Since Spring 2008, MIT has been moving its paper-based subject evaluation system online, as well as improving the collection of teaching data. By AY2010-11, the system will be ready to handle the @750 subjects previously evaluated on paper. The presentation will give an update on the three parts of the project — data collection, surveys, and reports.

Online Subject Evaluation/Who’s Teaching What Project Website

Statement of the problem or issue

The OSE/WTW project was launched as a response to the recommendation from the Task Force on the Undergraduate Educational Commons that assessment be made an Institute policy. A new system was needed to replace the paper-based evaluation system due to its limitations, which include:

• No way to distinguish alternative teaching models within a subject
• Only three instructors for any single subject can be evaluated
• Very labor-intensive
• Old database technology
• Forms are inflexible (questions must fit form layout)
• Limited ability to ask extra questions
• Students must be present in class to submit an evaluation
• Long turnaround time for evaluation reports
• No summary reports on teaching data

Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome

The new Who’s Teaching What application can capture details on sections (including which students are in which section), instructors, teaching roles, evaluation flags, and survey configurations. The online survey supports evaluation of multiple instructors and subjects, multi-page navigation, and the ability to save and edit answers. Reports for each evaluated subject are dynamically generated and customized for different audiences — department administrators, instructors in the subject, and the rest of the MIT community. Work is currently underway to provide longitudinal and comparative reports of teaching and evaluation data across departments.

Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs

Students can fill out evaluation forms anytime during the evaluation period, so there’s more time for reflection and thoughtful open-ended comments.

Departments and instructors can submit their own questions, get feedback from all students (not just the ones present on the last day of class), and will receive individual electronic reports, including open-ended comments, quickly. Administrators can enter teaching data more easily and receive useful data for setting policy and making comparisons.

Everyone will benefit from streamlined processes, easy-to-search data, and quick reporting.

Mary Z. Enterline, Associate Dean for Academic Information and Communication, Office of Faculty Support
Amitava “Babi” Mitra, Associate Director, Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
Rosanne S. Santucci, Communications/Data Specialist, Office of Faculty Support
Lee Leffler, Technical Writer/Usability Consultant, Office of Faculty Support
(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)

Topic Area(s)

7. Others: Online assessment and evaluation

After four years and six independent studies at MIT on the use of the tablet pc, novel and empirical assessment protocols were established. These protocols have begun to be used by various software development companies, universities and secondary schools around the world.

Tablet PC in Combination with Various Software Products, Teaching Styles, and Learning Styles
iCampus Report (August 31, 2007)

Top Ten (Let’s Make That Eleven) Ways That Assessment Isn’t Being Done Correctly

Statement of the problem or issue

In an evaluation of well over 100 research projects dealing with the application of educational software and hardware in secondary schools and universities, there was little evidence of the use of empirical methods for assessment.  The result has been that there exists little research or results that validly or reliably indicates the benefit of many educational software and hardware products on the market today-even though many probably are extremely effective.

Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome

Over a four year period at MIT involving six independent courses, efforts were made to introduce and develop empirical assessment protocols that could be used to more validly determine the benefit of a given technology.  In this research we discovered the additional benefits of introducing the variables of individual learning styles and teaching styles in a classroom assessment design. We found that this could be done in a practical time-saving and inexpensive way.

Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs

This research could be critical in determining what software and what hardware may actually improve student learning in any subject and, specifically, how it may do that.  The benefit is that anecdotal and subjective interpretations of results would be replaced by more convincing and scientific evidence. The result would be the introduction and more effective use of a given software or hardware product that a school or faculty member may want to introduce.
David Singer, MIT (Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)

Topic Area(s)

7. Others: Assessment protocols for educational technologies

MIT TechTV is in its 3rd year and has become part of the MIT Libraries!  With over 2800 videos uploaded, well over 7 million video views and over 1100 accounts created, MIT TechTV continues to grow and be developed to enhance the video sharing and educational experience at MIT.

MIT TechTV Website

Statement of the problem or issue

In a 2008 survey the Libraries posed to students, of which over 4500 responded to the question of whether “capturing of videos of MIT class lectures for replay later during the semester” was asked.  The response from the students had a vast majority from undergrads and a majority from graduate students stating that it was at least “very important” or “essential”.  How can this request be easily solved?

Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome

MIT TechTV allows for faculty and staff to quickly and easily upload video to be shared with students and other groups.  They can limit the viewer-ship to just their class by making the video private and then posting to their course Stellar account.  This all takes only minutes once you have your finished video to be uploaded.

Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs

Video is a standard and expected method of communication in today’s internet thirsty age.  All faculty, departments, labs and other groups can benefit greatly from the dissemination of a video on the information that they are trying to share with an individual or the world. Students value the videos of lectures that they can review to solidify their thoughts on materials taught in class. Grant moderators enjoy watching video updates on the research that their money is going towards. It is necessary to stay up to date on the methods of information sharing and the current format is internet video accessible at any time.

Kris Brewer, MIT TechTV – MIT Libraries/MIT AMPS
(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)

Topic Area(s)

1. Using video and clickers for teaching large classes more effectively
2. Finding and integrating digital content into the curriculum
3. Supporting global learning experiences
4. Incorporating visualizations and simulations to deepen student understanding
5. Open educational tools and resources

The MIT Libraries use videos as a tool inside and outside of the classroom. Videos help students learn how to use the libraries; videos highlighting bioinformatics resources provide learning at the research bench; and undergraduate students learn information searching skills from videos embedded in the curriculum of a GIR course.

Video Tutorials (website)

3:091 Introduction to Solid State Chemistry (website)

BioInformatics Tutorial Series (website)

Statement of the problem or issue

Students need research skills to wade through the large amount of information available to them. Yet they are busy, overwhelmed, and do not have time to visit a librarian to learn how to do research for a particular class project or paper.

Faculty do not have spare time during their lectures for librarians to visit and teach students how to search scientific literature. Researchers are busy with lab experiments and need services that are convenient to their schedules.

Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome

The MIT Libraries use video tutorials to provide information in a convenient, logical and familiar way. Information on finding library items, which database to use, and the best search strategies are delivered to library users via video tutorials. Videos teaching science research skills have been embedded in the curriculum of a Chemistry GIR course. Additionally, a series dedicated to bioinformatics research tools is available.

Videos are convenient because they can be viewed anytime, anywhere and replayed when needed. They are task based and short so students can chose which video best fits their needs. Students are comfortable with the video format since most are familiar with video websites.

The MIT Libraries currently have 49 videos available in MIT’s TechTV. Videos highlighting specialized subjects, such as bioinformatics or patent searching, are among the top viewed videos in the Libraries collection.

Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs

Videos have been proven as an effective way to teach information seeking skills in a Chemistry GIR course- a skill that most students lack when entering MIT. Professors assign students to watch videos on their own time, leaving the faculty’s lecture undisturbed. Professors can link to relevant videos or embed them on course pages.

The bioinformatics video series fits in with busy lives of scientists who need to understand how to use specific tools quickly and right from the bench. Video tutorials help researchers navigate complicated system biology tools without interruption from daily lab experiments.

Courtney Crummett, MIT Libraries
Angie Locknar, MIT Libraries
Darcy Duke, MIT Libraries
(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)

Topic Area(s)

1. Using video and clickers for teaching large classes more effectively
2. Finding and integrating digital content into the curriculum
3. Supporting global learning experiences
5. Open educational tools and resources

We will present the working collaborative site now running at http://math.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/ci . In particular, we will showcase the two main components of the site: (1) the semi-static selection of “good practices” and advice about running these courses; and (2) the discussion facilities for instructors currently teaching such courses.

Math CI Website

Statement of the problem or issue

How to engage and support a community of instructors of communication-intensive courses? In parallel, how to facilitate archiving course materials and the gleaning of “good practices” for these courses?

Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome

A group of current and former instructors associated with communications intensive courses in mathematics, along with advisors from OEIT, brainstormed about an ideal platform for an online community. We generated a document of our “wishlist” criteria for such a site (see attached). After exploring various options, WordPress was found to be most suitable framework for the site.

Over the summer, several people contributed to the design, development, and content of the site. It now contains information about the goal of CI courses in the department, possible ways to structures such courses, advice on teaching writing, and advice on developing students’ presentation skills. In addition, several years’ worth of course materials are now archived on the site.

The website will be launched this semester, and will hopefully be used by the (small) cadre of CI instructors in the Fall. Many people in the department have expressed interest in this site, and it may serve as a model for similar communication tools for courses which involve collaboration amongst large groups of instructors (e.g. 18.01, 18.02, etc.).

Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs

This online space is extremely flexible and extensible. In particular, it can serve as a model for any other group of instructors wishing to share materials, discuss strategies, and open lines of communication both while teaching a course and for posterity.

Mia Minnes, Mathematics
Violeta Ivanova, OEIT
Susan Ruff, WAC
(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)

Topic Area(s)

7. Others: Online Tools for Promoting a Community of Instructors

The Mapping Controversies web directory enhances student learning within a sub-domain of social science. Online resources are vetted and organized in such a way that students are guided towards recommended tools and thus their research process and learning experience is more efficient.

Case Study

Mapping Controversies Website

Statement of the problem or issue

How to provide students with a directory of recommended resources for research in order to study all aspects of a controversial issue in science and technology.

Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome

Lepinay collaborated with OEIT to construct a web directory that would point students to potentially useful sites for learning media response and public opinion on a particular controversy, for exploring tools and resources to help visualize and display the various viewpoints and perspectives, for researching institutions, sites and repositories that contain contextual or historical insight, and for providing a searchable archive for the students to add more resources to the site.

Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs

• Research tools such as the Mapping Controversies web directory can be adapted to fulfill academic needs across many domains in the humanities and social sciences. Of particular interest in the Mapping Controversies web directory are the features that promote its growth and evolution.  Students and interested researchers can add new tools and resources as they become available, as well as rate and comment on existing resources, thus adding value for subsequent visitors.
• Most recently the web directory has integrated itself with a national collaborative research project (MACOSPOL). While it retains its original form, it also participates in a federated search among multiple related portals.

Verena Paravel, Research Associate MACOSPOL
Vincent Lepinay, Associate Professor, Science Technology and Society
(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)

Topic Area(s)

2. Finding and integrating digital content into the curriculum

“Learning Lab: the Cell” is classroom where learners experience how molecules function using both tactile LEGO® molecules specially designed for teaching cell processes, and computer simulations. A kit for cloning this exhibit and its curriculum is under development.

Learning Lab: the Cell
Photo Gallery
Teaching DNA and Protein Synthesis?

Ad for Learning Lab

A Museum Learning Lab

Learning Lab article in The Science Teacher

Statement of the problem or issue

Learning cellular processes from textbook diagrams is not optimal. Students have difficulty understanding the actions of molecules and visualizing the multistep processes. Therefore in schools, the structure of DNA is often explained but DNA function is not. This exhibit teaches about proteins, and also what has become known as the “Central Dogma” of biology: DNA makes RNA makes proteins.

Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome

The LEGO molecules can be used at different levels of instruction. However in the typical lesson, a sophisticated simulation of protein synthesis is possible.  To gain familiarity with proteins, students begin the lesson by constructing a primary protein sequence from amino acids and by folding the chains.

After that, we work with a LEGO DNA gene for a model membrane channel protein, transcribing it into mRNA and translating it into a protein on a ribosome.  Our last step folds the different protein subunits into a final shape which is inserted into a cell membrane.

The consequences of mutated genes can be directly noted, some changing the proteins’ shape and others having no effect.  This lesson takes about an hour and it alternates with a session where students experience proteins and DNA in computer simulations.  HS teachers come for refresher biology workshops, as well.

Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs

Overall, “Learning Lab: the Cell” offers multiple modes of learning, with tactile and virtual models for gaining insights into how cells work.  The manipulatives provide learners with the opportunity to put their concepts into practice.   Also, since learners work in pairs, discussions and questions rise naturally and the instructors can easily check for understanding.

This method of learning is especially recommended for out-of-field faculty interested in learning molecular biology as this experience is both memorable and fun.  A grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations is providing for the development of the instructions and curriculum to recreate the exhibition and its programs.

Kathleen M. Vandiver, Ph.D., Director, Community Outreach and Education, MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences
Amanda Gruhl, Ph.D. Curriculum Coordinator, Community Outreach and Education, MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences
Robin Meisner, Director of Programs, MIT Museum
(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)

Topic Area(s)

4. Incorporating visualizations and simulations to deepen student understanding (main topic)
5. Open educational tools and resources
6. Promoting cross-departmental collaborations

Shakespeare performances are not static works with a single authoritative meaning, but exist in multiple versions, recreated in a wide array of media and across time and cultures. In order to access and engage with these multiple matrices of cultural expression and meaning, we need tools to compare versions of the same scene side by side, to create clips, and to annotate and cross-reference text, video, and cultural references.The MIT Global Shakespeare Project will show educational and research tools including the Cross Media Annotation System (XMAS) and the Shakespeare Performance in Asia (SPIA) archive http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/shakespeare/asia

MIT Shakespeare Project Website

Statement of the problem or issue

• Challenges of geography and time
  It has been previously difficult for scholars and students to access time-based Shakespeare performances around the world.
• Close reading of video
  Videos offer the possibility of deep investigation and analysis, parallel to the close reading of text, but there have been a lack of educational tools for the close reading of videos with the ability to provide contextual annotations and juxtapositions.
• Crossing language and cultural barriers
  How does one interpret and understand art forms in other cultures? International participation in this archive promotes the study of Shakespeare across the world, supported international team of scholars and teachers.
• Globalizing the Humanities
  Studying worldwide Shakespeare productions in individual cultures and locations and as contributions to emerging global forms engages our students in the evolving definition of what it means to be a global citizen.
• Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome

Students can now view performances, do close readings of video and text in conjunction with finding and creating video citations from popular culture around the world to deepen their understanding of these emerging global forms.

The goal is for students to be able to juxtapose and compare Shakespeare readings, interpretations of the text in images and film versions quickly and easily enough so that they could in a sense read across versions, holding textual variants and alternate performances of the same scene or line in mind at the same time.

In addition, we are developing tools for more active uses — electronic means of defining segments in all media, adding notes to video as well as text, storing playable extracts in electronic notebooks, and using them to create one’s own commentary.

In this vision, the work of scholars and students will change, at least in part, from the print-only forms of student term paper and scholarly publications to multimedia essays that were, in effect, guided pathways through a digital archive.

Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs

XMAS (Cross-Media Annotation System) was developed by The Shakespeare Electronic Archive research group under the MIT-Microsoft iCampus Initiative, and has been used since 2003 in MIT classes, including Shakespeare, Shakespeare on Film, The Film Experience (MIT’s introductory film course) and Hong Kong and Hindi Cinema.  In Shakespeare on Film, it is used for all assignments, and in almost every class hour for brief student presentations.  XMAS is a continuing project, and in its current outreach phase we are able to offer technological, logistic and pedagogical support and advice to teachers and scholars in other universities and colleges.  The system has been used at more than twenty institutions, and version 2 is being planned by OEIT and the MIT Global Shakespeare Project.

The interactive, intercultural archive of Asian Shakespeare Performances (SPIA) is the first of many foci; we are now working on Shakespeare Performances in Brazil and in the Arab languages.
Professor Peter S. Donaldson, Literature
Belinda Yung, Literature; Suzana Lisanti, Literature
(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)

Topic Area(s)

1. Using video and clickers for teaching large classes more effectively
2. Finding and integrating digital content into the curriculum
3. Supporting global learning experiences
4. Incorporating visualizations and simulations to deepen student understanding

The MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP) performs research and development of games and simulations for K-12 education, focusing on math and science learning.  Demos of several of the games and simulations will be shown, including games for learning math, physics and earth science.

Statement of the problem or issue

Engaging students deeply in understanding science and math requires experiences in which they can ground their formal learning.  Some of those experiences may be provided through physical labs, while others require a form of abstraction not normally available in the physical world.  Games and simulations can help provide that experience in a way that draws in a variety of learners.

Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome

• Demos will include:StarLogo TNG – a 3d simulation/game development platform for students and teachers.
• Weatherlings – a mobile ubiquitous game to teach students about weather and climate.
• Kids Survey Network – A series of games to engage middle school students in understanding and analyzing data.
• Labyrinth – an online game for teaching algebra.

Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs

While most of the work STEP does focuses on K-12 education, the notion of using video games for learning math and science is broadly applicable.
Eric Klopfer, Jason Haas, Dana Tenneson, Daniel Wendel, & Judy Perry | MIT STEP (Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)

Topic Area(s)

4. Incorporating visualizations and simulations to deepen student understanding

Understanding fair use can be frustrating and confusing. Six U.S.-based OpenCourseWare producers reexamined the principle for use in their own publications. This Code has been written to assert fair use rights in response to the chilling effects of over-zealous copyright holders. This session features highlights of the Code.
Statement of the problem or issue

Faculty and OCW producers alike find themselves frustrated by the confusion and inconsistencies around the copyright exception of fair use. If it applies to classroom course content, can it also apply to an open educational resource like OpenCourseWare? A group of six U.S. based OCW producers have reexamined the principle in order to apply it to their own publications. Realizing that the practice of a group of practitioners solidifies that practice, the code has been written to more actively assert fair use rights in response to the chilling effects of over-zealous copyright holders.

Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome

This code is not a guide to using material offered under a Creative Commons license, nor is it a guide to using material that is already free to use without considering copyright (i.e., U.S. federal government works in the public domain). Rather, it is a guide to help interpret the principle of fair use. The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare builds on the model of Fair Use Codes by documentary filmmakers, media literacy scholars, and online video producers, all available here: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/fair_use/. It was written in coordination with Peter Jaszi of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and Patricia Aufderheide of the Center for Social Media, both at American University, and with the valuable input of ccLearn.

Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs

It is the goal of MIT OpenCourseWare to further enrich our publication of MIT’s course materials by retaining more third party content through the use of a fair use analysis. The Code of Best Practices will serve as the foundation of this analysis. This should make the OCW content richer and more useful for all visitors to the site. It is also our hope to further strengthen the understanding and application of fair use by the MIT community at large by sharing this resource.

Lindsey Weeramuni, Intellectual Property Supervisor, MIT OpenCourseWare

(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)

Topic Area(s)

5. Open educational tools and resources