Catalyst aim: Better tools for better classrooms

By Bob Roseth
News & Information

Catalyst, the UW campus-wide initiative to help teachers teach and learners learn using technology is trying to manage its success and better meet the needs of an ever-expanding client base.

Catalyst celebrated its two-year anniversary in ceremonies March 2. While the successes are many, the demands - especially from students - for greater use of technology continue to expand. In a time of budgets that are at best static, there is a continuing challenge in identifying those tools that will be of the most use to the broadest segment of teachers.

The statistics are impressive. In its second year, the Catalyst Web site logged almost 1.7 million page views, an increase of more than 300 percent over the previous year. Educators registered as Catalyst Toolkit owners at a rate of 3.3 per day, up from 1.8. In January 2001 alone, almost 16,000 students used Catalyst tools for learning; the highest previous month was 9,000. Catalyst reached instructors in more than 87 percent of all UW departments.

“We have two or three times as many students using our tools now compared with last year,” says Tom Lewis, director of the Educational Technology Development Group, the unit responsible for Catalyst as well as the Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology (CTLT). “The growth has been tremendous. Not only that but we’ve seen an increase in the number of departments that are asking us to put on special workshops or presentations for them. Our biggest challenge is to meet the growing demand with limited resources.

The Catalyst Web site now receives about 10,000 page views every day, which is causing the group to move the initiative to a new server to speed up access time. At the same time outreach efforts are continuing to give faculty more opportunities and ideas for integrating technology into teaching.

One of the latest developments is MyClass, a Web interface co-developed with Computing and Communications that will bring together resources such as one-step Web-publishing, Catalyst tools, electronic course lists, and online grade submission. Each UW instructor, including teaching assistants, will access a MyClass page for every course they teach through the MyUW portal.

“Part of the thinking behind MyClass,” says Emily Jones, Catalyst content design consultant, “is that if we put useful things on this site, more teaching faculty will be drawn to it, and they may begin to explore some of the Catalyst tools they can use in the classroom.”

Student response to technology in the classroom has been excellent. There are very few reports of students having trouble with access to the necessary computing resources. Moreover, having material available online is one of the things students like best about education at the UW, according to recent surveys.

The Catalyst team, however, is not dedicated to technology as the appropriate solution to all teaching problems. “Sometimes, we’ll talk with an instructor and conclude that there is a better solution without technology,” says Mark Alway, lead software developer.

“We see tools such as Catalyst as a means to better teaching, not an end in themselves,” Lewis says. “Our staff all come from teaching backgrounds, and what we’re dedicated to is better results in the classroom.”

One important way of spreading the word about the tools that are available is through the Teaching Academy, which runs programs that involve nearly 300 faculty annually in workshops, seminars and training to improve their teaching.

“These programs,” says George Bridges, associate dean of undergraduate education, “have routinely included UWired staff, and particularly the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT)/Catalyst group, offering advice, assistance and hands-on instruction. The focus of CTLT and Catalyst on enhancing student learning through technology - giving instructors the tools to tailor how technology fits into their course objectives and particular teaching methods - has proven, in my opinion, transformative.”

One class that has been transformed is Speech Communication 102, “Speech: the Individual and Society,” taught by lecturer Lisa Coutu. The class has as many as 280 students and Coutu, who taught it last year, wanted to emphasize more active learning. She received a grant from the Office of Undergraduate Education and spent several weeks over the summer preparing for the change.

“The people at Catalyst were incredibly helpful in getting me up and running,” she says. “There was also a Web designer in our department who helped me design the Web site that houses all of the student activities.”

The reformulated class meets four days a week instead of five, with the fifth day for online exercises that allow the students to broaden and deepen their understanding. Coutu has designed in-depth exercises with the Catalyst tool WebQ, including essay questions that focus on defining, explaining, and applying concepts introduced in class that week.

Coutu also has used a Catalyst tool called EPost to create virtual quiz sections - online discussion groups of no more than 40 students. Coutu calls the online discussions “stunning. They (the students) are really making an effort to link with each other, and to learn from each other.

“My goal for the students is to have them think about how the course material applies to novel situations, and I think they are developing an ability to do that. Students in the threaded discussions (through EPost) take the time to really read what others are writing and respond to the content rather than just jumping in without thought-out responses.”

After the initial startup period and first-quarter shakedown, Coutu’s time investment is no more than in the earlier version of the course - and perhaps even less, since students are encouraged to work with each other rather than with the instructor.

As Catalyst develops, the team is sensitive to the needs of the classroom teacher. The team continues to conduct focus groups and usability studies to find out what kinds of tools would be useful for instructors. One tool about to be unveiled will allow instructors to create scenario-based and problem-based learning projects. Although this originated with some work in the School of Medicine, the concept has been broadened to embrace more than just clinical models, says Alway.

“The tool creates a space where students can collaborate in an online learning environment,” he says. “The students work together while using a notepad, shared drawing and resource space, message board, file sharing area, and more. The instructor can then plug new material into the scenario as it progresses, which will set off a new round of discussion and decision-making”

Commercial products are not a part of the Catalyst toolkit, though the team frequently reviews off-the-shelf software to uncover useful and innovative features. “Commercial products, even the most compelling ones, don’t have the pedagogical impact we want,” Lewis says. “Our goal is to design tools that are an extension of what goes on in class. Most commercial products tend to be very specialized and not suitable for campus-wide use. And commercial products are usually desktop-specific, for one kind of computer or one platform. We believe in using the power of the Internet on any machine, old or new.”

Another tool on the horizon will allow for instant messaging between students within the same class, creating “virtual discussions groups” any time, day or night. “This should enhance discussion,” says Bridges, “and actually bring an entirely new form of communication in some of our courses.”

Assessing the proper role of online learning is a formidable task, Bridges says. “A challenge, in my opinion, is determining how we measure student learning of all sorts. Once we have developed good measures of student learning, then we can assess how individual aspects of instruction, including technology, contribute to the learning process.”