Improving Learning Outcomes and Equity in Blended Online and Face-to-Face Learning

提高在线和面对面混合学习的学习成果和公平性

• 批准号: 2314930
• 负责人: Caitlin Kirby
• 金额: $ 39.92万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2314930&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Improving; Learning; Outcomes; Equity; Blended

This project aims to serve the national interest by establishing best practices for blended online and face-to-face learning in undergraduate STEM courses. Blended course instruction refers to the mix of online and face-to-face instructional modalities and is a broad term that encapsulates multiple course designs. With the recent proliferation of this type of instructional approach, it is imperative that the STEM education community seek a deeper understanding of practices that improve student learning gains in these environments. This project aims to isolate the design features of blended courses that affect learning outcomes and determine how those relationships impact students from four historically marginalized groups. The course design variables of interest are geographical flexibility, amount of instructor versus technology-mediated instruction, and temporal flexibility. Additionally, instructors will participate in professional development to facilitate their technological competence in blended online courses. Outcomes of this project have the potential to create actionable recommendations for improving blended STEM education, which ultimately could play a significant role in increasing participation across STEM disciplines. This project has two primary goals. First, to determine the relationships between blended course design components and student learning outcomes. Second, to explore the extent to which these practices contribute to equity through an analysis of how impacts differ across student demographics. A quasi-experimental research design will be utilized with data from students and instructors based on the Community of Inquiry framework and a modified Mixed Instructional Experience taxonomy. The project’s novel approach to isolating blended course design features will improve understanding of which components of blended courses have the largest impact on student learning outcomes. Student survey responses will be analyzed by regression and multilevel models, and student and instructor interviews will be analyzed via thematic content analysis. Project results will be disseminated through academic conferences, such as the American Education Research Association annual meeting, academic journals, and through the Enhanced Digital Learning Initiative’s website. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目旨在通过在本科STEM课程中建立混合在线和面对面学习的最佳实践来服务于国家利益。混合式课程教学是指在线和面对面教学模式的混合，是一个概括了多种课程设计的宽泛术语。随着最近这种教学方法的激增，STEM教育界必须寻求对在这些环境中改善学生学习收益的做法的更深层次的理解。该项目旨在隔离影响学习结果的混合课程的设计特点，并确定这些关系如何影响来自四个历史上被边缘化群体的学生。感兴趣的课程设计变量是地理灵活性、教师数量相对于技术中介教学，以及时间灵活性。此外，教师将参与专业发展，以促进他们在混合在线课程中的技术能力。该项目的成果有可能为改进混合STEM教育提出可行的建议，这最终可能在增加STEM各学科的参与度方面发挥重要作用。这个项目有两个主要目标。首先，确定混合式课程设计要素与学生学习结果之间的关系。其次，通过分析不同学生群体的影响差异，探索这些做法在多大程度上有助于公平。采用准实验研究设计，以学生和教师的数据为基础，基于探究共同体框架和改进的混合教学经验分类法。该项目隔离混合课程设计特征的新方法将提高对混合课程的哪些组成部分对学生学习结果的影响最大的理解。学生调查的回答将通过回归和多水平模型进行分析，学生和教师访谈将通过主题内容分析进行分析。项目成果将通过学术会议，如美国教育研究协会年会、学术期刊和增强数字学习倡议的网站传播。NSF IUSE：EDU计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。