Research Showcase
| Research Topic | Researcher | Department |
|---|---|---|
| Enhancing Political Science Courses with the World Wide Web | Bruce Wilson, Ph.D. | Political Science |
| Data Mining and Online Surveys | Morgan Wang, Ph.D. | Statistics |
| Quality Assurance Strategies | Judy Lee, Ph.D. | Educational Foundations |
| Effectively Teaching Very Large Online Courses | Stephen Lytle, Ph.D. | Health Services Administration |
| Studio Calculus | Joby Anthony, Ph.D. | Mathematics |
| Web-Based Technology and Political Sciences Courses | Dr. Houman A. Sadri | Political Science |
| Software Engineering Online | Dr. Janusz Zalewski | Computer Engineering |
| Re-Engineering American National Government | Dr. Hutch Pollock | Political Science |
Enhancing Political Science Courses With the World Wide Web
Dr. Bruce M. Wilson
College of Arts and Sciences,
Department of Political Science
P.O. Box 161356
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL 32816
Phone: (407) 823-6772
E-mail: bwilson@mail.ucf.edu
In the last four years Bruce has converted several political science courses to Web-based or Web-enhanced formats. In 1999, he was a co-PI, with Hutch Pollock and Steve Sorg (PI), of a $200,000 Pew Foundation Grant in Course Redesign to convert the department's American National Government course, a highly populated general education course, into a Web-enhanced class. Along with Kerstin Hamann, he developed the Web-based instructional modules for the course and is (with Hutch Pollock) evaluating the impact of the redesigned class on student learning outcomes through a controlled comparison with a section of the traditional face-to-face format.
Bruce has presented at several scientific meetings, has published the preliminary results of his course redesign project, and is preparing other manuscripts for publication.
His redesigned American National Government course received an Honorary Mention in WebCT's International "Exemplary Course Project" competition in 2001.
Data Mining and Online Surveys
Dr. Morgan Wang
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Statistics
Phone: (407) 823-2818
E-mail: cwang@mail.ucf.edu
Morgan is an expert in the areas of data mining and data warehousing. He developed and pilot tested a real time online survey system using SAS macros that features several effective protocols for insuring respondent anonymity and security. His system has the capacity of producing instantaneous analysis of respondent data in high quality graphic format. Dr. Wang was honored with the first place award for graphical presentation of data in the 2000 meeting of the SAS Users Group International. He designed and is directing one of the first data mining certificate programs in the country.
Quality Assurance Strategies
Dr. Judy Lee
College of Education
Department of Educational Foundations
Phone: (407) 823-6139
E-mail: jlee@mail.ucf.edu
Judy is completing the implementation of a fully online Educational Media program in the College of Education. She has worked extensively in the area of quality assurance strategies in fully Web-based courses. In addition, Dr. Lee is working on altered role expectations faculty might expect when their entire teaching load is delivered via the World Wide Web. She is collecting outcome and student evaluation data for her classes and is gathering information on student learning styles as they pertain to course satisfaction. She is making presentations at scientific meetings and preparing several manuscripts for publication.
Effectively Teaching Very Large Online Courses
Dr. Stephen Lytle
College of Health and Public Affairs
Department of Health Services Administration
Phone: (407) 823-5668
E-mail: slytle@mail.ucf.edu
Steve is particularly successful at teaching very large sections (100+ students) of fully online courses. His innovative techniques are nationally recognized — especially his online simulation models. Dr. Lytle is building a large outcome database for his courses including demographics, attitudes, success and withdrawal rates, and student learning styles. Steve is serving as a faculty fellow for the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning and a Vanguard Faculty member for Course Development and Web Services. He is an active presenter of his research and publishes on a regular basis.
Studio Calculus
Dr. Joby Anthony
College of Arts and Sciences,
Department of Mathematics
Phone: (407) 823-0148
E-mail: janthony@mail.ucf.edu
Joby is directing a project through the Department of Mathematics, working with Physics and the College of Engineering, that involves designing a studio calculus course for engineers. The project involves cross-department curriculum planning and design. The class was pilot-tested during the Fall 2000 semester with plans for extensive evaluation during the spring semester.
Web-Based Technology and Political Sciences Courses
Dr. Houman A. Sadri
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Political Science
P.O. Box 161356
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL 32816-1356
Phone: (407) 823-6023
E-mail: hsadri@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
Houman is conducting research into the efficacy of using Web-based technology and management tools to teach international relations courses. He is monitoring student success and withdrawal rates, and students' attitudes and satisfaction in courses where he has developed online components. He is presenting the results of his work at several scientific meetings.
Software Engineering Online
Dr. Janusz Zalewski
Computer Engineering
College of Engineering and Computer Science
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL 32816-2450
Phone: (407) 823-6171
E-mail: jza@ece.engr.ucf.edu
Janusz began teaching a Software Engineering course during the summer 2000 semester. As part of that initial offering, Dr. Zalewski surveyed his students online regarding many components of the course such as: organization of the material, relevance of course activities, orientation components of the course, and interaction with the instructor and other students.
Re-Engineering American National Government
Dr. Hutch Pollock
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Political Science
Phone: (407) 823-2084
E-mail: pollock@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
Hutch Pollock and Bruce Wilson are co-principal investigators on a grant, funded by the Pew Charitable Trust Foundation, for redesigning the course POS2041, American National Government. POS2041 is being converted to a mixed-mode format whereby students experience part of the course in the traditional face-to-face mode and the remainder of their instruction online. Dr. Pollock and Dr. Wilson are conducting an extensive evaluation of the redesign effort by compiling data on student demographics, success and withdrawal rates, reactions and attitudes, learning styles and a number of other outcome measures. Pilot test analyses of data from Spring 2000 have been completed and the evaluation is ongoing.