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

北卡罗来纳州立大学正在开发一种用于物理教学的新版本的“工具包”，以解决学生人数增加和实验室部分可获得性减少的问题。工具包实验室是与课程互补的教育活动，有少量的设备和精确的指导，旨在引导学生在远程和学生选择的环境中进行动手实验室练习。这些工具包实验室的新颖和潜在的变革性方面是，它们旨在利用智能手机和个人计算机等现代个人电子技术来促进数据采集和高效、同步的师生互动，绕过了以前工具包实验室类型努力中经常被引用的两个缺点。正在对工具包实验室和传统的实验室内系统进行比较研究，目的是向更广泛的师生传递和传播成功的教学实验教学方法。这项研究将包括观察和分析学生与学生和学生与助教(TA)的互动。观察方法包括使用物理系的定量教育研究实验室，该实验室允许在学生与助教同步电子联系的情况下，通过视频和音频捕获学生在进行实验室练习时的互动。这个项目的首字母缩写为eTalk，记录了学生如何：i)与套件实验室合作；ii)与助教教师同步互动；iii)收集、分析、处理和呈现数据；以及iv)协作和输入他们的结果。该项目的目标包括创建eTalk助教培训指南原型，传播初步项目结果，以及制定长期计划以促进eTalk在全美各种STEM教育环境中采用eTalk。除了将eTalk实验室纳入其STEM工作的任何机构的教学优势外，eTalk还使各部门能够更经济高效地使用有限的设施资源，并帮助缓冲学生在财务最困难的校园采取紧缩措施的后果。

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.