Computers in Physics Education

Computers in Physics Education A newsletter published by the CTI Centre for Physics Number 11 December 1996 Editorial Best wishes for the New Year from everyone at the CTI Physics Centre. In this edition some of the considerations that arise for academic staff who wish to use IT in their teaching are discussed. These include the objectives for the lecturer in using IT in teaching to the benefits that CBL can have for the student. Also discussed are some aspects that have to be considered when choosing software types and styles. It is planned in a future edition to follow this article with some case studies. For successful implementation of CAL, "user friendly" authoring packages are needed to allow the lecturer to collate software relevant to a topic into a coherent hypermedia resource. Three examples of these packages are briefly described. Contents Editorial Using CBL 1 Bringing IT all together 4 CTI Diary 6 CTI Physics Centre Physics Department, Tel. (01483) 259329 University of Surrey, Fax. (01483) 259501 Guildford, Surrey, GU2 5XH, United Kingdom. Email ctiphys@surrey.ac.uk WWW http://www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/cti/ Director Manager Co-ordinators Editor: ISSN 1354-9987 Dr. Dick Bacon Mrs. Margaret Millington Dr. Phil Barker Margaret Millington

So you are thinking about using CBL? A series of suggested considerations for academic staff in Higher Education who may want to use information technology (IT) in their teaching. It is intended solely as a guide to the use of computer-based learning (CBL) materials. 1. Introduction: This document should help you to decide whether or not to use IT in your teaching, assessing some of its advantages and disadvantages. It will help you to identify good CBL materials, making sure you have considered hardware and software issues by identifying many of the problems and pitfalls which may occur, and some of the main issues which will face your institution. 2. Starting out: It is possible to identify a number of basic challenges facing you as a teacher/lecturer, notably, improving the quality and effectiveness of teaching, the need to increase the attractiveness of courses in the face of competition in the market (partially mitigated by the popularity of technological developments for example e-mail and the Internet), and the need to cater for greater numbers of students from varied backgrounds. Further items which need consideration are the need to broaden access (and to offer nontraditional entry methods), and to support different forms of transfer into HE, the provision of more flexible patterns of learning, the problems of time and the balance between research, teaching and other activities, and the inevitable expectation of students that you ought to be a world-class researcher, manager and orator rolled into one. 2.1 Course aims: Any course or module should aim to provide the students with a basic knowledge of the facts and a range of subject-specific skills (e.g., calculus), both theoretical and practical. Competence in the use of IT is an integral part of training. It is also crucial that the students are brought to a full(er) understanding of the course material by involving them in the learning process, both as individuals and collaboratively, encouraging them to ask questions and argue issues. 2.2 The benefits of IT to you as a lecturer: If the CBL is used well, many students will react positively towards it and hence the course, which in turn encourages them and makes them inclined to be more responsible for their own learning. (This is of prime importance should the course be taught remotely.) Any positive experience with the course material will save you time as the students learn more efficiently, and there may be a decrease in the associated assessment and/or marking duties, and fewer routine enquiries to handle. The use of IT gives you a greater access to documents, images, even animated graphics, or other information which would otherwise be difficult or expensive to obtain. Futhermore, this increased choice of teaching materials will give you a greater flexibility in teaching, especially when confronted by large numbers of students with differing needs. Finally of course, by using IT in teaching, your own IT skills will improve, and you will save time that can be used for better teaching, for clearer assessment, and for research. The use of IT is also looked upon favourably by the Teaching Quality Assessment. 2.3 The benefits of IT to your students: CBL commonly enables students to learn actively and interactively, and encourages them to become involved in their own learning processes. Given a good work ethic such as this, many students benefit from being allowed to work at their own pace. Exploring problems in their own way can educate those students that would normally fall outside the traditional linear teaching pattern by enabling them to generate their own examples of physicsal processes and phenomena aided by the increased volume of material available and a more dynamic and controllable learning 1

environment. The above, coupled with decreased (or immediate) feedback times with individually more appropriate answers, means that students should be able to understand and solve problems in a more creative manner. Finally, students will learn more IT skills, and feel that they are working in a positive, modern department. 2.4 The benefits of IT to your department: Medium-term and long-term teaching costs are likely to reduce as staff are able to cater for increasing numbers of students, and there will be an increase in the number of opportunities for both modularization and remote learning. As student productivity increases, your department and institution will gain from the increased marketability to funding bodies and potential students, not least from improved quality assessment ratings, and from an improved image. 3. CBL considerations: 3.1 Software styles: Teaching software packages come with different inherent methodologies, and you should be aware of the range available in order to make an informed choice as to which is/are most suitable for your course or module. The most obvious styles are: tutorials, where the software leads the student through a series of logical steps, much as a human tutor might; practicals, where the student runs a simulation of an laboratory experiment or physical process (which might otherwise be too expensive, too dangerous, or simply impossible to actually do in a laboratory environment); and practice units in which students respond to a series of variations-on-a-theme questions designed to expose them to different aspects of a single problem. A more common extension of this latter style (practice units) allows the student to vary the parameters of the problem to explore for themselves the factors influencing the simulated experiments or processes. Microworlds give even greater freedom to explore a simulated environment in a games-like manner. As well as the primary styles, there are a number of associated software types that have a valuable rôle to play. Students should be offered a range of analysis or modelling tools with which they can anaylse data taken in practical simulations; information retrieval (from CD-ROM or the WWW) can be used to supplement and extend work done for practicals or project work (as well as for selfstudy); presentation software can be used in the preparation of homework, reports, projects, and talks; and tools such as e-mail, can increase the effectiveness of the communication between tutor and student, even (potentially) allowing students access to external experts. There are also packages available which provide databasing facilities which can augment the assessment and marking process for tutors. 3.2 Hardware provision: There are a number of basic yet important considerations to be made when investigating what hardware will be used to present CBL courses. Most notable are: the choice of platform (X-Windows, Macintosh or PCbased), of operating system (Unix, DOS, Linux), and of the machine specifications (how much Random-access Memory [RAM] and hard-disc [HD] space? What type and resolution of monitor [VGA or SVGA], and should it be in colour? Will CD-ROMs, floppydisc drives, or sound cards be needed?) You may also wish to consider what machines are already in use at your institution as the maintainance of portability in both software and data is of increasing importance. There may be machines already present which you can use or apply for time on. Local considerations also play a part. How many PCs (for example) can you fit in the allocated room(s) and how easily can students access them for both timetabled and private study? Is a booking system needed and how will it be monitored? A sensible estimate of the number of students you expect to take the course will be very useful at this point. The machines should almost certainly be networked, but careful thought must be given to the amount of access they are allowed to the localarea and wide-area networks (LANs and 2

WANs). There is also a need to supply technical support and consumables for the printers (at least during working hours), but how much of the cost should be borne by the students? 3.3 Other support: As well as software-specific and hardwarespecific issues, support for CBL courses will also have to come from administrative, technical, and academic sources (the latter from colleagues, reasearch assistants, and postgraduate students, some of whom will be available to help teach or supervise, some who may wish to contribute software or software support). The provision of equipment purchasing, the production, copying, and dissemination of CBL materials, and increased security all have to be addressed, and finance for software, hardware, and support will have to be found within the short-term and mediumterm budgets available. 4. CBL selection and implementation: 4.1 Some selection criteria: There is a huge range of teaching software currently on the market, so it is important to identify what it is that distinguishes a good package from a bad one. There will be good and bad points in every package, so weigh them up against oneother carefully. A good package is well designed and presents itself with a consistent look and feel. It always has clear and complete on-line and offline help and clear and sufficient documentation covering installation and trouble-shooting. It will also be easy (if not trivial) to install. Where sensible, it will have a helpline you can call. Good software will be quick to learn and easy to use (remember that this is a teaching package, not a programming language). If it is customizable, it will be simple and obvious to do so, and it will never make you feel lost; navigating through tasks, routines, and levels will be clear (always look for a Back to the top button or similar command). Finally, good teaching software will exploit a computer s strengths by using (possibly animated) graphics and performing calculations and not relying too heavily on text. Given all this, remember to make sure that it does everything you need it to! 4.2 Obtaining and implementing software: Teaching software can be obtained from the Teaching and Learning Technology Projects (TLTPs) and the Information Technology Training Initiative (ITTI). There is also a vast range of commercial software available, as well as a great deal of freeware or shareware available from public domain servers. There may be others in your own institution who know of or have written teaching software that may be applicable to your course. Of course, you could even write it yourself! Advice on the implementation of teaching software packages can be obtained from your local IT Officer or Computer Services in the first instance, or, failing that, your next stop should be the software author(s) or distributors. A simultaneous call to the 24 CTI Centres or TLTSN Centres may get a quicker answer, and the Computers in Teaching Initiative Support Service (CTISS) or the Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative for Scotland (LTDI) might be of assistance. As a last hope, there are often software usergroups on the Internet who have seen problems before. 4.3 Course design and software incorporation: When designing your course, it is important to discuss it as widely as possible with your colleagues, course leaders, and teaching committees (and TLTP or LTDI contacts), that the CBL should be incorporated fully into the course, and that you should know and plan for the genuine level of computer literacy amongst your students. Test your software on several different machines (before your course starts), and test the course and materials firstly on yourself and a few colleagues, then on a small but representative group of students. Get feedback whenever and wherever possible and update the course material appropriately. Upgrade the package too, when new releases become available. Dedicated handouts or worksheets will encourage CBL usage. It is important to remember that problems are 3

inevitable, but that they must be corrected with all due speed if the students are to remain confident that your CBL is worthwhile. CBL material can be used in a plethora of ways: as a substitute for (parts of) lectures, tutorials, or practicals; as a tool to prompt discussion in lectures; as a resource for group or project work; to analyse real or simulated data; to encourage self-study; or as an assessment tool or aid. 4.4 Selling the idea to the students: When first running the software, tell the students that they are part of a trial group and encourage feedback (and listen to it). When running the course full-time, it is important to give the students clear and reasonable aims, making it clear that they will gain from using CBL (and computers in general). Tie the CBL sessions closely to the lecture to provide focus, only including relevant materials, and be sure to tell the students how, when, and where they can get help using them. Keep the students involved both by providing rapid feedback to them on their assessments, and by getting them to interact in more general ways, e.g., by setting up a mailing-list for their contributions and discussions. It may well be necessary to offer an introductory session for those who have little or no previous IT experience; remember that there will be a wide range of expertise in the early days of each course. 5. Problems and attitudes: 5.1 A few inital assumptions to avoid: It is (demonstrably) not the case that all of your students will be computer literate. Just because they come from the computer age, it does not follow that they understand how computers work. The same argument applies to your colleagues too. Furthermore, any assumption that either students or colleagues will be as keen on your CBL as you are is likely to be quickly disproven. Do not assume that CBL will be used simply because it is there it must be a properly planned part of your course, and do not assume that it can replace you or your lectures that is not its function. 5.2 A few initial problems you may encounter: Undoubtedly, your workload during the first year that you adopt CBL will substantially increase; there will be new methods to adapt to, problems integrating the materials, and (numerous) technical problems. You may be limited by compromises you have had to make on the choice of software or lack of facilities. Students will encounter the same problem at different times as they work at their own pace, forcing you to repeat solutions several times, and if a student loses his or her motivation, crucial sessions may be missed putting them even further behind. 5.3 A few of the most common student attitudes to prepare for: The range is covered by I don t like computers, I don t know how to use a computer, I don t know how to use this computer, and I know all about computers. The first three are a matter of coaxing, and the last one requires a watchful eye. That the work is perceived as useful is vital; some students think that CBL is there to let tutors off of real lecturing. This idea must clearly be discouraged. Others undervalue it because they cannot continue to use the software outside lectures in the same way that they might use a textbook. It is important to stress that this is another kind of learning, not a replacement for an old one. Unfortunately, there are those students who will try to take advantage of the new style by claiming that they couldn t get in to do the homework because the room was locked or I did my homework, but it was lost when the machine crashed. You may have to check such claims out with the system manager or security to weed out the false from the true, but it is worth doing because word will quickly spread that such checks are being made. Nevertheless, you must also ensure that all possible access is granted the students on a sufficient number of machines, and that students understand that it is their responsibility to do backups where necessary (as well as knowing how to do them). 4

5.4 A few staff attitudes you may encounter: Perhaps the most damaging attitude that your colleagues may have is that they should be teaching their subject rather than some sort of half-hearted computing course. You will have to convince them otherwise by making it clear that CBL is a means to an end, not the end itself. Some might even feel that computing is a job for technical staff, not lecturers. Again, making them aware the CBL is a powerful tool may help to change their minds. It is also important to let them know that there was nothing wrong with the way that their courses were being taught, rather that there is a new opportunity to extend how they are taught, saving time and resources along the way. Neither is it impersonal, certainly no more impersonal than a textbook, and generally more likely to engage the student; besides, CBL sessions should not be exclusively self-study. Lastly, of course, some lecturers may have worries concerning, e.g., machine crashes or software glitches. These can only be allayed by making sure that the appropriate level of technical support is available. 6. Concluding hints and words of encouragment: know your students make sure the CBL system is what they need; know the software well; be enthusiastic; be the facilitator; provide encouragement; learn when to intervene; set targets and deadlines; be led by the teaching, not the technology; evaluate thoroughly; focus on disciplines; attend to standards; reflect and adapt; know where to get help; Bringing IT all together be confident and flexible and enjoy IT! Phil Barker at LTDI compares three software products that can be used to integrate software into a pre-planned teaching course. Further information on the products can be obtained by contacting the relevant people listed at the end of this article. Introduction: One of the keys to successful implementation of Computer Aided Learning is to integrate the software with your course so that the software is not seen by the students as an optional bolt-on extra. It is important to relate items of CAL to your lecture course showing how they are relevant, and where appropriate giving instructions on how the software should be used. This can be done during the lectures, but since the software will be used on a computer it makes sense to reinforce this by collecting software relevant to a topic into a coherent resource. Some authoring packages such as Toolbook allow the facility of launching external applications, and many Windows packages allow links to other packages to be embedded and started by clicking on an icon. There are also packages which are designed to take disparate digital resources, which could be text, courseware and other computing resources and integrate them into a coherent hypermedia resource. Three of these packages are described below. Resource Builder: Resource Builder is a Windows package which allows you to make hyperlinks from text or from "hot spots" in pictures to sounds, videos, pictures, PowerPoint presentations or to any other resources normally accessible to your machine such as executable programs and CAL packages. Resource Builder supports a variety of fonts, colours and sizes; however the use of different styles is restricted 5

to different pages. This package is very simple both to learn and operate, making it quite suitable for use by students or for staff with no IT experience other than familiarity with Windows. W3Launch: W3Launch is a helper application for WWW browsers that can be used to launch programs on the local computer's hard disk. To use it you first create a list of the programs on the client machine which you want to be able to launch over the WWW; this list includes the program name, location, working directory parameters and compatibility information on version numbering. A hyperlink from a html document can then be used to send an instruction to W3Launch telling it which program from this list to run. Although there is some initial effort (on both the server and the client side) in associating the file sent by the WWW with W3Launch, this is again a simple program to set up and use: if you already have course outlines available to student via WWW then this program would allow you to link CAL into these outlines. Microcosm: MCM is an "open hypermedia system" which was created to manage large multimedia data archives. A microcosm based resource has two elements: documents which are displayed in appropriate viewers and a database of relationships between these documents. When CTI Diary the documents (which can be formatted text, sound images, movies, and so on) are displayed Microcosm overlays the relationships between these and other documents in form of hyperlinks. Hyperlinks can be highlighted or hidden, they can refer to a particular occurrence of a word, all occurrences of that word or be associated with an entire document. The end user can also perform a word or phrase search, which returns an ordered list of documents containing the search word. It is fairly quick and simple to create a simple text and picture hyperlinking, however the more complex applications for which Microcosm is designed to require some user training. Contacts: Resource Builder (Cost: 45 + V.A.T.) Dr. J. D. Baty, Dept of Biochemical Medicine, Ninewells Hospital, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 9SY http://www.dundee.ac.uk/biochemmed/ resource.htm W3Launch (Cost: Free from website.) Dr. J. R. Maber, http://bmbwww.leeds.ac.uk/w3launch/home/html Microcosm (Cost: 950 site license.) Multicosm Ltd., 2 Venture Road, Chilworth Research Centre, Southampton SO16 7NP http://www.multicosom.com Forthcoming events: Computer Algebra half day workshop Venue: Surrey University, 29 th January 1997 Cost: 15 SToMP one day workshop Venue: Surrey University, 26 th February 1997 Cost: 40 For further information, please contact the CTI Physics Centre Office. 6