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The Relationship between Class Size and Active Twitter Participation in the Engineering Classroom

The Relationship between Class Size and Active Twitter Participation in the Engineering Classroom

Presented at the 2015 ASEE Annual Conference in Seattle, WA. 15 June 2015

Devin Berg

June 15, 2015
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  1. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    The Relationship between Class Size
    and Active Twitter Participation in
    the Engineering Classroom
    Devin R. Berg
    Engineering & Technology Department
    University of Wisconsin – Stout
    15 June 2015
    Twitter: @devinberg, #ASEEAnnual, #M439

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  2. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Slides available online!
    https://speakerdeck.com/devinberg

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  3. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Promoting out-of-class discussion and
    public engagement?
    • Concise expression of ideas.
    • Self-learning.
    • Stronger student-teacher relationship.
    • Communication to public audience.

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  4. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Prior Results
    An initial pilot study established a baseline for
    student participation in an inquiry-based
    assignment.
    • Learned of the need for incentive to
    participate.
    • Also, the benefits of having a few active
    students to drive the rest of the class.
    [See: PDF]

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  5. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Prior Results
    Subsequent use of Twitter assignments revealed
    more.
    • A smaller cohort seemed to result in greater
    difficulty with getting students to participate
    actively.
    • The use of Twitter (rather than a LMS) worked
    well for real-time interaction but resulted in
    less detailed student analysis.
    [See: PDF]

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  6. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Evaluate the effect of cohort size on
    active participation.
    Hypothesis: A larger cohort will increase course
    participation through a sense of anonymity and
    by increasing the odds of the class containing
    active participants who drive the discussion.

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  7. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Basic instructions were given as a
    guide but were open to interpretation.
    Create one original Twitter post per week (photo/video + text) giving an example of
    something that demonstrates the concepts discussed in that week’s classes. Also
    submit at least two comments in response to the posts of your classmates.

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  8. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Twitter Logistics
    • Tweets were collected under the course
    hashtag (#engmech).
    • Archived using TAGSv5
    (https://tags.hawksey.info/)

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  9. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Assessment Methodology
    • Students were quantitatively evaluated using
    the Concept Assessment Tool for Statics and
    the Dynamics Concept Inventory.
    • A self-efficacy survey was used to qualitatively
    evaluate student participation and outcomes.

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  10. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Self Efficacy Survey
    • How would you rate your ability to identify statics
    and dynamics principles in your surroundings?
    • How prepared are you to discuss engineering
    mechanics with others?
    • How do you see yourself fitting within the greater
    engineering community?
    • During the semester, how much have you
    discussed the course material outside of class?
    • How would you describe your participation in the
    class Twitter discussions?

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  11. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Examples of student submissions.

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  12. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Examples of student submissions.

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  13. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Examples of student submissions.

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  14. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Twitter participation.

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  15. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Twitter submissions over time.

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  16. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Twitter submissions over time.

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  17. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Student performance between control
    and treatment groups was similar.

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  18. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    The submissions collected support
    further use of this form of assignment.

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  19. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    The initial hypothesis proved to be
    false.
    The larger class-size did not result in significantly
    greater participation or course performance.
    While previous experience suggests that a few
    active students can drive class participation, the
    larger cohort did not guarantee that outcome.

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  20. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Other means are necessary to drive
    out-of-class discussions.
    Reduce reliance on Twitter by opening up to
    other forms of public engagement.
    Use a teaching assistant or former student to
    model active participation.

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  21. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Acknowledgements
    The author would like to thank the UW-Stout
    engineering students for their photographic and
    textual contributions.

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  22. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
    Inspiring Innovation Learn more at www.uwstout.edu/et/
    Thank you for your time!

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