Funny and true.

I believe all instructors should have genetic traces (in-born, or via stem
cells) of a thespian actor, cheerleader, professional speaker, orator, and
comedian.

It would be helpful to develop "Effective Astronomy Lecturing" workshops aimed
solely at enhancing an instructor's ability to lecture effectively.

I agree; show me someone who's really down on lecturing, and I'll show you
someone who simply ain't good at it. Lecturing is essential in the right
amounts, and in the right way.

Christopher J. Wood
Instructor
Physics/Astronomy
Schoolcraft College



-----Original Message-----
From: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com on behalf of McDaid, Liam
Sent: Fri 2/17/2012 10:44 PM
To: 'astrolrner@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Astrolrner@CAE]    Washington Post article on replacing lectures

Christopher sez:

>Is it a foregone conclusion that lecturing is always
>antithetical to learning?
                         For too many people on this listserv, it would seem so.
>I didn't, yet, read this article, but I'm wondering if we're
>riding the proverbial pendulum here?
But is it a Foucault pendulum :^)
>I absolutely lecture far less now than I used to. I do, though,
>believe the right amount, and right kind, of lecturing is
>essential.


Said it before, I'll say it again.  Lecture is performance art and most are bad
at it.  That's the reason why it's dismissed as a modality.  There is logic in
this, why would so many people use it if they are so ineffectual at it?  That is
a separate issue..  Still, those few who actually can use it effectively should
not be criticized for doing so.
I once sat through a presentation by someone (who shall remain nameless) over
how lecture is useless and why it should be killed, have a stake driven through
its heart and eaten by zombies (roughly paraphrased).  How was this message
delivered?  Through lecture, and a bad one at that.  Of course, the humor is
lost on those with no sense of irony.  I would like to see such members of the
A-L crowd chose another modality to denigrate lecture.
For the two (or possibly three) of you still reading and genuinely curious over
the basis of effective lecture, I'll start you in the right direction with one
word: narrative.


[cid:image001.gif@...]




Liam McDaid
Astronomy Coordinator & Professor of Astronomy
Sacramento City College
3835 Freeport Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 558-2005
mcdaidl@...<mailto:mcdaidl@...>

        Initially the preclass lectures were Powerpoint files with narration.  Then I moved to Macromedia Breeze -- now Adobe Presenter – that publishes the lectures as flash files on the Internet.   There is a fairly big time commitment in getting this done and the lectures are still slowly improving in both quality and thoroughness.   Students are assigned the lecture and required to take a short quiz over it in a web-based assessment engine that is due immediately before class.  They show up to class familiar with the vocabulary and basic concepts and then spend almost all of the class doing activities.  I still summarize and draw attention to important details, but the vast majority of my limited talking is in preparing them to do an activity or in providing feedback.   We now have time in class to do a lecture tutorial, a bunch of peer instruction questions, a group worksheet, discuss a movie clip, prediction/reflection around a demonstration, discuss a couple of simulations, etc. and students have meaningful discussions about them with their me, inclass undergraduate TAs, and their peers.  

        I have observed and listened carefully, scrutinized grades and practices, and collected enough student surveys to feel confident of a few conclusions:

•  The level of student compliance with doing the preclass lectures is high.  I know this from their preclass quiz scores, their annotation of the preclass lecture notes, their participation in class, their questions about the preclass lectures, and their responses on surveys. This compliance (> 85%) is much higher than I got ~10 years ago from asking students to read a text book (which I no longer have) before class (< 60%).
• The level of engagement while “viewing” the preclass lectures is still not as high as I would like.  Student can stare into space unengaged during a web-based lecture just as well as they can during an in-class lecture.  We are adding more “You Try It” questions at the bottom of the slide, embedding simulations (with manipulation directions), embedding animated ranking and sorting tasks, and including simple matching tasks native to Adobe Connect to try and improve this.
• The course grade distribution has changed compared to my inclass lecturing days.  There are more As and Ws, fewer Cs, Ds, and Fs, and Bs about the same.
• This method requires that considerable effort be spent “selling” it to the students – explaining why are we doing things this way.  I claim that this teaching method is “research-informed” and show them evidence like Prather’s LSCI data to justify.  Right now I am doing something different than most of their other instructors.
• Student reaction is generally very positive.  That said – a small fraction of students never buys in to the approach and I see comments on course evaluations like “it’s your job to teach us, not make us learn it on our own”.   However, since the students who don’t buy in aren’t typically around at the end of the term, course evaluations are quite positive.

        This “flipping” approach seems to be becoming more common (see http://www.ydr.com/ci_19714230 and links within).   I now know of a handful of other faculty at UNL teaching this way and we all seem to have moved in this direction independently.   I don’t suggest that many faculty should create their own web-based lectures, it just takes too long.  (Prepare for controversial statements ;-) But in the near future we should have the opportunity to purchase student access to flexible high-quality lectures (created by those with an AER background) and have reference lists of engaging inclass activities well-coordinated with these lectures.  This will enable us to stop reinventing the lecture wheel and spend much more time on the really important parts of teaching.

Kevin

Dr. Kevin M. Lee
244D Jorgensen Hall
Research Associate Professor
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Center for Science, Mathematics, & Computer Education
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Lincoln, NE  68588-0299
Phone: (402) 472-3686
FAX: (402) 472-6148

I am following Kevin's method almost point-by-point since I heard him
talking about it a couple years ago at AAS.  I then stole his method
shamelessly.

My technology details are different.  However, my experience regarding
student compliance and satisfaction are very, very similar.  Last
semester I did an anonymous survey asking the students if they had to do
the class again, would they prefer a textbook reading + pre-quiz or
video + pre-quiz, and 85% said they liked the video option.  Several
commented that they'd never bother reading a textbook assignment, but
they did in fact watch the video.  (Don't ask me why that is!  I'd much
rather read a book...  maybe I'm getting old.)

The students are focused during the class time, and I rarely see them
with other work (or non-work) visible.  I've tried hard to "sell" the
approach to them, and most of them have accepted it without much trouble.

I've also seen a jump in my LSCI normalized gains since implementing
this method.  Even so, I definitely have room for improvement of my
in-class discussions and activities.  What I most like about this
approach is that the course varies from semester to semester as I change
activities, and as the students react differently to them.

Melissa Hayes-Gehrke
mhayesge@...


On 02/20/2012 04:58 PM, Kevin M Lee wrote:
>
>
> I struggled for many years trying to determine the best mixture of
> lecture and engaging activities in the classroom. I agree with all of
> the comments on how lecture can’t (and shouldn’t) be completely
> replaced. But I feel that I am on the right track for the last ~7 years
> in moving lecture outside of the classroom.
>
> Initially the preclass lectures were Powerpoint files with narration.
> Then I moved to Macromedia Breeze -- now Adobe Presenter – that
> publishes the lectures as flash files on the Internet. There is a fairly
> big time commitment in getting this done and the lectures are still
> slowly improving in both quality and thoroughness. Students are assigned
> the lecture and required to take a short quiz over it in a web-based
> assessment engine that is due immediately before class. They show up to
> class familiar with the vocabulary and basic concepts and then spend
> almost all of the class doing activities. I still summarize and draw
> attention to important details, but the vast majority of my limited
> talking is in preparing them to do an activity or in providing feedback.
> We now have time in class to do a lecture tutorial, a bunch of peer
> instruction questions, a group worksheet, discuss a movie clip,
> prediction/reflection around a demonstration, discuss a couple of
> simulations, etc. and students have meaningful discussions about them
> with their me, inclass undergraduate TAs, and their peers.
>
> I have observed and listened carefully, scrutinized grades and
> practices, and collected enough student surveys to feel confident of a
> few conclusions:
>
>   * The level of student compliance with doing the preclass lectures is
>     high. I know this from their preclass quiz scores, their annotation
>     of the preclass lecture notes, their participation in class, their
>     questions about the preclass lectures, and their responses on
>     surveys. This compliance (> 85%) is much higher than I got ~10 years
>     ago from asking students to read a text book (which I no longer
>     have) before class (< 60%).
>   * The level of engagement while “viewing” the preclass lectures is
>     still not as high as I would like. Student can stare into space
>     unengaged during a web-based lecture just as well as they can during
>     an in-class lecture. We are adding more “You Try It” questions at
>     the bottom of the slide, embedding simulations (with manipulation
>     directions), embedding animated ranking and sorting tasks, and
>     including simple matching tasks native to Adobe Connect to try and
>     improve this.
>   * The course grade distribution has changed compared to my inclass
>     lecturing days. There are more As and Ws, fewer Cs, Ds, and Fs, and
>     Bs about the same.
>   * This method requires that considerable effort be spent “selling” it
>     to the students – explaining why are we doing things this way. I
>     claim that this teaching method is “research-informed” and show them
>     evidence like Prather’s LSCI data to justify. Right now I am doing
>     something different than most of their other instructors.
>   * Student reaction is generally very positive. That said – a small
>     fraction of students never buys in to the approach and I see
>     comments on course evaluations like “it’s your job to teach us, not
>     make us learn it on our own”. However, since the students who don’t
>     buy in aren’t typically around at the end of the term, course
>     evaluations are quite positive.
>
> I think this system works well. At the present pace of materials
> improvement, some type of research study on the method would be
> appropriate the year after next and I hope the results back up my thoughts.
>
> This “flipping” approach seems to be becoming more common (see
> _http://www.ydr.com/ci_19714230_and links within). I now know of a
> handful of other faculty at UNL teaching this way and we all seem to
> have moved in this direction independently. I don’t suggest that many
> faculty should create their own web-based lectures, it just takes too
> long. (Prepare for controversial statements ;-) But in the near future
> we should have the opportunity to purchase student access to flexible
> high-quality lectures (created by those with an AER background) and have
> reference lists of engaging inclass activities well-coordinated with
> these lectures. This will enable us to stop reinventing the lecture
> wheel and spend much more time on the really important parts of teaching.
>
> Kevin
>
> Dr. Kevin M. Lee
> 244D Jorgensen Hall
> Research Associate Professor
> Department of Physics & Astronomy
> Center for Science, Mathematics, & Computer Education
> University of Nebraska - Lincoln
> Lincoln, NE 68588-0299
> Phone: (402) 472-3686
> FAX: (402) 472-6148
>
>

Hmmm... I don't know. This is very thought provoking.

I agree that some activities should be moved outside the classroom. I'm not sure
lecture is one of them. I maintain that the most inspirational and motivational
moments come from live lectures in the classroom.

I know it's probably hard to quantify and measure inspiration and motivation.

My first reaction is that your process is effective. My second reaction is that
as good as it is, it still may not be as good as one that continues to use
lecture as the means to energetically and passionately introduce new concepts
and approaches.

I might be willing to sacrifice a few percentage points of learning gains in
favor of motivation and inspiration. I'm not saying I'm a master motivator or
inspirational, but I think these are indeed worthy goals that are best
introduced and best served by lecture. Again, I'd vote for a "How to Give
Motivational and Inspirational Astronomy 101 Lectures" workshop.

Christopher J. Wood
Instructor
Physics/Astronomy
Schoolcraft College


-----Original Message-----
From: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com on behalf of Kevin M Lee
Sent: Mon 2/20/2012 4:58 PM
To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Astrolrner@CAE]    Washington Post article on replacing lectures

         I struggled for many years trying to determine the best mixture of
lecture and engaging activities in the classroom.  I agree with all of the
comments on how lecture can't (and shouldn't) be completely replaced.  But
I feel that I am on the right track for the last ~7 years in moving
lecture outside of the classroom.
         Initially the preclass lectures were Powerpoint files with
narration.  Then I moved to Macromedia Breeze -- now Adobe Presenter -
that publishes the lectures as flash files on the Internet.   There is a
fairly big time commitment in getting this done and the lectures are still
slowly improving in both quality and thoroughness.   Students are assigned
the lecture and required to take a short quiz over it in a web-based
assessment engine that is due immediately before class.  They show up to
class familiar with the vocabulary and basic concepts and then spend
almost all of the class doing activities.  I still summarize and draw
attention to important details, but the vast majority of my limited
talking is in preparing them to do an activity or in providing feedback.
We now have time in class to do a lecture tutorial, a bunch of peer
instruction questions, a group worksheet, discuss a movie clip,
prediction/reflection around a demonstration, discuss a couple of
simulations, etc. and students have meaningful discussions about them with
their me, inclass undergraduate TAs, and their peers.
         I have observed and listened carefully, scrutinized grades and
practices, and collected enough student surveys to feel confident of a few
conclusions:
  The level of student compliance with doing the preclass lectures is high.
  I know this from their preclass quiz scores, their annotation of the
preclass lecture notes, their participation in class, their questions
about the preclass lectures, and their responses on surveys. This
compliance (> 85%) is much higher than I got ~10 years ago from asking
students to read a text book (which I no longer have) before class (<
60%).
The level of engagement while "viewing" the preclass lectures is still not
as high as I would like.  Student can stare into space unengaged during a
web-based lecture just as well as they can during an in-class lecture.  We
are adding more "You Try It" questions at the bottom of the slide,
embedding simulations (with manipulation directions), embedding animated
ranking and sorting tasks, and including simple matching tasks native to
Adobe Connect to try and improve this.
The course grade distribution has changed compared to my inclass lecturing
days.  There are more As and Ws, fewer Cs, Ds, and Fs, and Bs about the
same.
This method requires that considerable effort be spent "selling" it to the
students - explaining why are we doing things this way.  I claim that this
teaching method is "research-informed" and show them evidence like
Prather's LSCI data to justify.  Right now I am doing something different
than most of their other instructors.
Student reaction is generally very positive.  That said - a small fraction
of students never buys in to the approach and I see comments on course
evaluations like "it's your job to teach us, not make us learn it on our
own".   However, since the students who don't buy in aren't typically
around at the end of the term, course evaluations are quite positive.
         I think this system works well. At the present pace of materials
improvement, some type of research study on the method would be
appropriate the year after next and I hope the results back up my
thoughts.
         This "flipping" approach seems to be becoming more common (see
http://www.ydr.com/ci_19714230 and links within).   I now know of a
handful of other faculty at UNL teaching this way and we all seem to have
moved in this direction independently.   I don't suggest that many faculty
should create their own web-based lectures, it just takes too long.
(Prepare for controversial statements ;-) But in the near future we should
have the opportunity to purchase student access to flexible high-quality
lectures (created by those with an AER background) and have reference
lists of engaging inclass activities well-coordinated with these lectures.
  This will enable us to stop reinventing the lecture wheel and spend much
more time on the really important parts of teaching.

Kevin
Dr. Kevin M. Lee
244D Jorgensen Hall
Research Associate Professor
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Center for Science, Mathematics, & Computer Education
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Lincoln, NE  68588-0299
Phone: (402) 472-3686
FAX: (402) 472-6148

Hi all,

Our campus is offering a summer program to coincide with the upcoming transit of
Venus which may be of interest to your students.  The four week intensive
program is at an introductory astronomy level and is focused on observational
astronomy techniques.  The students will use a research grade two meter
telescope on Haleakala on Maui and will observe the Transit of Venus event from
the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii.

A brief description of the summer school can be found on the web:
http://hokukea.uhh.hawaii.edu/Observational_Astronomy
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at hokukea@....

thank you,
Dr. Josh Walawender

Angie,
I'd love to know about such a site, too! If none exists, it would certainly be
worth starting up... how about "scienceedibles?" ;-)
Georgia
---------------------------------------------------

Georgia Bracey, Research Associate
Center for STEM Research, Education and Outreach
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville


--- In astrolrner@yahoogroups.com, Angie Wolfgang <akw22@...> wrote:
>
> > And those who have some little knowledge of the work that has already been
> > done, haven't done all we can to make that knowledge discernible and
> > practical for very busy professors.   I put myself firmly in this group
> > BTW. I do know some of that work, but I have alot of translation to do to
> > make it useable in astronomy!
> >
>
> Have you guys heard about astrobites.com?  It's a website started by some
> young-ish astronomy grad students that daily summarizes some of the latest
> research in astronomy (usually, papers on astro-ph).  Nominally, it's for
> undergrads and fellow young grads who are just starting to get into
> astronomy research, but really it's geared towards anyone with a technical
> background (like a physics/engineering/science degree) who wants/needs a
> little bit of translation before jumping into the literature.
>
> A daily digest like this (a science education journal article featured each
> day via a summary about a page long) run by astronomy and/or physics
> education researchers could do a lot to solve the accessibility and
> translation problems noted above, as interested physics/astronomy faculty
> and grad students wouldn't need expertise in education research to be able
> to hunt down the articles to begin with, let alone comprehend, critique,
> and apply them . . . and they wouldn't have to spend so much time to stay
> up-to-date on a second research field that is in addition to their own.  I,
> for one, would totally read "scienceeducationbites.com".
>
> Or, if you know of something like this already, please let me know about it!
>
> Cheers,
> Angie Wolfgang
> NSF Graduate Research Fellow
> Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
> University of California, Santa Cruz
>

The problem isn't running such a site,  it's making a living from said
site. ;-)

For Astronomy and Space, there's no shortage of good, high-quality
blogs and sites.

The Arxiv blog sort of does what you are suggesting, as does PhysOrg
and NASA's (Online) Astrobiology Magazine. Scientific American often
does good articles on space development.

I'd love to expand my blog to do this, but with a full time job, full
time course load and a 6 month old daughter - I can barely write the
short posts I do have on my blog.

As for the other blogs, I can give a "short-list" of blogs and sites
that primarily write about current research papers in plain English.
If you are interested, drop me a note off-list.


--
"Our ancestors lived out of doors. They were as familiar with the
night sky as most of us are with our favorite television programs."
- Carl Sagan

Ray Sanders
NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador
Co-Director of Outreach - 2012 Yuri's Night Team
ray.sanders@...
(602)300-4344



On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 6:32 AM, missbracey <gbracey@...> wrote:
> Angie,
> I'd love to know about such a site, too! If none exists, it would certainly be
worth starting up... how about "scienceedibles?" ;-)
> Georgia
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
> Georgia Bracey, Research Associate
> Center for STEM Research, Education and Outreach
> Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
>
>
> --- In astrolrner@yahoogroups.com, Angie Wolfgang <akw22@...> wrote:
>>
>> > And those who have some little knowledge of the work that has already been
>> > done, haven't done all we can to make that knowledge discernible and
>> > practical for very busy professors.   I put myself firmly in this group
>> > BTW. I do know some of that work, but I have alot of translation to do to
>> > make it useable in astronomy!
>> >
>>
>> Have you guys heard about astrobites.com?  It's a website started by some
>> young-ish astronomy grad students that daily summarizes some of the latest
>> research in astronomy (usually, papers on astro-ph).  Nominally, it's for
>> undergrads and fellow young grads who are just starting to get into
>> astronomy research, but really it's geared towards anyone with a technical
>> background (like a physics/engineering/science degree) who wants/needs a
>> little bit of translation before jumping into the literature.
>>
>> A daily digest like this (a science education journal article featured each
>> day via a summary about a page long) run by astronomy and/or physics
>> education researchers could do a lot to solve the accessibility and
>> translation problems noted above, as interested physics/astronomy faculty
>> and grad students wouldn't need expertise in education research to be able
>> to hunt down the articles to begin with, let alone comprehend, critique,
>> and apply them . . . and they wouldn't have to spend so much time to stay
>> up-to-date on a second research field that is in addition to their own.  I,
>> for one, would totally read "scienceeducationbites.com".
>>
>> Or, if you know of something like this already, please let me know about it!
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Angie Wolfgang
>> NSF Graduate Research Fellow
>> Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
>> University of California, Santa Cruz
>>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> <--The NASA Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) listserv is for academic
discussions related to teaching and learning astronomy.  If you would like more
information, please contact our moderator Gina Brissenden at:
 gbrissenden@....  To visit CAE online please go to:
 http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov.  To have yourself removed from this list,
simply send email to:  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com-->Yahoo! Groups
Links
>
>
>

I can't help but think that we're on a downward trajectory here.
Maybe I'm wrong.

I myself have moved from:
"students don't read anymore; I know - I'll try video lectures!"

...to

"students don't watch video lectures anymore; now what?"

This is when I re-committed to getting better at live, energized
lectures. I've experimented with video lectures in with my
physics courses, e.g. from Walter Lewan/MIT, Khan Academy,
etc., and felt like I was barking up the wrong tree.

I do, I have to admit, teach a lot of online astronomy courses.
My online students do indeed depend heavily on reading and
interactive learning activities. I have, though, spent a lot of
time creating (using Camtasia Studio) multi-media tutorials for
lab activities. Seems to be working well.

Christopher J. Wood
Instructor
Physics/Astronomy
Schoolcraft College

________________________________

From: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com on behalf of David Wittman
Sent: Tue 2/21/2012 12:45 PM
To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Astrolrner@CAE] Re: [Astrolrner@CAE] Re: [Astrolrner@CAE] PreClass
Lecture Videos [Was: Washington Post article on replacing lectures]




I'm curious to know more too.   I understand the reasons for flipping the
classroom, but honestly I'm a little bit disturbed by the idea of replacing the
reading with a video.  I know it's a struggle to get students to spend time with
a book, but isn't the struggle worth it when a book can offer a much greater
richness of detail?


On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 5:39 AM, Kelle Cruz <kellecruz@...> wrote:





	 Kevin,


	 Wow, pre-class lecture videos...Intrigued for sure! Especially once it's framed
as, "watch a video instead of reading the textbook." I can totally see how they
would be so much more likely to watch the video! The kids really love the videos
these days!

	 How long are they? Would you mind making 1-2 public just so we can see what
you're doing?

	 I'm also curious about the proper vocabulary here...Now that most class time is
spent doing activities, would you call your class more of a recitation? Or is it
just all "interactive" now?

	 thanks!
	 kelle


	 On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Christopher J. Wood <cwood@...>
wrote:





		 Hmmm... I don't know. This is very thought provoking.

		 I agree that some activities should be moved outside the classroom. I'm not
sure lecture is one of them. I maintain that the most inspirational and
motivational moments come from live lectures in the classroom.

		 I know it's probably hard to quantify and measure inspiration and motivation.

		 My first reaction is that your process is effective. My second reaction is
that as good as it is, it still may not be as good as one that continues to use
lecture as the means to energetically and passionately introduce new concepts
and approaches.

		 I might be willing to sacrifice a few percentage points of learning gains in
favor of motivation and inspiration. I'm not saying I'm a master motivator or
inspirational, but I think these are indeed worthy goals that are best
introduced and best served by lecture. Again, I'd vote for a "How to Give
Motivational and Inspirational Astronomy 101 Lectures" workshop.



		 Christopher J. Wood
		 Instructor
		 Physics/Astronomy
		 Schoolcraft College

		 -----Original Message-----

		 From: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com <mailto:astrolrner%40yahoogroups.com>  on
behalf of Kevin M Lee
		 Sent: Mon 2/20/2012 4:58 PM
		 To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com <mailto:astrolrner%40yahoogroups.com>
		 Subject: RE: [Astrolrner@CAE] Washington Post article on replacing lectures


		 I struggled for many years trying to determine the best mixture of
		 lecture and engaging activities in the classroom. I agree with all of the
		 comments on how lecture can't (and shouldn't) be completely replaced. But
		 I feel that I am on the right track for the last ~7 years in moving
		 lecture outside of the classroom.
		 Initially the preclass lectures were Powerpoint files with
		 narration. Then I moved to Macromedia Breeze -- now Adobe Presenter -
		 that publishes the lectures as flash files on the Internet. There is a
		 fairly big time commitment in getting this done and the lectures are still
		 slowly improving in both quality and thoroughness. Students are assigned
		 the lecture and required to take a short quiz over it in a web-based
		 assessment engine that is due immediately before class. They show up to
		 class familiar with the vocabulary and basic concepts and then spend
		 almost all of the class doing activities. I still summarize and draw
		 attention to important details, but the vast majority of my limited
		 talking is in preparing them to do an activity or in providing feedback.
		 We now have time in class to do a lecture tutorial, a bunch of peer
		 instruction questions, a group worksheet, discuss a movie clip,
		 prediction/reflection around a demonstration, discuss a couple of
		 simulations, etc. and students have meaningful discussions about them with
		 their me, inclass undergraduate TAs, and their peers.
		 I have observed and listened carefully, scrutinized grades and
		 practices, and collected enough student surveys to feel confident of a few
		 conclusions:
		 The level of student compliance with doing the preclass lectures is high.
		 I know this from their preclass quiz scores, their annotation of the
		 preclass lecture notes, their participation in class, their questions
		 about the preclass lectures, and their responses on surveys. This
		 compliance (> 85%) is much higher than I got ~10 years ago from asking
		 students to read a text book (which I no longer have) before class (<
		 60%).
		 The level of engagement while "viewing" the preclass lectures is still not
		 as high as I would like. Student can stare into space unengaged during a
		 web-based lecture just as well as they can during an in-class lecture. We
		 are adding more "You Try It" questions at the bottom of the slide,
		 embedding simulations (with manipulation directions), embedding animated
		 ranking and sorting tasks, and including simple matching tasks native to
		 Adobe Connect to try and improve this.
		 The course grade distribution has changed compared to my inclass lecturing
		 days. There are more As and Ws, fewer Cs, Ds, and Fs, and Bs about the
		 same.
		 This method requires that considerable effort be spent "selling" it to the
		 students - explaining why are we doing things this way. I claim that this
		 teaching method is "research-informed" and show them evidence like
		 Prather's LSCI data to justify. Right now I am doing something different
		 than most of their other instructors.
		 Student reaction is generally very positive. That said - a small fraction
		 of students never buys in to the approach and I see comments on course
		 evaluations like "it's your job to teach us, not make us learn it on our
		 own". However, since the students who don't buy in aren't typically
		 around at the end of the term, course evaluations are quite positive.
		 I think this system works well. At the present pace of materials
		 improvement, some type of research study on the method would be
		 appropriate the year after next and I hope the results back up my
		 thoughts.
		 This "flipping" approach seems to be becoming more common (see
		 http://www.ydr.com/ci_19714230 and links within). I now know of a
		 handful of other faculty at UNL teaching this way and we all seem to have
		 moved in this direction independently. I don't suggest that many faculty
		 should create their own web-based lectures, it just takes too long.
		 (Prepare for controversial statements ;-) But in the near future we should
		 have the opportunity to purchase student access to flexible high-quality
		 lectures (created by those with an AER background) and have reference
		 lists of engaging inclass activities well-coordinated with these lectures.
		 This will enable us to stop reinventing the lecture wheel and spend much
		 more time on the really important parts of teaching.

		 Kevin
		 Dr. Kevin M. Lee
		 244D Jorgensen Hall
		 Research Associate Professor
		 Department of Physics & Astronomy
		 Center for Science, Mathematics, & Computer Education
		 University of Nebraska - Lincoln
		 Lincoln, NE 68588-0299
		 Phone: (402) 472-3686
		 FAX: (402) 472-6148








	 --
	 Kelle Cruz, PhD - http://kellecruz.com/
	 917.725.1334 - Hunter ext: 16486 - AMNH ext: 3404







--
David Wittman
Associate Professor
Department of Physics
University of California, Davis

Absolutely true! All you really need to start is 30 people (each with a
few hours once a month), a willingness to send a few emails back and
forth on occasion, and a Google calendar. Seems like two of those three
points are already achieved here...

I'm more than happy to pass on what wisdom we've learned at astrobites
if people are interested in getting involved in something like this!

Cheers,
Susanna

Susanna Kohler
University of Colorado Boulder



--- In astrolrner@yahoogroups.com, Angie Wolfgang <akw22@...> wrote:
>
> No need to make a living off it!  One of the reason why astrobites
works is
> that there are ~ 30 authors who contribute to it.  I'm sure the
science
> education community is at least that big, so one article a month, and
> you're golden.  The hard part is getting ScienceEdibles (nice :-D)
started
> and finding someone to organize the article-writing schedule . . .
>
> Food for thought!
> Angie
>
> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 6:59 AM, Ray Sanders ray.sanders@... wrote:
>
> > **
> >
> >
> > The problem isn't running such a site, it's making a living from
said
> > site. ;-)

Just throwing this out there.   Out in the astro blogosphere, there
are a number of sites that would be interested in additional
volunteers,
and or picking up this idea.

Consider this.  One of the best things about the Internet is anyone
can create a site.    Consequently, one of the worst things about the
Internet is that anyone can create a site.
The reason why I mention this, is often I see "fragmented" approaches
to solving problems, when often times a more "unified" solution would
work better.
Is it better to have a bunch of small sites with low traffic, or have
everybody fly under one flag on a large, well-trafficked site?


On a side note, this is a great idea/discussion, but I'd hate to see
us run afoul of our friendly moderators.



Disclaimer:  I've been in IT for sixteen years.  Trying to finish up
my education so I can leave the field and teach Astronomy.

--
"Our ancestors lived out of doors. They were as familiar with the
night sky as most of us are with our favorite television programs."
- Carl Sagan

Ray Sanders
NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador
Co-Director of Outreach - 2012 Yuri's Night Team
ray.sanders@...
(602)300-4344



On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 1:08 PM, demosthenes554
<demosthenes554@...> wrote:
> Absolutely true! All you really need to start is 30 people (each with a
> few hours once a month), a willingness to send a few emails back and
> forth on occasion, and a Google calendar. Seems like two of those three
> points are already achieved here...
>
> I'm more than happy to pass on what wisdom we've learned at astrobites
> if people are interested in getting involved in something like this!
>
> Cheers,
> Susanna
>
> Susanna Kohler
> University of Colorado Boulder
>
>
>
> --- In astrolrner@yahoogroups.com, Angie Wolfgang <akw22@...> wrote:
>>
>> No need to make a living off it!  One of the reason why astrobites
> works is
>> that there are ~ 30 authors who contribute to it.  I'm sure the
> science
>> education community is at least that big, so one article a month, and
>> you're golden.  The hard part is getting ScienceEdibles (nice :-D)
> started
>> and finding someone to organize the article-writing schedule . . .
>>
>> Food for thought!
>> Angie
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 6:59 AM, Ray Sanders ray.sanders@... wrote:
>>
>> > **
>> >
>> >
>> > The problem isn't running such a site, it's making a living from
> said
>> > site. ;-)
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> <--The NASA Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) listserv is for academic
discussions related to teaching and learning astronomy.  If you would like more
information, please contact our moderator Gina Brissenden at:
 gbrissenden@....  To visit CAE online please go to:
 http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov.  To have yourself removed from this list,
simply send email to:  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com-->Yahoo! Groups
Links
>
>
>

Christopher sez,

>I might be willing to sacrifice a few percentage points of learning gains in
favor of motivation and inspiration. I'm not >saying I'm a master motivator or
inspirational, but I think these are indeed worthy goals that are best
introduced >and best served by lecture. Again, I'd vote for a "How to Give
Motivational and Inspirational Astronomy 101 >Lectures" workshop.

Staffed by some of the many people who are non-working or semi employed actors. 
Solves two problems at once :)  It could also be viewed as pro-bono for more
prominent actors giving back to society, etc.  We talk a lot about the culture
of science and how it would be beneficial to see more of it adopted across life
(and it would), but how can art truly contribute to making science more
accessible in an academic context?

This is rarely covered ground, but too often we focus on display for our
ancillary materials.  Good display generally revolves around clarity and context
(a la Edward Tufte).  HD is optional.  Color is optional.  The core aspect needs
to be a course related point covered concisely and clearly.  Eyecandy is fun,
but not a complete breakfast for any class.  What can artists contribute to this
process?  Ultimately, could we ever see TV shows done this way?

Liam McDaid
Astronomy Coordinator & Professor of Astronomy
Sacramento City College
3835 Freeport Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 558-2005
mcdaidl@...

 

Ed sez:

 

>Liam, from your comment its sounds like you think this listserv has a significant number of folks that think lecturing >is antithetical to learning.  I have never gotten that impression.  I think there are a lot of members of this community >that realize the limitations of lecturing and are interested and willing to do more with their students then just lecture >to them. But that is not because they all think lecturing is making their students know less, just not as much as could >be achieved.  

 

Perhaps it goes back to the “lecture is not a control for your studies” discussion of a year ago or so, but I definitely get that idea.  I could go back over old posts, but I have neither time nor interest. 

 

However, this other thread about how all (or even many) researchers ar e sociopathic libertarians who have no obligation to education – that’s something I find hard to believe.  I’ve never heard anyone suggest that education was pointless or a waste of time in any university college or research setting.  Some may argue that it’s not their problem and I agree that position is nonsense.  But everyone agrees that it’s a Good Thing. 

 

As for it not being their problem, let’s test it.  With funding cuts, many researchers are rushing to have some E/PO or ed-cred they can point to.  But it’s funny how their idea of education always involves their face in front of a camera.  In future, let’s see how many more researchers go this route.

 

 

 

<image001.gif>

Liam McDaid Astronomy Coordinator & Professor of Astronomy Sacramento City College 3835 Freeport Blvd. Sacramento, CA 95822 (916) 558-2005 mcdaidl@...

 

I very respectfully and completely disagree. I think you truly have it reversed.
I believe it is *far* more common to find the sentiment: "I thought the material
would be so interesting, but the instructor sucked all the life out of it."

Astronomy is a great example. I've always said it's tough to screw-up the
teaching of astronomy because it is so intrinsically interesting. Trust me, I as
an instructor have tried approaches that were pedagogically sound (interactive,
activity- and discovery-based, etc.), but did indeed suck all the interest out
of the room. In fact, this happened yesterday - true story ;^)

One of the most popular courses at my institution is geology. Most people would
not shout out "geology!" when asked which class might be the most popular. The
instructor is outstanding. His pedagogy is excellent, but it is his passion,
energy, enthusiasm, and overall style that have inspired so many students. My
son's middle school science teacher told me the reason she decided to go into
science was because she had this particular geology teacher years ago.

I believe that we are overly "mechanizing" the teaching of astronomy. I like
Doug's comment that no student has ever claimed to have been inspired by
MasteringAstronomy. I'm all for technology, statistical analysis, "new school"
approaches, etc. I think, though, that inspiring and aweing (a word that is a
combination of awesome and awe-inspiring) should be part of our conversations,
conferences, and workshops. I think lecturing the right way, and in the right
amounts, is irreplaceable in this regard.

Christopher J. Wood
Instructor
Physics/Astronomy
Schoolcraft College

-----Original Message-----
From: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com on behalf of Marc Jones
Sent: Wed 2/22/2012 2:18 PM
To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Astrolrner@CAE]    Washington Post article on replacing lectures

I usually don't post, as I am a high school instructor. Remembering the first
time I was at a workshop for this group, the people who were attempting to
eliminate lecturing in their science classes were those of us who came from
secondary/middle school. Reason: if the student is not interested in the
material it does not matter how inspirational the lecturer is, you will always
lose more students than you motivate. The evidence is found in the statement "He
was the worst lecturer ever, but I learned it because I was so interested."

Sent from my iPhone

Hi Liam et al.

Loving this thread!

I don't think it's all or many, certainly not folks on this list, but there
certainly are some, particularly at R1/Ivy+ institutions, and they are not
ashamed to be vocal. I thought of sending a list of horrific quotes I've heard
in the halls certain places or frank talk from search committee members off the
clock, but I think a bigger problem is the incentive structure at these
institutions rather than particularly dinosauric individuals.

For example, good teaching, outreach, and mentoring often counts *against*
tenure, certainly not for it, unlike at say liberal arts colleges.

Some of these institutions have even been verbally taken to task by funding
agencies (NSF, NASA) but like you said, until their funding actually suffers,
they will not change. They pooh-pooh such awesome NSF programs that encourage
research-education synergy like CAREER or AAPF, even though these are extremely
prestigious.

Furthermore, if you look at where the AER researchers are HIRED onto astronomy
dept. faculty it becomes very clear which types of institutions really support
better education.

I guess you could say these folks that I'm talking about would claim education
is not their problem, but they really go out of their way to denigrate the folks
who do make education their problem, so it's hard to argue that they think
education is a good thing.

Kim Coble
Chicago State


--- In astrolrner@yahoogroups.com, "McDaid, Liam" <mcdaidl@...> wrote:
> However, this other thread about how all (or even many) researchers are
sociopathic libertarians who have no obligation to education - that's something
I find hard to believe.  I've never heard anyone suggest that education was
pointless or a waste of time in any university college or research setting. 
Some may argue that it's not their problem and I agree that position is
nonsense.  But everyone agrees that it's a Good Thing.