On Campus or Off Campus: Flexible Math Courses for Ohio State University Students
International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics – Las Vegas, NV, March 13-14, 2015
Abstract:
This project created a new calculus course format that replaces lectures with online, interactive lessons created with Articulate Storyline and uses in-person recitation time for guided active-learning opportunities. Students were able to participate in recitation sections from a distance, using Adobe Connect, enabling high school students to enroll.
Online Workshops for Calculus Students using the Articulate Mobile Player App
Joint Math Meetings – San Antonio, TX, January 10-14, 2015
Abstract: The Ohio State Mathematics and Statistics Learning Center has been supporting OSU’s thousands of calculus students with workshops for many years. The workshops give students another opportunity to understand some of the most difficult topics in the first year calculus courses. Traditionally, these workshops have been taught in-person using a Smart Board and group work. Now, students are asking for anytime, anywhere assistance. We are responding by developing online workshops. In order to keep the “work” aspect of the workshops in place, we have developed the workshops using Articulate Storyline. These workshops include short videos, quizzes with instantaneous feedback, and problems for students to try with video solutions. The workshops can be completed online using a web-broswer or downloaded to the iPad with Articulate Mobile Player app.
Interactive Online Lessons Using Articulate Storyline
Joint Math Meetings – San Antonio, TX, January 10-14, 2015
Authors: Elizabeth A Miller, Carolyn Johns, and Jason A Miller
Abstract: In some sections, we have replaced large lectures with interactive online lessons created with Articulate Storyline. These lessons combine content delivery and assessment to provide feedback to students as they are learning. This allows students to make sound judgments about questions like, “Did you really understand this point?”, “Are you ready to learn the next idea?”, and “Do you need to see more examples?”. Online lessons begin with computational and conceptual goals for the lesson. Within the lesson, students watch short videos, interact with slides, answer quiz questions, and make decisions about which examples and how many examples they try. When students answer quiz questions incorrectly, they are given instantaneous feedback and are often sent back to a previous slide to review before trying again. At the end of the lesson, students answer essay questions about what they have learned and what they are still having trouble with. These answers go to their recitation instructors to help them prepare for class. Although these lessons are a graded component in the hybrid and online courses, thousands of students in the traditional sections work through these lessons as well. Come see how you can use these calculus and liberal arts math lessons for your course.
Flipped and Flexible Calculus: A Different Calculus Experience
Joint Math Meetings – San Antonio, TX, January 10-14, 2015
Author: Elizabeth A Miller and Carolyn Johns
Abstract: Ohio State teaches a section of Calculus 1 and Calculus 2 each semester in our new Flipped and Flexible format. This format is more flexible for student schedules, is able to be taken from a distance, is open to high school students for post-secondary credit, and implements the educational theories of active learning in the flipped classroom. The traditional lectures are completely replaced with online lessons which include videos, scaffolding, quiz questions, and choices for students such as what they want to learn next or how many examples they would like to see. Students are able to review these lessons as many times as they like. Recitation sections feature guided group work, allowing students to master concepts with instructor assistance. Students can attend recitations from a distance when necessary. This format reduces class time from 5 hours a week to 2 hours a week. The goal of this course format is to assist students who need a more flexible format without sacrificing any of the academic depth or rigor of the course. Students are supported from a distance through online tutoring, email, and a class discussion board in Piazza. This course format allows students to perform similarly on common department exams to students in more traditional settings.
Using Flipping Pedagogy in an Online Course
Joint Math Meetings – San Antonio, TX, January 10-14, 2015
Authors: Jason A Miller, Gary Kennedy, and Elizabeth A Miller
Abstract: Excursions in Mathematics is a liberal arts math course which has traditionally been taught using large lectures and group-work based recitations. One major clientele for this course is nursing majors. With the advent of an online nursing program at Ohio State, it became necessary to put this course online (and quickly!). We wished to design an online course which still used group work as a central teaching method. This course has been taught online since Autumn 2013, and we have gradually developed a structure that bears a striking resemblance to a flipped classroom, only online! Students work through interactive online lessons asynchronously before class meetings. Then, the students attend synchronous online class sessions using Adobe Connect. In these class sessions, students are broken into groups using breakout rooms. Students work on problems collaboratively in their groups. They talk to each other using both microphones and a chat box and write on a common handout on the screen. The instructor jumps from group to group, asking leading questions and guiding the students. Despite some technical difficulties, we have found that this format really does engage students in learning the mathematics.
Orient Students to your Course with a Treasure Hunt
Joint Math Meetings – San Antonio, TX, January 10-14, 2015
Author: Elizabeth A Miller, Jason A Miller, and Carolyn Johns
Abstract: Does this sound familiar: “How are we graded in this course?”, “How do I register for the online homework system?”, “How was I supposed to know this was due!” For many math courses, especially first year courses which use technology, students are expected to assimilate a large amount of information about how the course is set up very quickly. As much as we want students to carefully read through the syllabus, they often just skim it. Some don’t look at it at all. In order to help address this problem, we have starting using a Treasure Hunt to introduce students to the important information about the course in our online and hybrid courses. The treasure hunt, which is built into our course management system using release conditions, begins with a short video which welcomes students to the course and introduces how the course is set-up. At the end of the video, there is a clue to what students should do next. As the students work through the Treasure Hunt, they learn about each aspect of the course before the next clue is released. From an instructor’s prospective, the treasure hunt prepares most students to understand the course format before the first day of class. It also allows early intervention with students who are not on track before they miss a crucial deadline.
Flipped and Flexible Calculus 1
Presentation to the OSU Math Department Administration
These are preliminary results from the Flipped and Flexible pilot section in AU13. This project was funded by an OSU Office of Distance Education and eLearning Impact Grant. In this class, lectures were replaced with online lessons created with Articulate Storyline and recitations were able to be attended online or in person. Recitations used active learning instructional strategies.
Teaching Online and Face to Face Students in the Same Class
Mathfest – Hartford, CT, August 1-3, 2013
Abstract:
In June of 2012, The Ohio State University switched from the quarter system to the semester system. This created many interesting logistical problems, including a large group of about 1000 students who had taken Calculus 1 under quarters and would need a special short course on basic integration to be able to take the Calculus 2 course under semesters. In order to meet the needs of these students, especially over the summer semester, the math department developed its first fully online course. Hybrid sessions of this course were also offered; another first for the math department! This presentation will talk about how that course was set up, what tools were used, what went well, what lessons were learned. Also, we will talk about how this experience has led us to design a new kind of course format which allows online and face-to-face students to participate in the same class sessions.We will be piloting this new course format in Autumn 2013. Tools which will be discussed in this presentation include: Smart Podium, Camtasia, Adobe Connect, OneNote, Samsung Slate, MyMathLab, Desire2Learn, and Articulate Storyline.
Technology-Enhanced Large Calculus Lectures
Mathfest – Hartford, CT, August 1-3, 2013
Abstract:
In order to improve student experience in large calculus lectures at The Ohio State University, the Mathematics Department began a project in 2008 to develop and implement a better calculus experience for students. The result is our Technology Enhanced Calculus Lectures, which were first piloted in Autumn of 2010 and have been continuously improved since then. This style of lecture includes teaching using a computer, writing in digital ink, demonstrating concepts using interactive online figures, and posting pdfs and videos of each lecture online for students after class. Some instructors have also experimented with using clickers to make the class more interactive. A challenge of this program has been to recruit and train new lecturers to teach in this method each semester, and has led to the creation of a technology enhanced lecturer coordinator role in the department. This type of teaching has been shown to increase student satisfaction with the calculus course and to at least maintain student achievement. The implementation of these technology enhanced lectures has also led to a higher visibility for the uses of instructional technology in the department, more experiments with instructional technology, and the formation of a department eLearning committee. This talk will explain and demonstrate various ways these technology enhanced lectures are being taught in our department.
Supporting Large-First Year Courses with a Mathematics and Statistics Learning Center
Mathfest – Hartford, CT, August 1-3, 2013
Abstract:
This talk will explain how the Ohio State University has supported and enhanced its first-year, large-scale courses from developmental math to calculus with a Mathematics and Statistics Learning Center (MSLC). The MSLC consists of five full-time staff members, almost 300 undergraduate and graduate tutors, and averages about 50,000 student tutoring hours a year. The MSLC also works closely with course coordinators, provides supplemental workshops and exam reviews, and supports the department’s effort to utilize instructional technology in large courses. This talk will talk about how the MSLC was founded, how it is set up, how it has expanded overtime, and some current initiatives the MSLC is involved in.
Recommendations for Increasing Instructional Technology in a Department
Innovate {Engage} Conference, Columbus, OH, March 26, 2013
Handout from a joint presentation with Dr. Darry Andrews, The Ohio State University, and Dr. Pat Reid, Purdue University.
Abstract:
Many of the barriers to adoption of technology are based on how administration approach instructional technologies. This session will start with a brief overview of a recent article on categories of barriers for adoption. Then OSU math instructors will talk about barriers they have encountered while adopting instructional technology and what they did as a result. This will be followed by a brainstorming session of which areas individual can control and/or influence and how. As a result of this session, participants will have some new ideas of how they can improve faculty effective adoption of instructional technologies in a department or institution.
Technology-Enhanced Calculus Lectures
Academic Exchange Quarterly, Winter 2011 (Volume 15, Issue 4)
Abstract:
Technology‐enhanced, large lectures were piloted in introductory calculus courses. These lectures were presented using digital ink and enhanced with interactive figures and clicker questions. Slides, lecture notes, and a lecture‐capture video were available to students via the web. Analysis included academic performance and satisfaction surveys. While grades and instructor satisfaction remained near constant, student satisfaction improved markedly.
Learning in Neural Networks: A Comparison of Networks of Hodgkin-Huxley Neurons and Networks of Map Model Neurons Each Endowed with Spike-time-dependent Plasticity
Master’s Thesis, The Ohio State University, 2007
Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of adding adjustable synapses to a network of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons. The synapse-learning rule used is multiplicative spike-time- dependent plasticity. Using the computer program, LearningNets, this project investigates the resulting firing patterns after a network of forty neurons is allowed to run for 4000 milliseconds. All synapses are allowed to evolve for this whole time period. Half of the neurons are biased with a sinusoidal applied current for the first three seconds. Results include investigating synchronization of neurons, the effect of the number of synapses allowed, the effect of the number of inhibitory synapses on the resulting firing of the neurons, the effect of varying the time delay between neurons, the distribution of synapse weights, and the number of neurons which are active at a given time. All of the results are compared to the same studies for a network of 40 map model neurons with additive spike-time-dependent plasticity. This study finds that both models lead to learning when the right parameters are chosen. The Hodgkin-Huxley model leads to a more biological network with higher levels of synchronization.
A New Axiomatic Geometry: Cylindrical (or Periodic) Geometry
Undergraduate Thesis, Denison University, 2004
Abstract:
Historically, new geometries have developed by making changes to current axiom systems and then developing a model that illustrates the new geometry. The most classic example of this is the development of hyperbolic geometry, which came from negating Euclid’s fifth postulate. This project inverts the process: we start with a geometric object and attempt to find a set of axioms that characterizes the geometry modeled by the object. This project investigates the infinite cylinder and develops an axiom system that captures the geometry on the surface of an infinite cylinder. This paper sets up a logical system which describes this geometry and which is used to prove theorems about the geometry.