Collaborative Research: Screencasts for Enhancing Chemical Engineering Education

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The goal of this TUES Type 2 project is to transform undergraduate chemical engineering education by completing a library of short, validated screencast videos. Each screencast is less than 10 minutes and includes narration. Screencasts provide a personalized method of learning that empowers students, giving them control over the rate and timing of information delivery. Previous research shows that screencasts help minimize cognitive overload, increase student confidence, and allow students to take control of their learning. The project objectives are to: 1) prepare screencasts for chemical engineering courses and make them available online, 2) engage experts in validating screencasts for quality and accuracy, 3) assess screencast effectiveness, evaluate faculty and student usage, and employ assessment findings to improve screencasts, and 4) expand usage by supporting faculty adoption of screencasts and increase ease of student use. This project team at the University of Colorado at Boulder is creating more than 800 new screencasts to add to an existing library of more than 750 screencasts for twelve undergraduate engineering courses. Topics have a chemical engineering emphasis, but topics and courses that reach across engineering disciplines are included. The short screencasts are organized according to concept maps and textbook tables of contents. In collaboration with Lafayette College, evaluation of the screencasts is conducted to inform improvements and provide valuable information on the impact of screencasts on student learning and screencast usage and adoption. The broader impacts of this project lie in the potential to reach a large number of engineering students and faculty. The existing screencasts, which are available online, have been played or downloaded more than 1.25 million times in 2012. Additionally, more than 430 faculty have registered for the www.LearnChemE.com website. The screencasts also are a resource for learners that benefit from the closed captioning options, such as hearing-impaired or English as a Second Language students. Moreover, dyslexic students can use screencasts to supplement textbooks since the information in the screencasts is presented verbally and thus can be easier for them to understand.