UCDT

Global Change II

Winter 1998

Comparison of Midterm and Final Assessment Instrument Results

Laboratory Experience

Many of the laboratory assignments were composed of computer based exercises which were designed to help students understand global change concepts and principles. The application ArcView GIS was used extensively throughout the course. ArcView GIS is designed to help users understand the spatial relationships between geography and its embedded environmental, social, and economic characteristics.

At the midpoint and end of the semester students were given a survey instrument to assess their attitudes, perceptions, and experience with the Global Change curricula. Ten questions were designed to collect specific information about the lab (see Table A1 for a comparison of midterm and final assessment instrument results). Students were asked to record to what degree they agreed or disagreed with statements about the lab assignments, the lab instructor, ArcView, and blend of instructional methods.

By the end of the semester, seven in ten students felt that the lab assignments were intellectually challenging, and more than three-quarters reported the assignments were carefully chosen and clearly written. About nine in ten students felt that their lab instructor was an excellent teacher.

Students were asked several questions about ArcView. By the end of the semester, approximately seven in ten reported that ArcView helped them understand Global Change concepts and principles, construct models, and comprehend relationships among different variables. Although these are good results, it is somewhat surprising to note that percentage of students agreeing with statements about the three areas mentioned above declined by 5.8, 14.8, and 11.9 percentage respectively. Also disconcerting were declines in two other key areas. By the end of the semester, slight more than half of the students claimed the lab assignments made an important contribution to their understanding of the topics discussed in lecture and to their learning overall. The percentage of students who agreed with statements about these area declined by 20.6% and 10%, respectively.

Lecture Experience

The lecture topics in this course covered a wide variety of subjects. Several lecturers participated in the delivery of the instructional material. Both the midterm and final assessment instruments contained seven questions designed to capture information about student perceptions of the lecture experience.

By the final, seven in ten students thought that having several instructors give the lecture contributed to their understanding of Global Change concepts and principles. Nearly nine in ten students reported the following results: they learned a good deal of factual material; and they improved their ability to participate in debates and think critically about global change issues. And finally, 72.1% of the students found an opportunity to actively participate in class discussions.

The evaluators and the curriculum development group had some concern that students might have difficulty integrating the course material presented by multiple lecturers. The data reveals that approximately eight in ten students disagreed with a statement indicating that it was difficult to understand how the topics in the course fit together. These results are encouraging and attest to the good job the curriculum developers have done to coordinate the lecture material.

Web Experience

The evaluators developed several questions to assess the utility of the Global Change web site. Data from the final assessment instrument indicate that over 90% of the students believe the web site is well organized. Approximately, seven in ten students reported that the web made a significant contribution to their learning. By the final, nearly all of the students felt confident in their ability to use the web to gather information about Global Change. This confidence may account for evidence that students are using their web skills to use complete academic work for other classes (63.9%) and investigate areas that interest them (57.4%).

On the downside, the data revealed that the links to other URLs embedded in the Global Change lecture notes are marginally useful. The final assessment instrument results revealed that 59% of the students never checkout links to other sites. It appears that the effort to maintain these links may only benefit a few curious students.

Comparison with Other Classes

The curriculum development group expressed concern about the level of commitment the course assignments required of students. Students are being asked to complete assignments for lectures, labs, and to complete evaluation forms. Is it possible that students are being over extended by the demands of this introductory science course? This is an important question, unfortunately, there are no Global Change models which we can use as a benchmark to conduct a comparison. The curriculum development group decided that it would be helpful if they could compare the student work load imposed by the Global Change course to other science courses. Two questions were develop to collect this data. These questions asked students to compare the Global Change course to other courses in terms of time commitment, capturing interest, and challenge to think.

At the midterm about one in seven students felt that the Global Change course required the same time commitment as other four-credit introductory level classes. Only 11.4% of the students indicated that it took somewhat more time. The majority of these students also reported that compared to other single disciple courses the Global Change course did a better job of capturing their interest and challenging them to think. By the final, student attitudes shifted.

The percentage of students indicating that the time commitment was the about the same declined from 71.4% to 49.2%. By the final, student opinions about the time commitment were about evenly split between those that believed that the Global Change course required more time (26.2%) and those that believed that it took less time (24.6%), when compared to other introductory level course. The percentage of students who reported that the Global Change course captured their interest and challenged them to think shifted.

By the final, there were slight declines in the percentage of students who indicated the Global Change course was more interesting, and it challenged them to think, when compared to other courses.

Personal Growth

By the end of the course, about three-fourths of the students reported that they deepened their interest in the subject matter and were enthusiastic about the course material. The percentage of students who reported that they made an important contribution to the learning of others in the course more than doubled. By the end of the course, 62.3% of the students said they had such an opportunities to help other students in the course learn about Global Change concepts and principles.

The curriculum development group stressed throughout their discussions the importance of providing an educational experience which would be beneficial inside and outside the classroom. An important element of this benefice is the motivation to act on what has been learned. The final assessment provided some encouraging information. By the final, nearly seven in ten of the students indicated that they felt empowered to act on what they had learned.