Faculty Using Technology

Using Clickers in a Large Engineering Course

Michael Falk, (mfalk@umich.edu) from Materials Science & Engineering, College of Engineering shared and discussed his experience using a classroom response system in teaching a large engineering course on February 3 at the Lurie Engineering Center, North Campus.

You can see his PowerPoint presentation (in note form) and link to a web page with video clips of his class.

PowerPoint notes - .pdf (178 KB)
Accompanying handout - Word.doc (43.9 KB)
http://inst-tech.engin.umich.edu/media/engr101-f04/ (Created by Phil Treib treib@umich.edu)

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Using Clickers for Active Learning and Critical Thinking

Josepha Kurdziel, (josephak@umich.edu) from Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, LSA, demonstrated and discussed her use of the wireless classroom response systems to involve students in active learning and critical thinking in large lectures at the CRLT IT Luncheon on Friday February 4, 2005.

You can see her PowerPoint presentation (in note form) and watch a preview, and/or an edited version of the presentation.

PowerPoint notes - .pdf (48 KB)
Preview of Presentation- QuickTime.mov (3.7 MB - 1.51 minutes)
IT Luncheon Presentation - QuickTime.mov (74.3 MB - 33.21 minutes)

Get QuickTime Player

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Out-of-Class Screencasts of Students' "Muddiest Point" and Problem Solutions

Joanna Millunchick, College of Engineering, creates screencasts in order to provide thorough explanations of homework, quiz, and exam solutions, as well as the “Muddiest Points,” as determined by student feedback collected at the end of each unit.  She is using a software program (Camtasia) that records audio and a visual of her use of a tablet PC, so she can write on the screen and switch between multiple explanations of confusing concepts available online.

A preliminary study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of these resources, especially the screencast of the Muddiest Points. Students who responded to the end-of-term survey believed that Muddiest Point screencasts were helpful. One student commented, “Screencasts are great because it shows topics that the professor finds important and is a great resource to use to study for the exam. Also, even if I understand the concept, hearing important material one more time in a new way is always extremely helpful.”
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Making Lecture Recordings Available through iTunes U

Thad Polk, LSA - Psychology, teaches in a large auditorium where an automated lecture capture system is not currently available. For several semesters, he has been using ProfCast to record his lectures and make the recordings available to students via iTunes U in CTools. From the Ctools course site, students can download recordings for playback on their personal computers or iPods. Students in Professor Polk’s classes appreciate having podcasts available and consider them a great tool for studying, reviewing, and catching up. They also enjoy the flexibility that the technology provides, allowing students to review past lectures whenever and wherever they prefer.

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Lecture Podcasting

Mika LaVaque-Manty, LSA - Political Science, began experimenting with lecture podcasts in 2006. He mainly uses podcasts in his large introductory courses, although he has used them at the 400-level, as well. He uses Profcast, a college-licensed, shareware application for the Mac. Profcast requires no additional equipment beyond a laptop because it resides on the same machine as the lecture presentation. It captures both the presentation slides--whether PowerPoint or Keynote--and syncs them with the audio. Professor LaVaque-Manty twice created a podcast-only lecture when he had to cancel the live lecture.

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