Faculty grants support innovative teaching with instructional technology

By Beth Goelzer Lyons

Provide multiple ways to learn difficult concepts. Build community in a large class. Enable students to collect and analyze data. Work with colleagues and students at other locations.

To help Cornell faculty evaluate and apply technological solutions to challenges like these, the Faculty Innovation in Teaching Program was launched in May. Part of the university's larger Distributed Learning Initiative, this program awards grants for projects that make creative use of instructional technologies -- web sites, computer-based tools, video, PowerPoint and so on --to achieve specific pedagogical goals.

This semester, 16 grants were awarded by the college and school deans and four by the Faculty Advisory Board on Information Technologies (FABIT). The grants provide the support needed to take the projects from the proposal stage through several stages of development and implementation, depending on their scale.

Instructional designers from Cornell Information Technologies' Academic Technology Center -- in concert with staff at Cornell University Library, the Center for Learning and Teaching, the Web Production Group and Educational Television Center of Media and Technology Services, and the Human Computer Interaction Group --will coordinate the projects and assist the faculty with project planning, instructional design, web programming, video production and other services.

The grants program is funded by the Office of the Provost. More information can be found at www.cit.cornell.edu/atc/innovation/. The grant winners and projects, by college:

Agriculture and Life Sciences

• Charles Walcott, Tom Owens and Jon Glase will add more interactivity to the introductory, large-enrollment biology sequence, BIOG 101/102.

• Philip Arneson, Tony DiTommaso, John Losey and Peter Trutmann will enhance and extend learning and practice in integrated pest management, with the potential for reaching farmers in developing countries.

• Charles Greene, Larry Brown, Louis Derry, Drew Harvell, Bryan Isacks, Mike Kelley, Alex Moore, Susan Riha and Joe Yavitt will create a mobile information and computing infrastructure enabling students to do sophisticated field research in environmental sciences.

Architecture, Art and Planning

• Henry Richardson will integrate CAVE technology in teaching architecture and urban design so that students can develop and test designs in a virtual 3-D environment.

Arts and Sciences

• Timothy Murray will co-teach a distributed learning course that combines digital art and interactive installation with cultural perspectives.

• Steve Pond will address large-class teaching challenges in music, including accessing and annotating multimedia resources.

• John Wolff will develop web-based tools to support beginning and intermediate Indonesian courses and refocus class time to pronunciation, conversation and cultural immersion.

Computing and Information Science

• David Schwartz will design a cooperative learning computer lab to help shift the perception of competition in Introduction to Computer Programming (COMS 100) to one of cooperation and peer mentorship.

Engineering

• Robin Roundy and Peter Jackson will improve the quality of discussion and interaction for remote students enrolled in Applied Systems Engineering 1 and 2.

• Donald Bartel, Rajesh Bhaskaran, David Caughey, Rafaello D'Andrea, Nicholas Zabaras and Alan Zehnder will develop a web-based course on using three engineering simulation tools essential in the industry.

Hotel Administration

• Dennis Reynolds will integrate field experiences and interactivity with food service management education to provide a case-based learning experience.

Human Ecology

• Judy Ross-Bernstein will focus on supporting multiple perspectives in child field study and improving the application of research to practice.

Industrial and Labor Relations

• Michael Gold will develop nontraditional methods for teaching case law in support of Labor and Employment Law (ILRCB201/501).

Johnson Graduate School of Management

• Robert Bloomfield will further develop business decision-making simulations reflecting a wide variety of market settings.

Law School

• Theodore Eisenberg and Kevin Clermont will develop resources for instruction in empirical methods, provide access to rich data collections and enable students to add to the knowledge base.

College of Veterinary Medicine

• Richard Rawson and Brad Njaa will create computer-based tutorial cases for Function and Dysfunction (VetMed 530/531) to enable students to practice diagnostic skills in different contexts.

Universitywide (FABIT)

• David Gries will design modules for advanced placement courses taught in high schools.

• John Henderson will develop ways to enhance students' understanding of the processes of collecting and interpreting data that can provide insight about ancient societies.

• Marcia Lyons and Margaret Corbit will offer MediaArtSpace Live, a course that uses digital media tools to collaborate in the production of live performances.

• John Zissovici, Marcia Lyons, David Borden and Marilyn Rivchin will offer Media Arts Studio I, a course in producing art with digital media tools and attempting to engage people in nonacademic and commercial spaces.