Exit Survey for Faculty Researchers

Carnegie Grant, Spring 2005

Denise Ezell

1. What are the most positive things that happened for YOU as an instructor because of the technology (specific accomplishments, obstacles you overcame, epiphanies, positive emotions in the classroom, etc.)?

In relation to PowerPoint, I have more ease in the classroom ~ I don’t have the anxiety that arises when I’m writing on the board and worry that if I don’t write fast enough or if the example I’ve come up with out of my head is not compelling enough, I’ll lose the momentum and the students’ attention for the class period. Having pre-developed slides also saves me the trouble of having to think on my feet as often.

I realized that while the PowerPoint slides are a bit consuming to create (and I did the most basic, stripped down slides), they’re worth the trouble in terms of improved student focus, and eventually I’ll have a set of slides that won’t need so much tweaking, so this groundwork preparation is just temporary.

2. What are the most positive changes you observed in your students as a result of the technology?

Because the technology holds their attention better, the class seems more focused. Since it’s only the first semester with technology in 189, I can’t tell if how much of the good behavior of these otherwise easily distracted students is class chemistry (luck) and how much is the technology; I look forward to next semester to see if I have the same results.

Students have commented that the technology DOES make a difference for them—that seeing the examples large, on the screen, and interactively (sliding in answers after they think about it) really gives them a stronger grasp of the material than my just writing it on the whiteboard or my telling them or confirming correct answers for blanks in the book. I have a sight-impaired student (she can see, but it’s hard for her) who has expressed special gratitude for being able to learn via PowerPoint slides.

3. What problems, if any, did the technology cause in student performance or behavior? Do you have any strategies for correcting these problems?

Being in a room with computers every day, while WILDLY convenient (and I hope to have the same for next semester) was also somewhat of a distraction. I’m not sure how often it took place, but some of the students would check e-mail or look at websites while I was going through the PowerPoint slides. However, I believe I was tuned into these individuals (the layout of the class made it easy for me to see who was engaged and who seemed otherwise occupied), and I made it a point to call on those clearly not paying attention. That re-directed everyone’s attention (realizing that anyone could be called on at any moment). As time went on, for the most part, it was not a problem. However, this was an especially attentive class, and I’m not sure how I’d handle a slightly rowdier class (or a class with a few less polite students). I had a few students (in three different classes that had required WebCT work) who, despite having the exercises open at least a week, usually more, complained that because their computers were down, they needed exercises re-opened.

The other issue is computer availability. For MOST, computer access was easy. However, I did have a few students in English 191 and 189 who had no home computer and had difficulty staying on campus long enough to spend the hours in the lab (because of full-time jobs and childcare issues). So these students were unable to complete the WebCT exercises. Next semester I’ll be even more emphatic about the students’ inability to finish the course without WebCT work (and suggest they drop if they anticipate problems spending the hours required each week on the computer).

4. What are the (three) most important challenges or obstacles you’ve encountered in implementing the technology?

One obstacle has been the time it’s taken to correct errors in the WebCT quizzes. I probably spent 25 to 30 hours this semester in tracking down, correcting, and reporting errors in the quizzes. Fortunately, these things having been fixed, they won’t need to be re-fixed in the future. I’m hoping there are very few glitches left in the quizzes to correct (although some students did call my attention to problems they found in quizzes, though they didn’t remember the exact quiz and I never did locate the problem in question).

A second problem was REMEMBERING to release certain quizzes or vocabulary tests and then the time it took to do that. I often opened WordBank tests at the LAST moment. For next semester, I will plan out EVERY open and close date, including for the WordBank tests, and give a list to the WebCT Help Desk students at the first of the semester to have them enter everything so that I won’t have to think about it. (I completely forgot about the apostrophe quizzes until this week and didn’t have the heart, at this late date, to open a new set of exercises when they’re stressing about finals—they did do a fair amount of practice on this on worksheets—still, I missed a chance to offer them practice).

A third problem has been, in part, related to my own slight tendency toward perfection—while I spent a lot of time on some slides, there is not one show that I don’t want to change at least a part of (whether it’s to break it up differently, get rid of part of it that may belabor a point that doesn’t need to be belabored, add more exercises, or clarify a rule). I spent a lot of time throwing together slideshows that I knew were not well developed but felt that SOME slideshow presentation of the material was better than bookwork alone. So while the work I did this semester on PowerPoint & WebCT was to be the equivalent of another three-credit class, I felt that I didn’t have adequate time to do the job I wanted. I spent a lot of time on what I considered sub-standard presentations. I’m happy I have a base to work with now, but it is indeed BASIC.

5. Compare and contrast the technological materials (PPT, website, etc.) with the traditional materials (whiteboard, book, etc.). Where are you in terms of the balancing of these two pedagogies?

In considering whether to use the book (and how much to use it), I’m going to have to think about that long and hard before the time to turn in the book orders. On the surveys, the students seem split on book use. I used the book so little (because I had access to so much PowerPoint—Chris’s and the little that I developed myself) that it seemed unfair that students should pay so much for something they used so little (and it was a brand new edition this semester—pricey). There are sections in the book that the students grew to appreciate; for example, at the end of each chapter was a review of the rules—an overview (e.g. at the end of the comma chapter, there is a layout, list-style, of each rule for when to use commas with one example for each). At the end of the book on the inside back cover, there is a diagram of all the ways to combine complete thoughts (coordinating conjunction, conjunctive adverb, etc. with the correct method of punctuation for each). Also, the book has clear and interesting paragraphs for the students to read and find specific errors in—these paragraph-long editing practices are quite valuable for the students (and would be time consuming to create on my own). Certainly these things can be duplicated on handouts (separate or as part of a packet), but since generally speaking, textbooks are not going to be obsolete any time soon, and because 189 students are new to academia and often have weak student skills, I like the idea of their coming to count on their textbooks as a reliable reference source. Either I will hustle over the winter break to pull together a packet for the students to buy from me and NOT have a textbook at all—just a collection of rule sheets with examples and exercises—or I will have them buy the text to use as a reference source and for the exercises. Either way, I plan to use the PowerPoint slides just as much as I did this semester (but not more)—I probably used PowerPoint slideshows for MOST of the one-hour class roughly 50% of the time, and for PART of the class another 35% of the time. While not all students completed the full offering of WebCT exercises, I still plan to give them all.

6. How have your beliefs or attitudes changed about the technology since you observed it last spring in Chris’s class?

While I always believed it was a good idea, I guess I felt a bit technologically intimidated and thought that either I wouldn’t be able to handle it (I couldn’t create slides or if I did, I couldn’t handle them in the classroom). I realize that it’s not nearly so difficult as I thought it might be.

Also, since seeing Ida Ferdman’s slides, I realize how creative it’s possible to get and how exciting the slides can make a class.

7. What (three) things will do you differently with the technology next semester?

I will not have students doing review (e.g. fragment review, run-on review) right after they’ve done the actual exercises. I had two students (actually in English 191) complain that it felt like “busy work” because so many of the sentences were a repetition of what they’d done in the actual practices. I’m rethinking how many quizzes to require of students (and maybe I’ll only require certain quizzes for students with certain problems—I need to think through the process).

8. In terms of long-term goals and potential for the use of technology in your classroom, how far have you come, percentage-wise? Are you 5% there, 20% there, etc.? Please explain your answer.

I’d say that I’m 70% of the way to where I’d like to be (at least as I envision things now—as I go along, I may become MORE ambitious in terms of my technology goals). I see myself doing things much as I did them this semester, and most of the changes I’d like to make boil down to tweaking (though it may be dramatic tweaking): revising my slide shows to be aesthetically more appealing (though I don’t want to subordinate the lessons to the entertainment value of the slide), adding or refining how I present certain rules, and creating more quizzes (I have none for commas). Again, I also want to re-think how I release the quizzes in the spring (all of them? Do I leave them open for the full semester since re-opening became such a chore? What time limit do I give them?) I also want to rework some of the Word Bank quizzes that I found to be problematic.

9. Do you still believe that this electronic pedagogy can be successfully transferred to other classrooms and other instructors without “cloning” the originators of the pedagogy?

Yes! With the base resource of some grammar rules, examples, and organizational lessons, an instructor can come in and alter the slides to fit their style and their idea of how long to spend on each lesson. The same goes for the quizzes. Instructors can have the bank of quizzes for practice and require as many or few as fits their agenda.