FACET and the Mack Center are proud to announce the recipients of this year's FACET/Mack Center Travel Grant for Spring 2020.
This year's recipients are:
Saul Blanco Rodriguez, IUB
Presentation title: "Effects of Human vs. Automatic Feedback on Students' Understanding of AI Concepts and Programming Style"
Brief Abstract: "The use of automatic grading tools has become nearly ubiquitous in large undergraduate programming courses, and recent work has focused on improving the quality of automatically generated feedback. However, there is a relative lack of data directly comparing student outcomes when receiving computer-generated feedback and human-written feedback. This paper addresses this gap by splitting one 90-student class into two feedback groups and analyzing differences in the two cohorts' performance. The class is an intro to AI with programming HW assignments. One group of students received detailed computer-generated feedback on their programming assignments describing which parts of the algorithms' logic was missing; the other group additionally received human-written feedback describing how their programs' syntax relates to issues with their logic, and qualitative (style) recommendations for improving their code. Results on quizzes and exam questions suggest that human feedback helps students obtain a better conceptual understanding, but analyses found no difference between the groups' ability to collaborate on the final project. The course grade distribution revealed that students who received human-written feedback performed better overall; this effect was the most pronounced in the middle two quartiles of each group. These results suggest that feedback about the syntax-logic relation may be a primary mechanism by which human feedback improves student outcomes."
Jeong IL Cho, IPFW
Presentation title: "Assistive Technology Training in a Special Education Teacher Preparation Program: Methods of Assessing Student Learning"
Brief Abstract: "Mounting evidence shows that assistive technology (AT) has not been effectively used for students with disabilities in K-12 classrooms due to a lack of knowledge, understanding, and experience with AT devices and related services among teachers (Flanagan et al., 2013; King et al., 2018; Schaaf, 2018; Zhou et al., 2012). Enhanced AT training for teacher candidates in all university programs has been called for, and the collection of data on the current practices of universities related to AT training has been recommended. This project investigated the impact of special education course activities and requirements on teacher candidates’ knowledge, attitude, and comfort level toward AT devices. Multiple measures were used: pre- and post-surveys, two K-12 classroom observations on AT, and definitions of AT. Purdue’s Institutional Review Board approved the study. The present study includes 61 teacher candidates who enrolled in the introductory special education courses offered over 6 semesters at a Midwestern state university with about 10,000 students. Between 8 and 15 teacher candidates were registered for this course each semester. The results of the study showed that teacher candidates reported improved fundamental knowledge of AT and willingness to utilize AT for their students with disabilities and expressed their desire for further training on AT devices. The findings of this investigation about perception, knowledge, and willingness toward AT devices and services among teacher candidates support the need for teacher training programs to better design their curriculum and improve course materials and activities on AT and related services. The findings have implications for teacher education programs that teacher candidates’ knowledge combined with their willingness to use AT for the students with disabilities and appropriate training will help them to be effective teachers, advocates, and leaders in meeting the unique needs of students with disabilities."
Debora Herold, IUPUI
Presentation title: "Funding is being requested for attendance at a workshop/seminar. All participants will present on the last day based on work completed during the 5 day seminar."
Ann Kim, IUE
Presentation title: "Art and Design Pedagogy: A Fresh Start with Drawing Exercise"
Brief Abstract: "Drawing is essential to train one’s ability to retain knowledge by looking, and the act of looking immediately engages one in a way of questioning or wondering. Drawing is about appearance, and to encounter that appearance through contemplation. It is also about learning the self and one’s interpretation and expression of the world. How do we continue engage students in a fresh approach of drawing and to stimulate inquisitiveness through drawing? This session seeks to delve into innovative drawing exercises from meditative process to digital manipulation, static to performative, traditional to site-specific, and beginning to advanced. Studio practice that engage innovative drawing processes are welcome. How do we forester a learning community through drawing exercise with a mix of curiosity, drive, collaboration and humanity? How do we continue to push and redefine its boundary?"
Gina Londino-Smolar, IUPUI
Presentation title: "Let’s Solve It: Designing an Interactive and Engaging Online Forensic Science Laboratory Course"
Brief Abstract: "This presentation will discuss the development process of a standalone online laboratory course in forensic science for non-science majors. Online courses are the norm on most college campuses, even online courses in forensic science, but what about laboratory coursework online. This presentation will explain the design process of a completely online laboratory course in forensic science, which includes both hands-on and virtual laboratory experiments, mimicking the face-to-face course. The course material and learning assessments will be shared, which can inspire attendees in their own online course development. The types of technology used to increase student-student interaction, student-material interaction and student-instructor interaction in the course will be discussed and can be related to multiple disciplines with a laboratory course."
Julie Mendez, IUPUC
Presentation title: "Two Approaches to Concept Maps in Undergraduate Fluid Mechanics"
Brief Abstract: "In constructivist pedagogy, students create their own meaning of the course material. One way for students to represent connections between ideas is by creating a concept map. This paper describes different approaches to using concept maps as study tools in undergraduate fluid mechanics courses at two different institutions.
The two instructors worked together to create a concept map of topics covered in the courses. At the two institutions, the courses had similar learning outcomes and covered most of the same topics. The goal of creating this concept map was to provide students with a visual representation of how different topics were related.
At University A, the instructor-created concept map was used primarily as a visual aid. The instructor showed the map at regular intervals in class, where the map grew as students learned new material. This use of concept maps will be designated the “passive approach”. Based on the first instructor’s experience at University A, the second instructor modified the approach for using concept maps at University B during the following semester. Instead of providing students with a completed concept map, students were encouraged to create individual maps, which could be used as an aid during assessments. For this “active approach”, the instructor-created map was presented in class after allowing the students to develop their own maps.
Survey results on students’ perceived effectiveness of the different approaches to using concept maps will be discussed. Results from both approaches will be compared. Student course performance (course grades and scores on similar assessments) will be compared with courses taught by the same instructors when concept maps were not used. The results are expected to help course instructors understand the impacts of introducing concept maps with the passive or active approach and determine which approach has the greatest impact on student learning."
Christina Romero-Ivanova, IUK
Presentation title: "Narrative Spaces"
Brief Abstract: "Narratives – in the forms of spoken word poems or digital stories, such as the ones reflected upon from above – can be used as entry points to discuss the crucial necessity of creating safe spaces in higher education classrooms in which students can feel free to share their lives. Especially with our current climate of compulsory violence in schools and community spaces, we must provide spaces in our classrooms to not just allow but to also privilege students’ storied experiences. Storying in the classroom (verbal, written, or performed) then
becomes a practice of care. In this presentation I will present two artifacts: a spoken word poem created by a former teacher education student in my course Reading Methods I and a digital story created by a former Tomorrow’s Teachers student in my course Using Computers in Education. The artifacts I share will be used to discuss the creation of narrative spaces in higher education classrooms with regard to students’ literacies. Further, they will help audience members to
think about classroom teaching and learning practices that are engaging to students and students’ future careers as teachers or any other profession that can use narrative practices as venues for critical thinking. The presentation will focus on students’ narrative literacies as sacred literacies, literacy practices that are deemed sacred to individuals because of their crucial importance and meaning attachments within individuals’ lived experiences. In this session, audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions about using spaces to foster narrative practices."