Progress 07/01/06 to 06/30/11
Outputs
Course offerings included the following: Project A: BRT 501 - Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources; Project B: BRT545 - Production and Use of Biofuels. The Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources was delivered to a total of 40 students (15 via distance education) at ISU in the spring of 2011. The Virtual Education Model and coordination of the lectures was successful with new lectures being taped for the topics that needed some adjustment. With experience in this delivery model by PIs of the collaborating institutions, the associated work load eased significantly. Two major ongoing efforts in 2011 were the development of a new 'plant production' module in the fundamentals course, by a non-project-funded PhD student at Iowa State. This module was delivered in video-lecture and html formats, and data are currently being analyzed to understand which learning method worked better for students. The second major effort was the collection and analysis of summative assessment data. Much of the focus of the past year has been on the VEC model assessment, evaluation and dissemination. The goals of this study were to 1) Develop an effective distance education model to overcome the obstacles of faculty and student dispersal; 2) Test the effectiveness of the model, understood through the lens of social learning and distance education theories, in promoting undergraduate, graduate, and faculty learning; 3) Discuss potential improvements to the course model; and 4) Build upon distance education and social learning theories based on the results. Participating faculty and graduate assistants responded to a survey asking about their experiences with the model. Undergraduate learning was assessed by examining students' quiz grades, the number of times they attempted quizzes, the ratings they gave each class period, and their comments about each period. Students demonstrated learning regardless of whether they were using live or recorded lectures. Faculty members and graduate assistants reported learning about biorenewable resources and providing distance education; they also made suggestions for future distance education efforts. The distance education model used in this study can be an effective means of educating students, teaching assistants, and faculty members. PRODUCTS: Forty lecture segments were generated for each of the three courses (Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources, Thermochemical Processing of Biomass, and Production and Use of Biofuels) each ranging from 5 - 50 minutes in length. OUTCOMES: Over 100 students learned about Biorenewable Resources, Thermochemical Processing, and Biofuel Production using the VEC model. Also, The Center for Biorenewable Chemicals - CBiRC (the new NSF ERC at Iowa State University) successfully incorporated the VEC model when teaching two courses within its graduate program in fall 2010 and the spring and summer 2011. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: At Iowa State, a non-traditional Industrial and Agricultural Technology Ph.D. student developed a dissertation research project around the BRT 501 class, wherein different types of online content (annotated video lectures and stand-alone html-based modules) were compared in the 2010 spring offering of the course. This research helped us understand how to best deliver online content, and how Myers-Briggs personality types affect optimum delivery methods. FUTURE INITIATIVES: The content in all three courses is going to be used in courses at Iowa State after the close out of the project in summer 2011. As a result of the evaluation of the model, it was determined that some of the students across universities had different levels of knowledge coming into the VEC-modeled classes. Studying the ways in which student knowledge at the time the class begins impacts class experiences will therefore be an important topic to consider in future studies about the VEC model.
Impacts
The initial goals of the VEC for Biorenewable Resources were to (1) create better-educated graduate and undergraduate students capable of serving the national interest by working in the bioeconomy (2) create a new distance-education model that melds the best of asynchronous distance learning with classroom experiences and (3) create faculty and future faculty who are more competent at delivering courses related to biorenewable resources and technologies and who are able to do so in a more efficient manner because of their use of e-teaching tools. Overall, these goals were, in fact, achieved during the course: students enrolled in the course learned about biorenewable resources and documented this learning in segment quizzes and overall exams while having interaction with an on-site instructor, graduate students reported learning about biorenewable resources as well as increased competence with delivering biorenewables courses efficiently using e-teaching tools, and faculty were able teach using the e-teaching tools to compensate for knowledge about biorenewable resources being spread diffusely around the country.
Publications
- B. Geisinger, D. Raj Raman, K. Haen, M. Kemis, and M. Pate. June 2011. Virtual Education Center for Biorenewable Resources: Building Capacity and Humanizing Distance Education. American Journal of Distance Education (under review).
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Progress 07/01/09 to 06/30/10
Outputs
Course offerings included the following: Project A: BRT 501 - Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources; Project B: BRT545 - Production and Use of Biofuels. The Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources was delivered to a total of 5 students via distance education at ISU in the Fall of 2009 (fall is always purely distance ed). This course was also delivered to a total of 50 students (15 via distance education) at ISU in the Spring of 2010. An additional 6 students participated in this course from the collaborating institutions. The Virtual Education Model and coordination of the lectures was successful with new lectures being taped for the topics that needed some adjustment. With experience in this delivery model by PIs of the collaborating institutions, the associated work load eased significantly. Two major efforts in 2010 distinct from prior years were the development of a new "plant production" module in the fundamentals course, by a non-project-funded PhD student at Iowa State. This module was delivered in video-lecture and html formats, and data are currently being analyzed to understand which learning method worked better for students. A second major effort (which is ongoing) is the collection and analysis of summative assessment data. PRODUCTS: Forty lecture segments were generated for each of the three courses (Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources, Thermochemical Processing of Biomass, and Production and Use of Biofuels) each ranging from 5 - 50 minutes in length. Seven entirely new plant production lectures were produced. OUTCOMES: Over 100 students learned about Biorenewable Resources, Thermochemical Processing, and Biofuel Production using the VEC model. Also, The Center for Biorenewable Chemicals - CBiRC (the new NSF ERC at Iowa State University) successfully incorporated the VEC model when teaching two new courses within its graduate program in spring and summer 2010. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: At Iowa State, a non-traditional Industrial and Agricultural Technology Ph.D. student has developed a dissertation research project around the BRT 501 class, wherein different types of online content (annotated video lectures and stand-alone html-based modules) were compared in the 2010 spring offering of the course. This research will help us understand how to best deliver online content, and how Myers-Briggs personality types affect optimum delivery methods. A meeting paper on this work was presented in summer 2010. FUTURE INITIATIVES: The content in all three courses is going to be used in courses at Iowa State after the closeout of the project in summer 2011. In the remainder of 2010/2011, the focus is on assessment, evaluation and dissemination.
Impacts
Iowa State University, the University of Kentucky and the University of Idaho, all leverage the bioenergy and bioproducts expertise housed at each school to build additional capacity for a broader and deeper education and research program. This provides new opportunities for our students, attracts additional faculty and students from other departments, and increases the amount of research possible in the field of biorenewables.
Publications
- Jarboe, D. H., D. R. Raman, and K. L. Christiansen. 2010. Impact of Two Course Content Delivery Systems on Student Learning. American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Annual International Meeting, June 20-24, Pittsburgh, PA.
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Progress 07/01/08 to 06/30/09
Outputs
Course offerings included the following: Project A: BRT 501 - Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources Project B: BRT535 - Thermochemical Processing of Biomass Project C: BRT545 - Production and Use of Biofuels. Project A: Course BRT 501 - Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources was delivered to a total of 6 students via distance education at ISU in the Fall of 2008 (fall is always purely distance ed). This course was also delivered to a total of 33 students (12 via distance education) at ISU in the Spring of 2009. An additional 19 students participated in this course from the collaborating institutions (7 students from UKY and 12 students from UI). The Virtual Education Model and coordination of the lectures was successful with new lectures being taped for the topics that needed some adjustment. With experience in this delivery model by PIs of the collaborating institutions, the associated work load eased significantly. Project B: Course BRT 535 - Thermochemical Processing of Biomass was delivered to a total of 23 students (15 at ISU, 2 at UKY and 6 at UI). Project C: BRT 545 - Production and Use of Biofuels was offered for the first time in the Fall of 2008. This course was delivered to a total of 29 students (9 at ISU, 4 at ISU via distance education, 11 at UKY, and 5 at UI). With this being the first offering of this course via the Virtual Education Model, the real hurdle was that of consensus building as to the overall scope of the course and the assignment of lecture topics to members of the collaborating schools. Overall, the course was successful as evidenced by student evaluations and comments. Growth in attendance is anticipated in future offerings. PRODUCTS: Forty lecture segments were generated for each of the three courses (Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources, Thermochemical Processing of Biomass, and Production and Use of Biofuels) each ranging from 5 - 50 minutes in length. These lectures were shared among all three schools. OUTCOMES: Over 100 students learned about Biorenewable Resources, Thermochemical Processing, and Biofuel Production using the VEC model. Also, The Center for Biorenewable Chemicals - CBiRC (the new NSF ERC at Iowa State University) will incorporate the VEC model when teaching courses within its graduate program, the first course being Chemical and Biological Catalysis. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: We are now more actively engaging other departments on-campus to encourage their students to take the biorenewables courses. This activity has been rewarded with half or more of our students coming from outside the department. We have also used the background developed from the courses to broaden our research efforts. Recently, the University of Idaho was successful in acquiring funding from the Idaho National Laboratory to investigate feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol production in Idaho. This project is funding a Ph.D. student in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Idaho. At Iowa State, a non-traditional Industrial and Agricultural Technology Ph.D. student has developed a dissertation research project around the BRT 501 class, wherein different types of online content (annotated video lectures and stand-alone html-based modules) will be compared in the 2010 spring offering of the course. This research will help us understand how to best deliver online content, and how Myers-Briggs personality types affect optimum delivery methods. A meeting paper on this work is planned for summer 2010. FUTURE INITIATIVES: All three institutions have graduate students assisting with course development or evaluation. All three courses (Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources, Thermochemical Processing of Biomass, and Production and Use of Biofuels) will be offered 2009/2010. The Fundamentals course has been offered as a completely video-based course and plans are underway to develop the thermochemical processing course in the same manner.
Impacts
Iowa State University, the University of Kentucky and the University of Idaho, all leverage the bioenergy and bioproducts expertise housed at each school to build additional capacity for a broader and deeper education and research program. This provides new opportunities for our students, attracts additional faculty and students from other departments, and increases the amount of research possible in the field of biorenewables.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 07/01/07 to 06/30/08
Outputs
The Iowa State University course BRT 501 - Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources was delivered to a total of 50 students (11 distance education) at ISU in the Spring of 2008, with an additional five students at each of the collaborating institutions. Spring of 2008 also saw us offer the Thermochemical Course delivered to students at both ISU and UKY; the UI PI was on sabattical leave and the course was not offered there. Both courses used Virtual Education Center model. The student response to the segmented lectures was mixed, with several students complaining that the segments were a waste of time. We are considering posting segments as single files for Spring 2009. PI's met regularly online and in person in Providence, RI, at the annual meeting of the American Society for Agricultural and Biological Engineers. At this meeting, details about course scheduling, responsibility splits, and approach were determined. The project continues to be about 1 year behind schedule, mostly due to difficulties in getting subcontract agreements completed between institutions. PRODUCTS: a) Nearly 90 lecture segments were generated in the Fundamentals Course, ranging from 5 - 50 minutes in length, and these were shared with three schools. (b) The thermochemical course generated over 30 h of lecture content and shared it between two schools. (c) Planning for the new biofuels course (offered Fall 2008) began. OUTCOMES: a) Over 60 students learned about Biorenewable Resources and/or Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass using the VEC model. (b) ISU landed a coveted NSF Engineering Research Center, with a key part of the educational strategy being to extend the VEC model for teaching a graduate course in Chemical and Biological Catalysis. PI Raman is the University Education Director on the NSF ERC. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: We are developing a plan to add bioenergy as an option area to our undergraduate degree program. Crofcheck, C., J. Ferrara, A. Abadie, and S. Nokes. 2008. Biofuels Education: Opportunities and Possibilities. Presented at the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop, June 18, 2008 in Nashville, TN. (presentation) FUTURE INITIATIVES: Graduate students have been hired at Iowa, Idaho, and Kentucky, and are assisting with course development or evaluation. All three courses (Fundamentals, Thermochemical Conversion, Biofuels) will be offered in 2008/2009, including an all online version of the fundamentals course at ISU. We plan to add an interdisciplinary M.S. program in bioenergy.
Impacts
Expertise in biorenewable resources is spread across the nation. Although significant faculty resources exist nationwide, they are geographically diffuse, with no single institution having experts in each area of biobased products and technologies. This project uses distance-education to overcome the geographic dispersal of faculty and students in biorenewable resources and technologies, which are critical to our nation developing a more environmentally sound industrial future.
Publications
- Crofcheck, C., J. Ferrara, A. Abadie, and S. Nokes. 2008. Biofuels Education: Opportunities and Possibilities. Presented at the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop, June 18, 2008 in Nashville, TN. (presentation)
- Abadie, A. 2008. Quantifying cellulase in solid substrate cultivation. M.Sc. thesis. University of Kentucky.
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Progress 07/01/06 to 06/30/07
Outputs
The Iowa State University course BRT 501 - Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources was delivered to 34 students (11 distance education) in the Spring of 2007. This course was taught by PI Raman but began to use some of the principles of the Virtual Education Center, because of a heavy reliance on video lectures previously made by PI Brown. We confirmed that long (50 minute) lecture formats are too long for our purposes, and will use the 5 - 15 minute model proposed in the VEC for the next course. PI's from each of the three participating institutions met face-to-face in Minneapolis during the summer, where they were convened for the annual meeting of the American Society for Agricultural and Biological Engineers. At this meeting, details about course scheduling, responsibility splits, and approach were determined. A primary challenge was identified as the intellectual property rights on the lecture segments, but that has been solved by following standard practices at
each institution. We believe that each institution will own the copyrights on the video snippets produced there, and that we will share our video lectures with each other at no cost for the duration of the grant. After the grant expires, we foresee institutions wishing to use the video lectures negotiating with the appropriate copyright owners. The project is currently about 1 year behind schedule, mostly due to difficulties in getting subcontract agreements completed between institutions.
PRODUCTS: (a) BRT 501 course was offered at Iowa State University using partial VEC model, generating 25 hours of video content and using 45 hours of existing content. (b) Faculty from three institutions met and began planning offering of course.
OUTCOMES: (a) 34 students learned about Biorenewable Resources using partial VEC model. (b) A new online MS program in Biorenewable Resources and Technology is available, in part via encouragement from this project.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: None this reporting period.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: A new online graduate certificate program in Biorenewable Resources and Technology is being planned, in part via encouragement from this project. Graduate students have been hired at Iowa and Kentucky, and are assisting with course development or evaluation. Both the Fundamentals course and the Thermochemical Conversion course will be offered in spring of 2008. The deployment of the VEC model in a freshmen engineering course at Iowa State University is also planned for spring 2008.
Impacts
Expertise in biorenewable resources is spread across the nation. Although significant faculty resources exist nationwide, they are geographically diffused, with no single institution having experts in each area of biobased products and technologies. This project uses distance-education to overcome the geographic dispersal of faculty and students in biorenewable resources and technologies, which are critical to our nation developing a more environmentally sound industrial future.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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