by those faculty. AV Conferencing While the use of audio and/or video conferencing information technologies is limited (11.9 percent of respondents), 29.2 percent of those who do use AV conferencing in the classroom do so in all their classes. Software Demonstration Of the 74 faculty reporting that they demonstrate the use of software in their classes, 21 (28.5 percent) of them do software demonstrations in all of the classes they teach. Traditional (non-computer) Nearly two-thirds of the faculty respondents reported using traditional instructional technologies in their classroom instruction. This implies that Cal Poly must continue to provide maintenance, replacement and support for traditional equipment. However, the survey did not reveal either the extent to which faculty use combinations of traditional and information technologies in the classroom, or if there is any migration from the former to the latter. Likewise, the degree to which equipment to support information technology-based classroom presentations is limited in availability may constrain its use below the desired rate. Faculty ranked classroom delivery limitations as the second most important barrier to using information technologies in the classroom (see below). Student Use of Technology Outside of Class Student use of information technologies as reported by faculty expecting or assigning such use is also extensive; 144 faculty (71.6 percent) reported student use of one or more information technologies related to their courses. When faculty do expect student use of information technologies, they tend to do so in most of the courses they teach; 30.8 percent of the faculty reported information technologies were expected by students in 75 percent or more of their classes. The table below summarizes the results of the survey relative to student uses of technology.
More detailed information on frequencies of use by students expected by faculty is found in this link: Student Use of IT Total (Appendix II.2.E) Email is the single most used information technology by students outside of class that is expected of faculty teaching them. The average proportion of classes taught by individual faculty in which email use is required is nearly 80 percent. More than half (52 percent) of the faculty who expect their students to use email in their courses expect their students to use that technology in every course they teach. Threaded Messaging and Synchronous Chat While only 6 percent of the faculty expect their students to use synchronous and asynchronous messaging (exclusive of email) in their courses, a third of them expect their students to use this category of information technologies in all of the courses they teach. Accessing Online Course Information More than a third (36.8 percent) of the faculty respondents reported that they expect students to access and use online information resources occasionally or nearly all the time in support of courses they teach. Of those expecting students to use online information resources at least occasionally, 41.9 percent of their courses require students to do so in every course they teach. Courseware More than a third of the faculty reported that they expect students to use courseware outside of class at least occasionally. Of those faculty, nearly a third (30.4 percent) want students to use courseware in each of the classes they teach, not just in one or two of their classes. Library Electronic Resources The expectations of faculty for students to use electronic library resources in their courses was exceeded only by their expectations for email use; 41.8 percent of the faculty expected occasional or more frequent use of library resources. More than a third (34.5 percent) of the faculty expected electronic library use in every course. File Access About a quarter (22.9 percent) of the faculty expect students to access and/or to share files across the network in support of their courses. Students are expected to access or to share files in every class taught by 28.3 percent of the faculty respondents, indicating that access to common data sets is an important aspect of a significant number of faculty members instructional designs. Impediments to using Technology in Teaching Among the many physical and psychological factors inhibiting the use of technology in teaching, respondents were most consistent in identifying the limited time available for designing and developing technologically based teaching and learning materials and methods. Inadequate classroom capabilities for faculty wanting to use technologies to deliver instruction, and inadequate support for those faculty were the 2nd and 3rd reasons most strongly agreed with as being barriers to the incorporation of instructional technologies. The three hyperlinks below display multiple pie graphs summarizing the respondents level of agreement with 10 statements describing factors which might inhibit the use of technologies in Cal Polys curriculum. These pie charts clearly show that the strongest agreement was with the statement about limited time being available for designing and developing instructional technology materials and methods, followed by inadequate classroom delivery and technical support. Technical and support inhibitors to integrating technology into coursesA (Appendix II.2.F) Technical and support inhibitors to integrating technology into coursesB (Appendix II.2.G) Technical and support inhibitors to integrating technology into coursesC (Appendix II.2.H)
Relative importance of various barriers to using technology in teaching
Institutional Problems Limiting the Integration of Technology into Courses Of the four institutional inhibitors, the curriculum review process was cited as the one that most respondents agreed with as impeding the integration of technologies into the curriculum. Processes that facilitate collaboration among faculty were cited as a major factor as well. The pie charts at the link below support this summarization. Institutional inhibitors to integrating technology into courses (Appendix II.2.J) Relative importance of various institutional inhibitors to integrating technologies into the curriculum Summary of Ranks for most import Institutional Barriers
A Discussion on "Assessment" and The Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning Assessment Definition "Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It involves making our expectations explicit and public; setting appropriate criteria and high standards for learning quality; systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards; and using the resulting information to document, explain, and improve performance. When it is embedded effectively within larger institutional systems, assessment can help us focus our collective attention, examine our assumptions, and create a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality of higher education." [By Tom Angelo, excerpted from Mary J. Allen, Getting Started In Outcomes Assessment, Faculty Teaching & Learning Center, California State University, Bakersfield, 1999] Comments on Assessment of Technology in the Learning Environment
Assessment Goals Involving the Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning To improve the quality of learning and instruction, for both students and faculty; quality itself is often "situation specific", but is characterized by such attributes as:
-To establish criteria for evaluation,
beyond just collecting data points Assessment Objectives in Teaching and Learning [From Flash Light Project*] -Not to focus on the technology
per se but how it is used; [*For more about the Flashlight Project, see Stephen Ehrmanns "Asking the Right Questions: What Does Research Tell Us About Technology and Higher Learning?" in the March/April 1995 Change. Or, check out the Flashlight Projects website at http://www.learner.org/content/ed/strat/eval.html.] Assessment Strategies An assessment strategy provides a mechanism for reaffirming the importance of teaching and learning (with an emphasis on student learning outcomes) as the center focus of what we do at the university. It seems like we have forgotten this. The introduction of technology into the learning environment should allow for the accomplishment of learning objectives that are not possible otherwise. Establishing a clear set of learning objectives helps to bridge the gap between student learning and how a particular aspect of technology can be used to respond to this need. Technology can allow for students to see problems in different ways, in promoting a better understanding by the student * and may also provide a student with a more efficient use of time *. The barriers to integrating technology into the classroom and for assessing the effective use of it relate to problems of limited time, money and lack of incentives*. [*Excerpts from WASC Technology Survey Results, Cal Poly, SLO May 1999]. Examples of how technology is commonly used include:
Effective assessment affords instructors and administrators the opportunity to resolve: the drive to improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching; as stated previously, quality itself is often "situation specific", but is characterized by such attributes as:
-excellence, superiority, greatness,
competitive distinction the problems of time,
and the balance between research, other activities,
and teaching Conclusions -Best teaching and learning practices
should drive how technology can be effective in
the classroom environment. Discussion, Recommendations, and Conclusions Technology Related Recommendations For this report, the committee looked at many sources involved with teaching and learning with technology. These included web sites, papers, discussions with faculty, and attending conferences. These sources, combined with the survey, led us to the following recommendations. It should also be noted that especially when it comes to the use of technology to improve the quality of teaching and learning, we are all on relatively new ground and all have a lot to learn. The recommendations address that learning process on campus.
For questions regarding the WASC Self Study contact the WASC Coordinating Office
Assessment Resources
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Resources
Related Web Sites CSU Center for Distributed Learning National Educational Technology
- Standards for Students TRACE (Teaching Resources
and Continuing Education), University of Waterloo,
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Educational Technology Journal,
Technology for Schools, Technology for Learning VARK and Active Learning Not Another Inventory, Rather
a Catalyst for Reflection CLASS HOME PAGE The Learning Center For Interactive
Technology (TLC)
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