We have used the findings from our spring 2007 Project RITE pilot study to support our proposal to the National Science Foundation - Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement program. Our proposal is to use blogs to promote reflection and conceptual change in an introductory Nutrition course. We’ll find out if the proposal is funded in November.
We’ve had a proposal accepted to present results of the study at the XI Biennial International Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology. It will be held right here at the University of Tennessee in early July.
We’re happy to report that the 7 weeks of blogging are completed, and interviews with 6 of the 9 participants were conducted last week. This week Rebecca and I are starting data analysis…hoping to keep the momentum going!
Happy spring break!
The first round of incentive payments will be made on Friday. The bloggers have been going at it for nearly 4 weeks now. Participation has been pretty good - Rebecca has emailed nudges when necessary. One blogger suggested that overt facilitation by the “teachers” would help make it a better experience. My response in a post was that she (or others) should feel free to take on more of a facilitator role..trying to encourage that learner-centeredness that students are so reluctant to take on!
We’ve decided to cut the blogging part short by a week and concentrate on getting interviews done the week before spring break. Then it will be time for data analysis.
We held orientation this afternoon with 10 participants. Blogging will start on Monday and end March 9. We selected vox.com as our tool (nutritionblog.vox.com.) Unfortunately you won’t be able to see anything because all posts will be only viewable by ‘friends’ for their privacy.
How well do college students retain what they have learned after a course is over? Are they able to apply concepts learned to their daily lives? Transfer and application of knowledge beyond the formal classroom environment is notoriously difficult to assess. This interdisciplinary research study between Dr. Trena Paulus and Dr. Lisa Jahns in Nutrition will examine application of knowledge The NTR (Nutrition) 100 course at the University of Tennessee teaches concepts of nutrition, health and wellness to approximately 200 undergraduate students each semester. NTR 100 attracts a wide range of undergraduate majors as it fulfills a UT General Education requirement. However once students finish the semester and move on, whether or how they retain and apply what has been learned is unclear. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools can extend learning experiences beyond traditional boundaries of time and location. We propose using web logs (blogs) as an informal online learning community where highly motivated students who have done well in the course can extend their learning through reflection, discussion and application of learned concepts to their daily lives as they write about it in their blogs.
We’ve received IRB approval and recruited our participants for the project from the fall 2006 Nutrition 100 course. We have 12 participants. Rebecca Payne, doctoral candidate in the TPTE department, is the graduate assistant for the project.
This month we’ll plan the orientation for the project, including selecting a blog tool for the participants to use. We plan to hold orientation on January 8th or 9th, with blogging to take place from mid-January to mid-March.