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This involves partial differentiation of an integral, which can be done by the generalized
Leibniz rule. The viewer-students can be given time during the lecture to do the
mathematics of the Leibniz rule application. For example, the following steps can be
worked out by the students with appropriate directions maybe the generalized Leibniz
rule (the first equation below) needs to be explicitly given first before the viewer-
students work out the individual terms through differentiation and integration steps, as
given below.
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Since the II and III terms on the RHS involve derivatives of particular values (limits of
integration, which are constants for a given case), they are each zero. Thus,
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Therefore,
+
So, (
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International Conference on Engineering Education 30 July - 3 August 2012, Turku, Finland
The requirement that the viewer-students need to work out the detailed mathematical
steps serves multiple purposes. In this authors experience, about 80% of the students
in a typical undergraduate class in Biotechnology are not naturally talented in
Mathematics (e.g. cannot foresee the results of multiple sequential steps), and spend a
lot of time trying to understand how the various mathematical steps in a typical
textbook are arrived at; the typical textbook usually does not elaborate the intervening
steps in a derivation. For example, a typical approach in a textbook for the above
mathematical steps would be to say that `by application of the generalized Leibniz rule,
one can arrive at the final expression. A significant percentage of interested students in
a typical class get frustrated when they are unable to work out the mathematics. Thus, if
the steps are required as an active exercise, the appreciation for the rigour in the subject
becomes better to an average student. Of course, it may be boring to a viewer-student
who is naturally talented in Mathematics (less than 20% in a typical engineering
undergraduate class), and such people can move to a further position in (fast forward)
the video earlier than the others.
4. Presentation of Mathematical Equations
A related novelty that was introduced is the method of equation presentation in the
lectures. It is common knowledge that student appreciation of the equations is far less
when presented using a presentation software, such as Microsoft PowerPoint
,
compared to a presentation using say, the chalk board. Deeper thought led the author to
realize that the chalk board presentation of equations is more effective because of the
inherent time involved in writing the equations. Students process the various terms as
they are being written, and that processing leads to a better understanding and
appreciation of the equations, compared to what is possible in a normal slide
presentation through a presentation software, where the equation is usually presented as
one piece. Nevertheless, the clarity in the writing of the terms on the board could
depend on the instructor, whereas it is standard and acceptable in a presentation
software. These thoughts led to the development of a different presentation strategy for
equations when presentation softwares are used, i.e. animation of individual terms, or
small groups of terms in an equation, so that they appear sequentially at subsequent
mouse-clicks. Such a presentation provides the learner student with the time for better
processing. It also renders itself naturally, to a better explanation of the terms involved
by the instructor.
5. An Important Concern
One of the important concerns that the author had to deal with, especially from the
content administrators, is on the significance of the need to provide pre-determined
pauses in the lecture, and thus take away the video time, when the viewer-students can
pause the video themselves for whatever time they need. To understand the need for
pre-determined pauses, one can consider the recent emphasis by Ragan [9] for on-line
courses: the role of the instructor in on-line courses, is actually more important than has
International Conference on Engineering Education 30 July - 3 August 2012, Turku, Finland
been previously considered; the earlier consideration was erroneous, because of the
impression that the on-line courses were supposed to be designed as self-instructed
modules. To quote, `the students are looking to the instructor to serve as the guide,
facilitator and teacher and the need for them to do so is pronounced because of the
lack of face-to-face interactions [9]. More importantly, the viewer-student needs to
understand the time needed for an average viewer-student, to decide how to pace his/her
own learning, and these pre-determined times give reference points to the viewer-
student for self-evaluation. If the viewer-student realizes that (s)he needs more time,
then the video can be paused for a longer time than allotted; if less time is needed, then
the viewer-student is better than the average, and (s)he can move to the end of the
allotted time on the streaming video as soon as (s)he finishes the task.
6. Feedback
At the time of this writing, the video lectures for the NPTEL course on
Thermodynamics (Classical) for Biological Systems, had been available on the web for
about 6 days. The lectures have been reasonably popular going by 1500+ views for a
single lecture on Open Systems (lecture no. 9), and the other available lectures getting
views of a few hundreds. The user comments thus far have been positive in fact, no
negative comment has been recorded, thus far. One perceptive viewer-student
appreciated the time given during the lectures for working out the problems, with the
solutions being presented at the end of that time. The comments from viewers who
were not engineers that they were able to easily follow the lectures, was indeed
heartening. The comments to be received subsequent to this time of writing, will be
discussed during the conference presentation.
7. Conclusions
Active learning techniques were incorporated into video lectures, for use in distance
learning.
References
[1] J. C. Dean, Engaging Ideas: A Professors Guide to Integrating Writing,
Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, II Edition, Jossey-
Bass, John Wiley, 2011.
[2] M. Prince, ``Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research, Journal
of Engineering Education, Vol. 93, No. 3, pp. 223-231, 2004.
[3] C. C. Bonwell, and J. A. Eison, Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the
Classroom, ASHEERIC Higher Education Report No. 1, George Washington
University, Washington, DC, 1991.
International Conference on Engineering Education 30 July - 3 August 2012, Turku, Finland
[4] A. W. Chickering, and Z. F. Gamson, "Seven Principles for Good Practice"
AAHE Bulletin 39, 1987.
[5] L. Ellis, and D. Mathis, `` College Student Learning from Televised versus
Conventional Classroom Lectures: A Controlled Experiment, Higher
Education, Vol. 14, 165-173, 1985.
[6] F. A. Tobagi, ``Distance Learning with Digital Video, IEEE Multimedia,
Vol. 2, 90-93, 1995.
[7] H. D. Brecht, and S. M. Ogilby, `` Enabling a Comprehensive Teaching
Strategy: Video Lectures, Journal of Information Technology Education, Vol.
7, pp. 71-86, 2008.
[8] R. M. Felder, and R. Brent, ``The ABCs of Engineering Education: ABET,
Blooms Taxonomy, Cooperative Learning, and so on, Proceedings of the
2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference &
Exposition, Session 1375, Portland, OR, USA, 2004.
[9] L. C. Ragan, ``10 Principles of Effective On-line Teaching: Best Practices in
Distance Education, Magna Publications, 2011.