Using the Inverted Classroom

With Microsoft Office: Drew Foster

Welcome Stated session objectives

o Detail an alternative to the standard classroom approach for MS Office courses

o Show how specific learning outcomes were used in the course redesign

o Provide details on the structure of the courseo Tips for implementing a standardized course

Contacto Drew W. Foster; Miami University; Oxford, Ohioo Email: fosterdw@muohio.edu

University’s “Top 25” Program University initiated a “Top 25” program (25 highest

enrollment courses) with an emphasis on:o Utilizing “active learning” and “inquiry-based learning” concepts

(engage students in the classroom)o Increase student responsibility for their learningo Increase time spent outside of the classroom

Program was a way to make an impact on a large number of students quickly (30,000 seats/year)

Overall Objective: Increase student engagement and improve the level of critical thinking

Course Redesign applied to two courses CSE 141 (original): 2 Credit Hours

o Excel (4 Chapters)o Access (3 Chapters)o PowerPoint (2 Chapters)o Integration (2 Chapters)o Text: New Perspectives Office

CSE 141 (update): 2 Credit Hourso Word (4 Chapters)o Excel (4 Chapters)o PowerPoint (2 Chapters)o Integration (1 Chapter)o Some customized contento Text: New Perspectives Office

CSE 148: 3 Credit Hours [NEW]o Excel (9+ Chapters)o Access (5 Chapters + parts)o Custom – SQL Basicso Text: New Perspectives Excel

Comprehensive + Access

REDESIGNED Courses

Formerly prerequisite for Business

New prerequisite for Business

MS Office Course Redesign Objectives Redesign the course to include/emphasize:

o Active learning concepts (hands-on)o Opportunities to engage with other learnerso Activities that develop problem-solving skillso Assignments and activities that require students to acquire

knowledge on their own (not from the instructor)o Projects that require critical thinkingo Provide the ability to assess student achievement of course

objectives and specific learning outcomeso Accomplish a set of specific learning objectives (specific skills)

Redesign: Structure of the class The most significant and important component of the

redesign was changing how class time was utilized Utilized the Inverted Class Room model:

o “Inverting the class room means that events that have traditionally taken place inside the class room now take place outside the classroom and vice versa” 1

o Basic knowledge acquisition is moved outside of the classroomo Provides the opportunity for more complex hands-on learning

activities inside the classroom

1. Lage, Platt, Treglia; Journal of Economic Education; Winter 2000; Pg. 30

Redesign: Schematic OverviewBefore Redesign After Redesign

Lecture (1/4 - 1/3)

Custom Learning Activity (2/3 – 3/4)

Portfolio Projects

Text-based Tutorials + Cases(completed PRIOR to class)

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Online Projects

Lecture

Text-based Tutorials + Cases

Text-based Tutorials + Cases(continued)

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Steps to accomplish Redesign Step #½: CSE 148 is a prerequisite for a Business School

course so we met with business school to develop detailed list of topics to be covered

Step #1: Establish Learning Objectives and Outcomes Step #2: Associate text activities with learning outcomes Step #3: Create Classroom Learning Activities Step #4: Develop Portfolio (projects) Bring it all together in the classroom

Step #1 – Learning Objectives & Outcomes

CSE 141 Example Objective #2 (of 4): To provide

students with the skills needed to effectively use spreadsheet software.

Outcome #2.4 (of 14): The student can use basic spreadsheet functions (e.g. SUM, AVERAGE), financial functions (e.g. PMT), and simple logical functions (e.g. IF) in spreadsheet formulas

CSE 148 Example Objective #2 (of 4): To provide

students with the skills needed to effectively use spreadsheet software.

Outcome #2.4 (of 23): The student can use spreadsheet functions (e.g. SUM, AVERAGE, etc.), financial functions (e.g. PMT), lookup functions (e.g. VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, etc.) and logical functions (e.g. IF, OR, AND, COUNTIF, etc.) in spreadsheet formulas.

Learning Objectives – general statements of learning to be acquired (4-5 per course)

Learning Outcomes – specific statements (I can do…) of learning to be acquired (15-25 per course)

Complete copy is available from Drew Foster: fosterdw@muohio.edu

Step #2: Associate text activities with learning outcomesCSE 141: New

Perspectives Office

Determined learning outcomes addressed in each tutorial

Developed custom material where needed (e.g. COUNTIF, SUMIF)

CSE 148: New Perspectives Excel & Access Comprehensive

Determined learning outcomes addressed in each tutorial

Developed custom material where needed (e.g. SQL)

Step #3: Create Classroom Learning Activities For 141 which meets 1/week, identified 11 CLA’s; For 148

which meets 2/week identified 23 CLA’s For each CLA:

o Specify Learning Outcomes addressedo Determine if a single or paired activity (mix it up)o Do we want to emphasize “skill” or extend problem solving?o Do we include critical thinking aspect? (what would happen if…)o Do we want to require additional knowledge acquisition (e.g. use

the PPMT function to…. where PPMT function has not been discussed)

Each semester, assignments are refined Continue to develop new ideas to mix it up semester to

semester

CLA Examples – CSE 1411. Word (Tutorial #2)

a) Create a Word table of your current course scheduleb) Required to use a number of the table features and formatting

capabilitiesc) Use a section break (first page landscape; second page portrait)d) Use the footnote feature

2. Excel (Tutorial #3 – various formulas and functions)a) Create an IRA calculation sheet (30 years)b) Use input cells for annual contribution and earnings %c) Required to use an IF to display when certain conditions are metd) Modify inputs to end with $100,000e) Use Help to learn and use the FV function to accomplish the same

task

141_CLA02.pdf 141_CLA02Solution.pdf

141_CLA07.pdf

141_CLA07Solution.pdf

CLA Examples – CSE 1481. CLA #1 (Excel Tutorials #1 & #2)

a) Start with an empty spreadsheetb) Set up sheet to track up to six stocks (Stock, Symbol, Date Acquired,

Shares, Initial Price per Share, Initial Cost, Current Price per share, Current Value, Gain/Loss and Percent Gain/Loss)

c) Provided data on two stocks and then and students use Yahoo to get data for several of their own

d) Format the sheet to look professional and format for printing.

2. CLA #14 (Pivot Tables)a) Spreadsheet with over 1000 rows for every football game ever played

by the university (Date, teams, location, coach, score, win/loss, etc.)b) Requires students to create pivot tables to answer certain questions.

148_CLA01.pdf 148_CLA01Solution.pdf

148_CLA14.pdf 148_CLA14Solution.pdf

Step #4: Develop Portfolio (projects) Open-ended projects Requires students to combine and utilize skills in the context

of an objective Contains critical thinking components

o Evaluate quality of datao Consider multiple perspectiveso Develop a conclusiono Requires written communication

Requires students to acquire knowledge on their own CSE 141 (1 Portfolio); CSE 148 (3 Portfolios)

Portfolio – CSE 141 Students select topic of their interest (e.g. education ranking

and spend/student) Obtain data from available resources Use excel to analyze data and develop charts/graphs Use Word to write a “professional memo” that summarizes

findings and presents their conclusion

Portfolio – CSE 148 (3 Portfolios)Word PortfolioCreate a newsletter13 specific features of Word to be includedTopic varies (Top 5 vacation locations)Provide students access to Word tutorial informationRequires knowledge acquisition on their ownCompletely individual assignments

Excel Portfolio (Analysis)Provided a large spreadsheet of Census data (earnings information)Asked several questions that requires students to restructure data, create formulas and charts to answerAlso develop an amortization spreadsheet (required to discover and use functions never discussed)Requires a Peer Review

Portfolio – CSE 148 (3 Portfolios)Data Analysis PortfolioAccess database of fictitious university dataStudents select one of two questions providedStudents need to determine data required from AccessExport selected data from Access to ExcelPerform analysis in Excel (requires functions, pivot tables, charts, etc.)Requires students to perform multiple analyses (different views or perspectives of the data)Present findings in a professional memo that explains the analysis, findings and provides a recommendationStudents work in pairs

Bringing it all together – Sequence of Events #1: Students assigned Tutorial/Case assignments

o Completed outside of the classroom; Due Sunday Night #2: Instructor delivers 20 minute lecture

o Reviews material learned from homeworko Expands on what was learnedo Presents material not in the text

#3: Students complete Classroom Learning Activityo Combines lecture and text-based learning in a problem-solving activityo Instructor assists students throughout the class – provide assistance

when needed on more complex activitieso End of class the assignment is turned in & instructor grades the activity

#4: Students work on Portfolios outside of class

Results – Four measures Student Self-Reporting: First Day and Last Day survey is

taken where students indicate their ability to perform each learning objective.

Objective assessment: Each graded exam task is associated with a learning outcome. Analyze graded tasks to provide assessment of performance on each learning objective.

Critical Thinking Analysis: Alternating semesters, random selection of portfolio projects provided to independent critical thinking assessors.

Top 25 Survey and Focus Groups: Combination of survey and focus groups with students to obtain information about the class.

Results – Student Self-Reporting Results indicate that students believe they have made

significant gains in their ability to perform the learning outcomes. Students feel like they “learned something”.

80%

Fall 2010n=412

Results: Objective Exam Assessments

80%

Fall 2010n=672

Objective 2: Spreadsheeto Generally strong resultso Continue to improve Pivot Tables

Objective 3: Databaseo Generally good resultso Continue to improve SQL

Results: Critical Thinking AssessmentCourse: CSE 148Primarily Freshman (80%)Items #2, #4, #5, #6 are the focusAspiration for course: 2.5Based on Portfolio #3

For a “skills class”, not too bad Continue to nurture critical thinking

Spring 2010N=50

∆ Freshman – 2005 data based on survey of foundation courses

• Aspiration – university aspiration upon graduation

SCALE1 = Not developed2 = Minimally developed3 = Moderately Developed4 = Substantially Developed

Results: Top 25 Survey/Focus Groups

More often work with other students in class

More often required to combine ideas to build understanding on your own

More often worked harder than you thought to meet expectations

More often experienced supportive faculty relationship

More often required more preparation time

Less often required to explain reasoning

Less often required to support ideas with evidence

More often “memorizing” Less often analyzing elements of

an idea/theory

When comparing responses to the other Top 25 redesigned courses at the university…

Strengths Weaknesses

Redesign Objectives – How AccomplishedObjective How AccomplishedActive learning concepts (hands-on) Homework; In-Class Activities; Portfolio

projects

Opportunities to engage with other learners In-Class Activities (paired); Portfolio #2 (peer review); Portfolio #3 (paired)

Activities that develop problem-solving skills In-class Activities; Portfolio projects

Projects that require critical thinking Portfolio projects; In-class activities (to some extent)

Students acquire knowledge on their own Homework (out-of-class); In-class Activities; Portfolio Projects

Assess student achievement of course learning outcomes

Subjective – Student SurveyObjective – Analysis of exam scores

Accomplish specific Learning Objective Tie each assignment/activity to specific learning objective

Tips: What to do about grading? Turn-in all text-based tutorials and cases (36 items for CSE

148)o Randomly select 1 item from the weekend for grading (18 for a

semester)… students don’t know ahead of time what is gradedo Each is only worth 8 points of 1000 (.8% of grade/assignment) – so

grade each one fairly quickly, looking for more obvious errorso Provide case check-your work (students can self-correct before turning

in)o Use SAM Projects (auto-grade)o No late assignments accepted… and only count the best 15 of 18, so if

you “forget”, no big deal

For the in-class CLA’s to work, students MUST complete homework prior to class. Requiring turn-in is the method we used to “force” this action”

Tips: What to do about grading? Classroom Learning activities

(11 in CSE 141 and 23 in CSE 148)o Must submit by end of class (cannot complete outside of class)o Each is worth 8 points of 1000 (.8%).o Does take some time to grade these, but assistance provided in the

classroom is a big helpo Drop 1 of 11 (or 3 of 23). So if class is missed for any reason (skip, ill,

athletics), no impact. However, if regularly not in class, it does impact the score

Tips: Standardized Course For each section, the exact same thing is going on in every

classroom. Every assignment for all sections is exactly the same Use Common Exam All material developed and managed by course coordinator

o Ensures specific learning outcomes attainedo Is a great way to ensure course quality when using new or part-time

instructors

Tips: Standardize the Instruction Common set of detailed lecture notes for each class

o Administrative topics identifiedo “Standard” Lecture

Communicate the “Lecture”o Create “Lecture Videos” – use an excellent freeware product: JINGo Lecture videos cover the detailed outline for each dayo Lecture videos demonstrate the specific topics as they would be

demonstrated in class Able to re-use these videos for access by students

o Provide starting lecture files which allows instructors to “mimic” video lecture if desired

148_LectureDay6.htm

148_Lecture_01_Outline.swf

148_Lecture_02_InputCells.swf

Thank You! Additional Information Available

o Course Learning Objectives and Learning Outcomeso Classroom Learning Activitieso Course Calendar (what is covered in each class day)o Example Lecture Outlineso Example Video Lectures

Contact:o Drew Foster: fosterdw@muohio.eduo Miami University

205 T Benton HallOxford, OH 45056