JTF web-enabled faculty and student tools for more effective teaching and learning through two-way, Frequent Formative Feedback

JTF (Just-in-Time-Teaching with Interactive Frequent Formative Feedback) is an NSF TUES Type 2 project with an overall goal of implementing web-enabled tools and resources that facilitate the strategies, practices, and assessments that use two-way frequent formative feedback to improve student attitude, learning, and achievement. The project is a collaboration of faculty at four institutions of higher education. In this paper we are reporting progress toward achieving the following goals of the project: 1) to develop engagement, feedback, and assessment resources for web-based suites of instructor Just-in-Time-Teaching tools and student Just-in-Time-Learning resources for interactive instruction that supports and facilitates web and classroom engagement pedagogy for more effective teaching and learning; 2) to build a community of practice that supports implementation of JTF pedagogy; 3) to investigate how instructors use JTF feedback and assessment to identify and diagnose student learning issues and the teaching strategies used to address them; 4) to assess the effect of the JTF pedagogy on student attitude, learning, and persistence, as well as effectiveness in resolving student learning issues; 5) to assess the potential for broader adaptation of JTF pedagogy in other engineering domains; and 6) to broadly disseminate and diffuse JTF strategies and resources to a wide audience to facilitate greater adaptation of JTF pedagogy. Some important highlights of progress over the past year in include the following. An important instructor resource for automated Muddiest Point data collection was activated in June 2013 and brought online as part of the Concept Warehouse (CW), cw.edudiv.org, web site that also has real- Time feedback for over 1600 Conceptest questions. The real- Time Muddiest Point student feedback capability includes PDF output with a word cloud and tabulated end-of-class Muddiest Point student responses. An important and popular student learning resource has been Muddiest Point YouTube materials science videos at www.youtube.com/user/MaterialsConcepts. By early 2014 the 18-month old site had acquired over 1,200 subscribers and had over 140,000 hits with more than 600,000 minutes of viewing. A survey of collaborating faculty showed almost all agreed or strongly agreed that being involved in JTF has: 1) had made them more reflective teachers; 2) had motivated them to change their classroom practice; 3) had made their students more engaged as a result of the changes they were implementing in my classroom teaching practice; and 4) helped them better understand their students' learning. The impact of JTF teaching strategies on student attitude at four diverse institutions found from a Student Value Survey on usefulness of Muddiest Points to learning found, that there was a positive average of 64% for Interest / Attainment Value, 85% average of Utility Value, and 84% agreement that the personal cost of effort was low. During 5 classes in Fall 2013 term, student persistence from the class second week to the final exam was 204 out of 211 or 97%. In working to impact other disciplines with JTF, a 2013 ASEE workshop had 28 participants who unanimously agreed they envisioned incorporating at least one of the web-based teaching and learning strategies from the workshop into their course(s). A final highlight regarding dissemination is that Wiley Publishing is using four types of JTF student learning resources in their Wiley Plus e-Learning web platform in the next edition of two materials textbooks. They include: 35 Muddiest Point Tutorial and Example Problem videos; a Muddiest Point data collection tool; a visual glossary vocabulary building web flash card resource; and a vocabulary definition- Term, multiple-choice set of quick questions. The body of the paper will discuss the results of the JTF project in more detail.