Capture Guest Experts on Video for Future Use

Challenge

All freshmen in the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) are required to take part in CSE 1001, the First Year Experience, a one-credit A/F grade-based course.  Enrollment is generally 1000+ students with 26 sections, approximately 40 students per section. Through this course students explore CSE majors, get connected to engagement opportunities within CSE and beyond, and discover what their future in science and engineering will entail.

Students enrolled in the course are required to complete a design-and-build project. In Fall 2013, students built sleds, and in Fall 2014 the projects involved geometric optics.

Frank Kelso, Department of Mechanical Engineering, explains:

CSE 1001 is a challenging course to offer. Designed to help incoming freshmen successfully transition from high school to college, the course is a mixture of practical advice with life skills and a chance to interact with a professor on a hands-on design-and-build project. It's a challenge (to say the least!) to offer a hands-on project experience to 1,080 students. And with faculty chosen from about every department in the college, it's a challenge for the faculty person to provide expertise in a project that might be outside their domain! This year's project involves a design-and-build activity involving geometric optics, not a topic all our faculty were experienced with.

Solution

CSE requested that ATSS create six 5 - 10 minute video lectures designed to teach students the concepts necessary to complete their projects. Guest experts provided the content expertise. After viewing the videos, students took quizzes in Moodle to check their understanding of concepts and their readiness for class discussion.

The team included CSE faculty, experts to be filmed, a videographer, instructional designers, and a project manager. A workflow was devised to effectively engage faculty prior to recording and outline for them “Keys for Success” to delivering effective material online.

Outcome

Frank Kelso says:

We have some of the world's foremost experts in optics here at the University, and we were able to tap their expertise and bring it directly to our students. Through a series of short videos, experts like Dr. Terry Jones, Astrophysics, and Dr. James Leger, Electrical Engineering, presented introductory knowledge in optics to our students. Faculty teaching this freshmen course were able to leverage that expertise, and follow up with suggested discussion topics and questions. And we didn't just tap optics experts here at the University, but experts in creative design (Dr. Barry Kudrowitz), project team dynamics (Dr. Kirk Froggatt), and decision-making (Dr. Will Durfee). Our students have leading authorities facilitating our hands-on design-and-build project, thanks to the services provided by ATSS.