VaNTH ERC for Bioengineering Educational Technologies

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Innovations in Bioengineering Education

Two types of research are being undertaken to document the fidelity and relative strength of the case for change in VaNTH-supported modules and courses: (1) direct observation of selected courses though use of the VaNTH Observation System (VOS); and (2) surveys of students' and instructors' perceptions of the degree to which four core principles underlying the How People Learn (HPL) Framework are present in courses.

The VOS is derived from decades of research in K-12 classrooms and captures three fundamental aspects of teaching and learning: (1) teacher-student interactions in terms of who-to whom-did what-how-with what-media; (2) a "snapshot" of student engagement in a variety of sanctioned and unsanctioned activities (e.g., instruction, small group collaboration, sleeping, socializing); (3) the context of the class, captured in a section of the VOS called "Narrative Notes." Combining Parts 1 and 2 characterizes the relationship between the teacher-student interactions and students' engagement. As such, the VOS provides a "real-time" behavioral assessment of what transpires in selected experimental and control courses. The VOS relies on electronic capture through the use of a personal digital assistant (e.g., Palm Pilot). Results to date indicate significant differences between instructors trained in HPL principles and those not receiving such training.

To achieve greater assessment coverage-but less depth-than is feasible with the VOS, the researchers are using a web-based survey of students and faculty at the VaNTH test sites to examine perceptions about the degree to which HPL features are present in HPL and non-HPL courses. The student survey (Experiences in and Benefits from this Course, or EBC) elicits student perceptions of the extent to which their biomedical engineering courses are guided by the four "centers" of HPL and the educational benefits they derived from these experiences.

The faculty questionnaire (the Course Characteristics and Instructional Strategies) is completed by the faculty of each course. This survey contains the same subscales as the EBC, but the items have been reworded to reflect the extent to which faculty engage in HPL modes of instruction in their course. This survey is currently being pilot-tested. As with the VOS measurements, these assessments reveal that HPL courses differ from conventional courses in the degree to which HPL features are present. These observational and survey instruments will continue to be useful for measuring the impact of HPL activities in the bioengineering curricula of the VaNTH testbeds and should be useful outside bioengineering as well.

To learn more about this topic:
Visit the VaNTH ERC for Bioengineering Educational Technologies web site at http://www.vanth.org/RPD.html

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Last modified: February 11, 2005