Skip to main content

Confessions of a Former Lecturer: Evidenced-based Reform in the Introductory Physics Sequence

Confessions of a Former Lecturer: Evidenced-based Reform in the Introductory Physics Sequence

Monday, November 27, 2017 at 4:00 pm
WNGR116
KC Walsh (OSU)

Over the past 5 years Introductory Physics at Oregon State University has undergone substantial changes in almost every aspect of the course. Students now experience a flipped classroom model where lecture is no longer instructor focused. Instead, cooperative learning has been weaved throughout the curriculum to encourage actively engaged environments that aim to improve problem solving and critical thinking. A Learning Assistant program has been developed to help facilitate the new structure and build community in the class. The traditional textbook has been replaced with open resources and learning tools found across the web or created here at OSU. Boxsand.org was created to host the materials and we have begun correlation data mining research on the the over 2 million data points collected from students interacting with the course resources last year. We hope to learn about what student study behaviors, what resources, and what paths through those resources correlate most with learning. These changes and more are part the innovative evidence-based instructional practices employed in the reformed introductory physics sequence. Come learn about where we are in this process and where we intend to go next.

Davide Lazzati