Designed and written by ASC Office of Distance Education Instructional Designer, Jessica Henderson.
The development of this resource arose from an undergraduate research course in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology (EEOB). This course focuses on online data collection and analytics through topics often connected to current events and a portion of the course requires lab participation. These labs are primarily conducted by GTAs and focus on technical processes needed to collect data and run statistical analyses using a variety of programs such as ArcGIS and SAS.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the lab portion of the course shifted to a synchronous online format, which created challenges with student engagement. The GTAs noted that many students never attended or eventually stopped attending the synchronous labs and for those that did attend, participation was lacking. The course instructor’s goal, then, was to streamline these virtual labs so that the GTAs could focus their efforts on other aspects of the course, while improving overall engagement in the labs and providing increased access to the materials.
One of the virtual labs for the course focuses specifically on the employment of SAS Studio to conduct various statistical analyses. To increase access for students and provide additional flexibility, the instructor had already recorded her lab lectures that walk students through step-by-step processes via screen shares. We wanted to be able to reuse these materials and the effort put forth by the instructor, but improve their overall functionality and usefulness for all students.
To do so, we relied on a few key Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies:
- Minimize threats and distractions by varying sensory stimulation and the level of novelty.
- Increase mastery-oriented feedback by providing feedback that is frequent, timely, and that emphasizes effort and improvement.
- Guide information processing by chunking information into smaller segments.
- Offer ways to customize the display of information.
- Offer alternatives to visual and/or auditory information.
The approach that we followed to accomplish these goals is detailed below.
Step 1: Chunk Videos and Add Interactive Elements
This step responded to the following UDL strategies identified above:
- Minimize threats and distractions by varying sensory stimulation and the level of novelty.
- Guide information processing by chunking information into smaller segments.
- Offer ways to customize the display of information.
Each original video was around 45 to 50 minutes in length. We began by cutting the videos into 3 to 4 smaller segments, generally no more than 15 minutes each, where appropriate. In addition, we incorporated strategic interactions throughout most of the shortened videos. These interactions appear on the screen at various points throughout the video timeline, helping to provide a level of novelty and avoid over routinization of the video lectures. The interactions generally take the form of supplemental notes, links to more information, key definitions, or the full SAS code that students can copy directly from the video screen right into their own SAS program.
Fig. 1: This is an opened clickable text icon, providing full SAS code that can be copied directly from the lecture video into SAS Studio.
Fig. 2: This is an example of a text interaction that appears for a period of time within the lecture video to provide additional information to the learner.
Fig. 3: A combination of a text prompt and a clickable icon containing links to more information for additional review
Step 2: Provide a Way to Check Progress
This step responded to the following UDL strategies identified above:
-
Increase mastery-oriented feedback by providing feedback that is frequent, timely, and that emphasizes effort and improvement.
-
Guide information processing by chunking information into smaller segments.
Because these labs cover several technical processes that often require remembering correct forms of code or which one of several SAS procedures should be employed in a particular situation, we opted to follow several of the chunked videos with comprehension check style questions that offer students immediate feedback that they can use to check and reflect on their understanding of these processes and procedures. In addition, these exercises are provided as low-stakes practice activities, reducing any risk of failure and encouraging students to return and reuse these exercises multiple times as a way to check their own progress and improvement.
Fig. 4: An unanswered knowledge check question set that immediately follows an interactive lecture video
Fig. 5: An answered knowledge check question set that displays immediate feedback as soon as the learner check their answer
Step 3: Minimize Cognitive Overload and Highlight Relationships
This step responded to the following UDL strategies identified above:
-
Guide information processing by chunking information into smaller segments.
-
Offer ways to customize the display of information.
-
Offer alternatives to visual and/or auditory information
The next step was to determine how to present the video segments and their corresponding comprehension checks in a way that would not create cognitive overload in Carmen. Because there are several statistics labs and each one now contains between 2-4 video lectures plus comprehension check activities, creating each of these elements as an individual page or item in Carmen would create extremely lengthy modules that require extensive amounts of scrolling, which can be visually overwhelming for many students. This sense of overwhelm can greatly impact the learner’s perception of the level of difficulty of the task and their ability to succeed (see expectancy value theory). If the task is believed to be beyond their capabilities, the student’s motivation and effort put forth may suffer.
To solve this issue and try to condense everything within fewer Module items, while maintaining accessibility, transparency, and the connections between the individual lecture topics, we decided to utilize H5p and the Interactive Book content type. This content type allows us to create chapter pages within a single ebook that can contain a combination of text and media. Each chapter page contains one of the chunked video lectures related to a given topic, the corresponding comprehension check activities, and any additional text information that may help guide the students’ understanding and processing of knowledge. The book is then embedded directly into a Carmen page, containing detailed instructions for how to interact with and succesfully complete the task.
Fig. 6: Text, media, and knowledge check elements are chunked and combined within chapter pages inside of an interactive book that contains a navigable menu.
Fig. 7: The interactive book is embedded on a Carmen course page and introduced via detailed text instructions
Step 4: Offering Alternatives
This step responded to the following UDL strategies identified above:
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Offer ways to customize the display of information.
-
Offer alternatives to visual and/or auditory information.
Finally, we were cautious that this interactive, somewhat non-linear, style may not function well for all students so we wanted to provide alternatives for how students choose to interact, at least with the main lectures included in the eBooks. In order to do this, we incorporated text-based transcripts for all videos both directly within the interactive book pages and externally, linked directly on the Carmen pages themselves. The benefits of providing the option to download the lab directions text are myriad, including having the transcript as an outline or guide for deeper notetaking and providing assistance to non-native English speakers who may need additional support with the translation of technical terminology and processes.
Fig. 8: A video transcript provided directly within the interactive book using the accordion feature
Fig. 9: Downloadable pdf versions of the video transcripts provided directly as links on the Carmen course page
Instructor and Student Feedback
The initial feedback regarding these virtual lab changes has been very positive from both the instructor and students. The instructor noted that she has experienced far fewer problems related to the virtual labs since implementing these changes. In addition, she commented that the adjustments made to these virtual labs have reduced her overall workload regarding the labs, freeing up space to work on other components of the course and strengthening the overall teaching experience.
Students, likewise, have shown great appreciation for the virtual labs and the ways in which the material is presented:
"These modules are great first-time guides or reviews for students interested in fields that require stats. They are straight-forward and offer helpful knowledge checks to measure your understanding."
“The course material was presented in very clear and thorough modules with voice-overs that really helped me understand the lesson that was being presented. I really appreciated not only having information in a document, but also being able to be walked through it and later quizzed on it, online.”
“EEOB 3494 provided a practical introduction to statistics using SAS studio, an intuitive programming platform that proved to be one of the most accessible when compared to other softwares such as R studio, MATLAB, and Java. The course material was taught entirely in person, but provided an online version of the statistics lectures that gave us a beneficial way to review the material and answer lingering questions from the initial lecture. The skills I learned in this portion of the class allowed me to use SAS in other courses like Conservation Biology and Ohio Birds, as well as my own passions in data analysis. 3494 balanced the technical aspect of statistics with discussions over a broad range of research literature.”
"The online learning tools provided for these courses are extremely thorough, clear, and easy to follow. Most online classes are taught with recorded zoom lectures, but these step-by-step guides allow you to progress through the material at your own pace and learn about statistics hands-on."