Work in progress - Inter-disciplinary, online approach to learning about teaching

Engineering graduate student experiences in an online pilot course about teaching science and engineering are the focus of this work-in-progress. Their experiences from fall, 2006 are the center of the on-going research that compares their experiences with engineering graduate students who completed the traditional, face-to-face, semester-long campus course and those who completed the traditional, face-to-face, two-week course. Case studies will demonstrate how six engineering graduate students (two from each format) learned about teaching science and engineering when they were participating in an interdisciplinary course; engineering students were the minority and worked with chemists, physicists, geologists, and other STEM graduate students. The research questions is how, if at all, the interdisciplinary, online context makes a difference in student learning. This on-going pilot program involves web-conferences, a course management system, and seven institutions associated with the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL). The effectiveness of online learning experiences is significant as we prepare and support future faculty; we expect to learn that students appreciate diverse formats and opportunities, will choose those that work for them, learn consistently across all formats, and gain the added benefit of learning how to work collaboratively at a distance. By the conference date, we will be midway through the second online course and data collection. Our evaluation plan consists of pre and post surveys, authentic assessments, and in-depth interviews for the students who are the focus of the case studies.