IU’s SBC Fellows, TAG recipients illustrate range of Web-based research projects

By Angela Quick

Sept. 12 is deadline for fifth round of funding proposals

Iinnovative projects were demonstrated at IU’s Summer Leadership Forum, which took place at IUPUI last month. The forum offered faculty recipients of SBC Fellow awards and Technology Assessment Grants (TAGs) the opportunity to showcase their funded projects and share their work with their colleagues.

• A team consisting of Cathy Carlson, Linda Meyer, Susan Modlin and Robert Sedlmeyer from Nursing and Computer Science at IPFW (Fort Wayne) used their TAG grant to develop a software program to track nursing students' clinical experiences. The program encourages the use of technology in nursing, and ensures students get a variety of clinical experiences necessary for the successful practice of professional nursing.

• The "Multimedia Beatles Companion" uses an image archive, audio clips and digitized videos to trace the Beatles' career and musical development. The site was created by SBC Fellow Glenn Gass, IUB School of Music, as a classroom companion to his Z401/Music of the Beatles course:
http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/courses/rock/beatles.html
See also: http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/courses/rock/england.html

• Helping pre-service teachers learn to improve instruction of students who exhibit disruptive behavior is the focus of a CD-ROM developed by Theresa Ochoa, an SBC Fellow with the IUB School of Education.

• Jonathan Plucker, IUB Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, School of Education, used his SBC Fellows Grant to update his Web-based resource site for students studying intelligence. Enhancements include video streaming of interviews with profiled academics, opportunities to collaborate with other students, collections of teaching resources, and enhanced interactivity:
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell

• Simon Brassell’s winning TAG proposal will assess the impact of a five-year development strategy to build interactive components into an introductory science course, "Oceans and Our Global Environment." He is with the IUB Department of Geological Sciences.

• Harry Gradman and Daniel Reed used a TAG grant to help international students practice English pronunciation using computer-based speech training software. Their project evaluates this software by analyzing human ratings of student speech quality before and after use of the software. Gradman and Reed work with the Center for English Language Training at IUB.

• Barbara Hawkins and Lesa Lorenzen-Huber are conducting an ongoing study of the effectiveness of educational technology in Web-based gerontology classes. Their TAG grant allowed them to further their research by assessing different teaching styles, and the experiences of both traditional and non-traditional students in the classes. Hawkins and Huber are with the Center on Aging and Aged at IUB.

• A TAG grant allowed Faridah Pawan to study student interactions in online classes to find problems that existed in collaborative learning, and suggested strategies to help overcome the problems and enhance learning. Pawan teaches language education on the Bloomington campus.

• Craig Ross used his TAG grant to foster the development of curriculum and evaluate the use of a tool provided by the American Association for Higher Education’s Flashlight Program Toolkit. The results provided data to help shape assessment and evaluation approaches to teaching with technology. Ross is with the Department of Recreation and Park Administration at the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation in Bloomington.

• Henry Merrill and Frank DiSilvestro gathered data from instructors and students who use online courses and studied how that data can be used to improve courses. The TAG winners, Merrill from IUPUI, and DiSilvestro from IUB, both teach adult education.

• SBC Fellow Joan Esterline Lafuze is helping students get involved in their own learning by using video and the Web in her course. The interactive multimedia program Lafuze developed helps the students in her human anatomy and physiology courses become more engaged in their own learning through the use of self-guided interactive video and online (Oncourse) components. Lafuze is with the Department of Biology at IU East.

• Subir Bandyopadhyay used his TAG grant to develop prototype classes using the Internet and distance learning technologies which will allow faculty from two or more universities in different parts of the world to work simultaneously with resident students and students online. Bandyopadhyay teaches business and economics at IU Northwest.

• Subbiah Sivam, who teaches pharmacology at IU Northwest, used his TAG grant to explore the use of computer-simulated programs to conduct pharmacology experiments on animals, without animals. The results will help determine whether a similar program can be introduced throughout the IU School of Medicine for teaching pharmacology.

• Robert Vernon asked the question "Who needs textbooks?" in looking at how advanced masters-level social work students adapt to using text materials that are solely distributed via a Web site. Vernon is with the IU School of Social Work at IUPUI.

• Jeff Vessely, Rafael Bahamonde, Alan Mikesky, Eileen Udry and Mark Urtel used online quizzing to prompt students to come to class better prepared and become more engaged with the faculty member and other students. The team of TAG winners is from the School of Physical Education and Tourism Management at IUPUI.

IU established the SBC Fellows Program in the fall of 1999, with a gift of $1 million from SBC to support a five-year program of innovation in teaching and learning with technology. Since 1999, four rounds of funding and awards averaging $15,000 have made possible 41 innovative projects that span the IU campuses and represent diverse topics.

The fifth request for proposals was issued in May with a Sept. 12 deadline.

TAG was a one-time program sponsored by IU’s Office of the Vice President for Information Technology (OVPIT) and Chief Information Officer. The purpose of the program was to encourage faculty on IU’s campuses to study the impact of educational technology on their practices and on student, course or program outcomes. Fourteen projects were awarded a range of $2,000 to $6,000, for a total of more than $68,000.

"The role of faculty innovators as mentors is essential," said Brad Wheeler of OVPIT. "SBC Fellows and TAG recipients partner with the campus teaching and learning centers in advising other faculty about incorporating technology into teaching and learning. They also contribute to an online repository of good practices, which faculty across the university can use as a resource for their own work. These projects have the potential to significantly affect the lives of Indiana residents, not only through the quality and accessibility of education, but also through technological advances that could improve the way they do business, enjoy the arts and receive medical care."

Questions about the SBC Fellows program may be directed fellows@iu.edu and to the TAG program at assess@iu.edu.

The repository of SBC projects can be found at this Web site:
http://sbcf.iu.edu/goodpract

Other Web sites of interest:
http://sbcf.iu.edu
http://www.iupui.edu/~uits/tag