2008 Spotlights
ITC Spotlight on Innovative Faculty
Throughout the year, ITC will "put the spotlight" on a member of the UT teaching community so you can share in the innovative uses of technology they bring to the teaching practice. If you have an idea for a future spotlight, please email us: itc@utk.edu
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The Power of Technology
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Introduction
Dr. Wanda Costen has been teaching at UT Knoxville for 3 years, and
during that time, she has used technology to solve several of the problems that
many instructors face. Having used an online course management system
as a doctoral student, Dr. Costen began using her university's course
management system (WebCT) to deliver course materials to her students
at UNLV. While this eased the distribution of readings, it did little
to guarantee that students were actually reading the materials prior
to class meetings.
While at UNLV, Dr. Costen addressed this issue by incorporating
discussion boards, and requiring that students post questions or
comments prior to class meetings. She found that her students'
experience mirrored her own; initially, they disliked being required to
post questions and comments prior to class, but found they enjoyed it
by the end of the semester. She also found that it aided in preparing
for class sessions by identifying gaps in the students' knowledge of
the day's material, and allowed her to refocus the class to address
these issues. It also provided an arena for those students who were
less comfortable interacting during class to engage with the material.
These postings became a participation grade, with a schedule of 12
posts over the course of the semester, and eventually totaling those
responses out of 15 possible points. The content of these posts was
less critical than the fact that the student had posted a response at
all.