Goal

These materials are designed for workshops on designing studies of technology use in a course. The approach embodied in the materials has been pioneered by The Flashlight Program of The TLT Group. It focuses on how, and why, students use technologies as the key to gauging the value of the technology and as a way of suggesting how the course can be improved.

The materials begin with an excerpt from an essay by Prof. Aaron Cohen of California State University, Sacramento. Prof. Cohen describes his exploration of how a course management system (WebCT) could be used to improve a history course (History 130, “Fall of Communism”) with an enrollment of 60, substituting online interaction for at least some of the conversation that might otherwise occur in a face-to-face classroom.

Workshop Design

After a brief introduction, participants read the Cohen paper.

Activity 1: how would you design a study that would help Prof. Cohen improve the value of WebCT use in his course? What data would you suggest that Prof. Cohen gather? How should he gather it?

Activity 2: Annotate the case by highlighting mentions of technology (in red, if a colored marker or highlighter has been given to you), mentions of activities using the technology (in green), and mentions of outcomes of such activities (in blue)

Activity 3: after discussion of the annotations, create a table displaying these notes as triads

Table of Contents

1. This introduction
2. A description of technology use in a history course by Prof. Aaron Cohen of Cal State Sacramento
3. Initial survey created by Prof. Cohen (part I)
4. Initial survey created by Prof. Cohen (part II)
5. Prof. Cohen’s description, annotated by Dr. Ehrmann to highlight Cohen’s mentions of technology, the way it’s to be used, and the educational results desired from those uses of technology
6. Triad Chart (blank)
7. Triad Chart (Ehrmann analysis of Cohen) followed by initial notes on survey design (incomplete)