In this course, Dr. Reynolds also used Jing to see if it is an efficient and effective approach to communicating both faculty and peer feedback. Here’s an example of a student commenting on another student’s project:

The third part of this project used video to help students gain a better understanding of how scientists read scientific papers. Students interviewed their faculty and recorded these interviews using FlipVideo. The videos were shown in class so students could see the range of expectations that readers have when they read scientific papers.   Here’s an example:

During the 2008-2009 academic year, Brenda Neece, title, participated in the CIT’s Student Video Fellows program.  This Fellows track offered a group of faculty from a range of disciplines the opportunity to investigate how to effectively design student video assignments, assess video work in the courses, and technology and support options available at Duke for them and their students.  Neece developed two assignments for her course.

The first video assignment, a Video Musical Instrument Dictionary Definition, was designed to get students familiar with the process of making and video and to become more familiar with the history and function of particular instruments.  Students chose one instrument and produced a short video that defined the instrument, how the instrument is used in contemporary music, and how the instrument works – parts of the instrument, its range, and so on.  They turned in a written draft script before shooting the video and their grade was based on the quality of their definition.  The videos allowed the students to use multimedia to show how the instruments sounds and how it is played – key aspects in their understanding of the course materials.

Neece was pleased with the results.  The students were able to either demonstrate the instruments themselves or find someone in the local community to play the instrument and became familiar with using the technology to present stories and information.  In addition, the students had a session with a librarian and learned how to cite video and audio excerpts in the work they produced.  In the video clip below, Neece discusses the results of the assignment in depth.

The second assignment, a group activity, was creating a video tour of their ideal musical instrument museum.  In the past, this museum tour was done as a written piece with illustrations.  With this new approach, using video for the students’s work, they were able to bring in interviews, demonstrations, outside sources into a compelling piece that mirrors a “virtual” exhibit or informational video they might be called on to produce when working in a museum.  Students were given clear guidelines and steps for producing the video and how it would be assessed.  In this video, Neece discusses how the assignment was constructed and graded.

Neece plans to continue using video assignments in the course in the future.  The assignments did have some glitches – an online video editing service she planned on using was taken down during the course and, with consulting from the CIT, came up with alternative for the students to use to complete their work.  So, she plans on being better prepared with specific software for the students to use when she teaches the course again.

Neece believes that video and multimedia are important in the student experience – the technology is allowing scholars to communicate in new ways and students need to be prepared to use this way of presenting their work and lets faculty and students bring the work of experts into the classroom.

Blackboard wikis (websites which allow collaborative editing) are a convenient means for students to create websites as course projects. Amaryllis Rodriguez had students in her Italian courses create wikis in Blackboard focused on topics relevant to the course content. Students created a wiki (in Italian) advertising an Italian cruise line as well as a wiki about current environmental problems. Finally, the wiki tool was used for a group project in which students were asked to design an online newspaper modeled on existing Italian newspapers. Students were able to create these projects quickly using the easy tools built into Blackboard, and all students could see each others’ work and comment on it. The instructor also found it easy to grade and comment on the students’ work.

French instructor Robert Kilpatrick uses blogs in Blackboard to provide students with opportunities to practice writing French in an unstructured manner, different from the other types of more formal writing students are asked to do in the course. The Blackboard blog was chosen over a public blog to allow the students to write in a space which was private to the course, in deference to their still-developing skills with French. The blog exercises engaged students in the course, and improved their ability to spontaneously write in French compared to previous courses Kilpatrick has taught.

Sandra Valnes Quammen has students in her French classes watch video clips relevant to the course topic and then respond orally to question prompts to improve their French speaking skills. In the past, this course assignment was accomplished primarily using Audacity for audio recording and editing, followed by upload to Blackboard. This year, Valnes Quammen used Wimba Voice Tools (online audio recording built into Blackboard) instead, which streamlined this course assignment considerably.

In language learning, opportunities to practice in the target language are of primary importance. In Angela Porcarelli’s Italian courses, Wimba Voice Tools (audio recording built into Blackboard) are used to provide extra time outside the classroom for students to practice their Italian listening and speaking skills. Wimba allows the students to easily re-record their assignments before submitting to the instructor, until the student is comfortable with their response. By practicing with Wimba throughout the semester, students were more comfortable with their end-of-semester oral presentations, and produced higher-quality final assignments.

An essential part of Cary Moskovitz’s Writing 20 courses is collaborative writing, encouraging students to work together to improve their skills. Cary discusses in this video how he uses Blackboard’s Wiki feature for collaborative writing assignments. The tool allows students to work anywhere, produce documents in parts with multiple pages, and view a history of their work.

Vicki Russell expects students in her Writing 20 course to actively participate in discussions of readings and peer review of writing assignments. In this video, Vicki explains how she uses Discussion Boards and Wimba Voice Tools to help students give feedback in written and audio form to writing assignments.

Project Description:

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) offers a certificate for Duke students “interested in documenting their expertise and coursework focused on the region.” CIT is providing funding and consulting to enable CLACS to design and implement a process for evaluating their program with Chalk&Wire’s ePortfolio2 assessment software. By adding papers, videos and other ‘artifacts’ (examples of their learning) to a structured portfolio, students will benefit from receiving more feedback and guidance from faculty and program staff. Arce hopes that this evaluation process will help to “re-structure the certificate offerings, track student progress, and measure the impact of our curriculum and extra-curricular events on the learning outcomes of our students.”

Project start date: 12/15/2008
Funding awarded:  $2750