TY - GEN
T1 - Work in progress - Diversity harnessing in a general education course on digital information technology
AU - Schmitz, Christopher D.
AU - Alonso, Renata A.Revelo
AU - Loui, Michael C.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Our general education course in digital information technology draws many students from academic disciplines outside science and mathematics. These students often struggle with the relevance of the course topics. To promote student motivation, we are modifying the course to better engage the students in the course topics via a method we term diversity harnessing. Diversity harnessing refers to the diversity in the students' personal interests and chosen academic disciplines. From the students' interests, we intend to gather applications and ideas and to quickly integrate this diverse student-driven subject matter back into the lectures, homework assignments, and examinations. Through diversity harnessing, we expect to find that students are more engaged in the course and that they apply the course content more effectively to their lives and careers beyond the end of the semester. We are assessing the effectiveness of diversity harnessing using both individual interviews and a standard course engagement questionnaire.
AB - Our general education course in digital information technology draws many students from academic disciplines outside science and mathematics. These students often struggle with the relevance of the course topics. To promote student motivation, we are modifying the course to better engage the students in the course topics via a method we term diversity harnessing. Diversity harnessing refers to the diversity in the students' personal interests and chosen academic disciplines. From the students' interests, we intend to gather applications and ideas and to quickly integrate this diverse student-driven subject matter back into the lectures, homework assignments, and examinations. Through diversity harnessing, we expect to find that students are more engaged in the course and that they apply the course content more effectively to their lives and careers beyond the end of the semester. We are assessing the effectiveness of diversity harnessing using both individual interviews and a standard course engagement questionnaire.
KW - Digital Information Technology
KW - Diversity Harnessing
KW - General Education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84858163000&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84858163000&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/FIE.2011.6142922
DO - 10.1109/FIE.2011.6142922
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84858163000
SN - 9781612844671
T3 - Proceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
BT - 41st Annual Frontiers in Education Conference
T2 - 41st Annual Frontiers in Education Conference: Celebrating 41 Years of Monumental Innovations from Around the World, FIE 2011
Y2 - 12 October 2011 through 15 November 2011
ER -