TLEF 2013 Adjudication Results
Faculty of Arts
Department of East Asian Studies
Mikael Adolphson, Glen Loppnow, Richard Westerman
$56,500
The Honors Academy of Arts and Science
A joint project between the Faculties of Arts and Science, the Honours Academy of Arts and Science will provide the very best in undergraduate education through a new four-‐year structured program that develops academic skills, offers a capstone project, and fosters a sense of community engagement in its students. TLEF funding will to bring this vision to fruition by providing the resources needed to create a detailed plan for the program. Funding will be used to undertake research into comparable programs elsewhere, to arrange panels of invited speakers to advise on the project, to research cutting-‐edge teaching methodologies to be incorporated into the program, to investigate the demand for such a program, and to coordinate the plan with existing structures within the University. With such support, we are confident that we can create an institution that will attract the best and brightest to the University of Alberta.
Office of Interdisciplinary Studies
Sean Gouglas
$37,505
Developing MOOC Teaching and Learning Objects for Arts Courses
Fully automated, constructive feedback for long essays in Arts courses is currently impossible and will remain so for considerable time. As such, courses in the Faculty of Arts, particularly those with essay heavy requirements, face a distinct challenge in adopting Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) technologies for student assessment. For the Faculty of Arts to become an equal player in this area, a series of effective interim learning objects are required to adapt to this new learning platform. This project will ideate, build, and evaluate alternate possibilities for meeting the learning outcomes for Arts courses using STS 350: A History of Video Games as a test case. Research from this project will help instructors in Arts develop new approaches suitable for MOOC technologies where appropriate. This project addresses directly Arts' vision to innovate in teaching and research, to democratise education, and to engage citizens.
Department of Linguistics
Benjamin Tucker, Karen Pollock
$52,981
Developing Interactive Online Lab Activities and an Online Course for Phonetics (LING 205)
Phonetics (LING 205) is a core course in the Linguistics undergraduate B.A. program, as well as a key prerequisite for the Master of Science in Speech-‐Language Pathology (MScSLP) degree. We seek to enhance this class by developing online interactive laboratory activities and also develop and offer a fully-‐online version of the course. The creation of the online phonetics course will be the first in Canada. The laboratory activities will apply new technology and create an opportunity for students to learn in a hands-‐on manner. This will (a) enhance local students' experience, providing access to lab activities which reinforce learning of material, (b) enable out-‐of-‐area students to fulfil this key prerequisite without leaving their current residence, and (c) allow local students to take the online section instead, if it is more convenient for their timetable or learning approach.
Faculty of Education
Department of Educational Psychology
Mark Gierl, Osmar Zaiane, Tracy Hillier, Cheryl Poth, Ying Cui, Geoff Bostick, Mark Hall, Mary Roberts, Ken Cor, Hollis Lai
$50,521
Developing a Computer-‐Based Assessment System to Support the Rapid Expansion of Online Teaching and Learning at the University of Alberta
We are proposing to develop and evaluate a comprehensive, computer-‐based assessment system that meets the specific needs of instructors and students as well as supports the rapid expansion of online teaching and learning at the University of Alberta. It will be called the University of Alberta computer-‐ based testing (UA-‐CBT) system. This system will transform teaching and learning by providing an outstanding new assessment resource for all faculty and students at our university. While the assessment system we initially develop will support our current multiple-‐choice item formats, we will also pave the way for assessments of the future that permit the use of innovative item formats (i.e., items that include digital media such as sound and videos as well as complex interactivity, including task-‐ based simulation items) and, eventually, new assessment practices (e.g., automated essay scoring). The UA-‐CBT will be developed using a modular architecture so it is easy to expand, and it will be API compliant with eClass MOODLE thereby enabling seamless integration with the current University of Alberta learning management system.
Department of Educational Policy Studies / Community Service Learning
Alison Taylor, Mary Richards, Zane Hamm, John Simpson
$40,856
Evaluating the Long-‐term Student Outcomes of CSL Participation
This TLEF project seeks to learn more about longer-‐term impacts of participation in curricular Community Service-‐Learning (CSL) on students across faculties at the University of Alberta. Annual surveys of students at the end of courses report that CSL participation enhances student learning. However, we know little about how it impacts students' future career and education plans and how they later reflect on skills gained through CSL projects. This mixed methods evaluation study uses surveys and focus groups to follow up on students who enrolled in CSL classes between 2005 and 2012. It promises to provide valuable information about the impacts of curricular experiential learning on participants (compared to non-‐participants) that will guide program conceptualization and course design and delivery. Results will therefore provide a feedback loop to teaching at the University of Alberta through dissemination of results to current and potential instructors, community partners, and CSL program staff.
Faculty of Law
Peter Sankoff
$22,547
Core Concept Delivery Outside the Classroom: Adapting Lessons from the Khan Academy to University Instruction
Legal education often requires professors to skirt a difficult balance between delivery and explanation of difficult concepts and allowing students to engage in active learning through problem solving. The challenge lies in ensuring students understand the core legal principles that will enable them to approach problems in class productively while ensuring that valuable class time is available for exercises in advanced reasoning. This project will study the efficacy of delivering brief video "capsules" as a means of conveying the core concepts that will subsequently be utilized in classroom exercises. The capsules will be made available to students online, using graphics and voiceovers to equip students with the tools necessary to thrive in class. This novel technique will also permit students to refresh their understanding of difficult concepts through repeat viewings.
Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
Department of Pediatrics
Lyn Kathryn Sonnenberg, Lesley Wiart
$23,492
Assessment of Collaborator and Communicator CanMEDS Competencies by Interprofessionals for Developmental Pediatric Trainees
Multisource feedback is well established in the business world and has recently been employed in medical training programs as a strategy for improving clinical practice. While there has been an increasing emphasis on the importance of interdisciplinary practice, there is paucity in the literature with respect to gathering feedback from other clinical disciplines such as physical and occupational therapy, psychology, social work, and administrative staff. An integrated evaluation approach is required since the training of a Developmental Pediatric Subspecialty Resident occurs in an interprofessional setting. This innovative, qualitative study will determine which objectives/indicators are observed by each interprofessional discipline using the CanMEDS roles of Communicator and Collaborator. It will further determine which indicators are practically assessed by each discipline during the Core Developmental Pediatric rotations at the University of Alberta. This data will lead to the development of an evaluation tool to be used in Training Programs across the country.
Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine
Department of Occupational Therapy
Lili Liu, Shaniff Esmail, Elizabeth Taylor, Eleni Stroulia, Sharla King
$111,010
The Use of Mobile Technology to Enhance Learning Through Online Communities of Practice Among Occupational Therapy Students in Edmonton and Calgary
The University of Alberta's occupational therapy (OT) program began a satellite program in Calgary in September 2012. Through a mixed-‐method approach (questionnaires, interviews and focus groups), this two-‐year study will address three research questions: (a) How can tablets be used to create virtual communities of practice among learners, (b) What factors make tablets a tool that enhances development of core professional knowledge and content in OTs, and (c) How can tablets be used to deliver the curriculum so that the tool enhances learning experiences for students at both Calgary and Edmonton sites? In addition to the use of tablets between two sites, another innovation is our collaboration with the U of A's Physical Therapy program, which also has a Calgary satellite, the Rehabilitation Assistant program at SAIT and the use of simulated patients, all of which provide context-‐ relevant learning for our students.
Faculty of Science
Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
Charles Doran, George Peschke, James Lewis, Terry Gannon, Vincent Bouchard
$136,606
Computer-‐based Content Across the Mathematics Curriculum
Integration of computer-‐based materials into mathematics courses has been attempted in a piecemeal fashion in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences for many years. This three-‐year project will generate, for the very first time anywhere, non-‐commercial course materials and accompanying tools which are easy-‐to-‐use, widely available, well-‐documented, and modifiable. A permanent library of applets and modules for use across the undergraduate mathematics curriculum will be built and the support necessary for all instructors to use and create new computer-‐based instructional materials of their own will be provided. The project addresses a need identified in recent SSHRC-‐funded research in mathematics education; its success will position the University of Alberta at the forefront of this important new digital learning frontier.
Department of Biological Sciences
Brenda Leskiw, Stephen Kuntz, Glenda Baker
$53,300
Plagiarism Awareness, Prevention and Skill Building
While much emphasis has been placed on detecting plagiarism, this project seeks to provide academic integrity awareness and skill building materials to both instructors and students. This interdisciplinary and collaborative project will further develop and expand upon a plagiarism Moodle module designed in 2011 by Glenda Baker and Stephen Kuntz. Providing stand alone and integrative resources, the project's goal is to improve, widen, and deepen the materials to better serve all students at the University of Alberta. In addition to general material development, the applicants will work with Science faculty, TAs, and students to implement and evaluate the introduction of these materials into BIOL 107/108. The project's goals are to increase the number of access points in raising awareness and understanding of plagiarism and provide strategies and skills in using sources appropriately. When the project is complete, the university will have Moodle modules, multimedia resources for awareness, and skill building tools for students.