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Attending the 3rd Annual Sloan Consortium Symposium on emerging technologies for on-line learning was an interesting and in the same time intriguing experience for me as a novice instructor in this continuously developing educational arena.

What did I learn from this Symposium which attracted hundreds of participants, from faculty, instructional designers, vendors, librarians, consultants to CEO’s, directors for on-line education and deans?

First, I learned that on-line education is already being used or considered for implementation by higher education institutions from the west coast (UC Invine, Seattle Pacific Institute or California Polytechnic Institute) to the east coast (University of Massachusetts Boston, Penn State University or Florida State University), from north (University of Alaska Anchorage, South Dakota State University) to south (University of New Orleans, Texas State University, University of Puerto Rico) and from Japan (The Open University of Japan) to Europe (University of Leeds) to South America (University of Brasilia) to Africa (Open University of Tanzania), just to list a few. On-line education facilitates globalization, networking, and internationalization.

Secondly, all these universities and their partners understood that “If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain”. Universities are facing a new generation of learners having significantly different attitudes, demands and expectations from the ones students had ten years ago. Mobile learning (anytime, anywhere), active participation and dynamic engagement, student involvement in teaching, and learners’ own control of their interaction with media are some of the requirements that on-line courses can successfully fulfill.

The third thing that I learned at the Sloan Conference was that even if we like it or fear it, even if we embrace it or reject it, on-line technology is here and is becoming more and more powerful every day; it is viral and contagious because it is highly fascinating once you use it. Discussion boards, blogs, wikis, podcasts, Sophie 2, animations, iMovies, Voice Threads, Freecorder, Camtasia, LodeStar, and Second Life are tools that actively engage students into the learning process and offer studying opportunities for all types of learners, including students with disabilities.

Background

The Applied Math and Sciences Department is essentially a service department and an umbrella for courses in mathematics, chemistry, physics, and more recently, biology and a few other hybrid courses. The chemistry program of course offerings consists of five courses: Chemistry for the Built Environment (CHEM 120, brand new, replacing CHEM 100), College Chemistry I (CHEM 360, soon to be re-numbered CHEM 200) and College Chemistry II (CHEM 150, soon to be re-numbered 210), Consumer Health and Safety (CHEM 250) and Chemical Health and Safety (CHEM 205). CET and CM students enroll in CHEM 120 while BELM and MET students and others generally take CHEM 360.

Change
I teach chemistry or at least I have been under that impression for quite some time. After teaching these courses in a rather traditional manner, I decided, after years of resistance to the idea, to try to incorporate use of laptops by students in class this fall semester in CHEM 360. I have to admit that recent discussions with both Russ Pinozotto and Fred Driscoll, and Monique Fuchs much earlier, along with reading Grownup Digital by Scott Tapscott, inspired and encouraged me.
Understand that when I lectured in the past or even gave students time in class to work in groups of four to solve homework problems with me as a roaming coach, I would estimate that that I got about 60-75% student engagement. Others would be staring out the windows at the quad at no matter what was going on, or texting on their cell phones, or surfing the net , despite polite (and not so polite) reminders from me to shut off their cell phones, close down their laptops, and unplug their I-pods.
So one class, I asked them to turn on their laptops and go to Google and research the topic of . … They had 15 minutes to work individually to find out what they could. Then I passed out a sheet that was a modified “Jeopardy Quiz” in which they had to list the four elements that are next door neighbors in one period with the four highest densities and listing their densities. I collected the papers in 5-10 minutes. It was worth 10 bonus points to be added to any exam grade of their choice. You got either zero or 10 points, nothing in between. Guess what ! I got 100% engagement of my students.
I have tried this approach twice more and the same kind of nearly complete engagement has occurred. About two thirds to three-fourths of the students have gotten the 10 bonus points, depending on which of the three quizzes you look at. I have refined the approach a bit by announcing the topic and passing the Q/A sheet simultaneously and allowing a total of 15 minutes, with at least one of the three questions involving some integrative thinking. Topics have included applications of EDTA as a chelating agent and density trends of metals in the periodic chart.