e-TALK: Enhanced Teaching Assistance to Aid Learning with Kitlabs

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e-TALK: Enhanced Teaching Assistance to aid Learning with KitlabsNorth Carolina State University is developing a new version of "kitlabs" for physics instruction as a solution to the problem of increasing numbers of students and decreasing availability of laboratory sections. Kitlabs are course-complementary educational activities with small collections of equipment and precise instructions designed to lead students through hands-on laboratory exercises in remote, and student-selected, settings. The novel and potentially transformative aspect of these kitlabs is that they are designed to leverage modern personal electronic technologies such as smart phones and personal computers to facilitate data acquisition and productive, synchronous teacher-student interaction, circumventing two well-cited disadvantages of previous kitlab-type efforts.Kitlabs and traditional in-lab systems are being studied comparatively with the goal of transferring and disseminating pedagogically successful laboratory instruction methods to a wider audience of faculty and students. The study will include observations and analysis of student-student and student-teaching assistant (TA) interactions. Observation methods include use of the Physics Department's Quantitative Education Research Laboratory, which allows for video- and audio- capture of student interactions as they perform laboratory exercises while in synchronous electronic contact with a TA. This project, which goes by the acronym eTALK, documents how students: i) work with the kitlabs; ii) synchronously interact with TA instructors; iii) collect, analyze, manipulate, and present data; and iv) collaborate and input their results. Student learning outcomes are also assessed using a specially developed instrument targeted at gains in laboratory skills and attitudes.Objectives of the project include creating a prototype eTALK TA Training Guide, disseminating preliminary project results, and developing a long-term plan to foster the adoption of eTALK across a range of STEM educational settings across the U.S. In addition to the pedagogical advantages to any institution that incorporates eTALK labs into their STEM efforts, eTALK simultaneously enables departments to use limited facility resources more cost-effectively and helps to buffer students from the consequences of austerity measures on campuses that are struggling the most financially.