{"id":28089,"date":"2014-02-25T09:59:55","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T13:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=28089"},"modified":"2015-03-04T11:14:23","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T16:14:23","slug":"scale-model-super-active-learning-method-pioneered-in-college-of-engineering-and-computer-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/02\/25\/scale-model-super-active-learning-method-pioneered-in-college-of-engineering-and-computer-science\/","title":{"rendered":"SCALE Model: Super active learning method pioneered in College of Engineering and Computer Science"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Travis<\/a>

Computer science and engineering professor Travis Doom has pioneered a new classroom environment that enables active learning.<\/p><\/div>\n

There is no front or back to this classroom. And the seats are not in rows.<\/p>\n

Instead, the room is honeycombed with large circular desks outfitted with computer stations. Fist-gripping the walls are whiteboards and video screens. And the action is fast and furious.<\/p>\n

The instructor projects a problem on the screens, and teams of students huddle at the desks\u2014discussing, arguing, analyzing, tearing into it with an intensity not normally seen in conventional passive-learning classrooms.Welcome to the Russ Engineering Center, where for the past 18 months computer science students have been swimming in a Student Centered Active Learning Environment, or SCALE-UP.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an environment that enables active learning to take place on a larger scale and in a more effective manner,\u201d said Travis Doom, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science and engineering. \u201cAnd when students have their Aha! moments, they can share in exactly the right way with the other students. It\u2019s more effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

How effective?<\/p>\n

Since the program was instituted at the College of Engineering and Computer Science in the fall of 2012, the number of students who have advanced from Computer Science I to Computer Science II has doubled.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur anecdotal preliminary assessments show that not only do the students enjoy the classroom more, but it appears that they actually retain the technical knowledge with higher fidelity,\u201d Doom said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historically, the conventional method of teaching stemmed from the need for a professor to disseminate information to students face to face because books were expensive. Then textbooks were developed to supplement teaching, but learning was still done in a passive way.<\/p>\n

With the advent of the Internet, online publications and YouTube, students have better access to current information that prepares them for class discussion. That frees up class time for interaction with the professor and leads to more active learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future is in active learning; there is no doubt about it,\u201d Doom said.<\/p>\n

The idea for the SCALE-UP classes at Wright State sprang from the University of North Carolina physics department, which was using hands-on, lab-like exercises in classroom lectures. It seemed like a natural way to teach engineering.<\/p>\n

Doom said many students are initially uncomfortable in the SCALE-UP environment because it is not what they are accustomed to. Once they get used to it, he said, the vast majority love it.<\/p>\n

The teaching method has raised up the bottom third of the class\u2014those students who would get lost in lecture, be afraid to ask questions of the instructor and fall behind. These students are now able to pose questions to their teammates and gain an understanding of the material, enabling the entire team to move forward to the next idea. There is peer pressure to learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what surprised me is that this method has the most impact on the upper third of the class because they become teachers,\u201d Doom said. \u201cNot only do they learn it, but as they learn it they have to explain it to someone else, which just crystallizes the infrastructure in their mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doom said he hopes this method not only gives students a stronger set of technical skills, but also soft skills so valued by employers such as communication and social skills as well as teamwork and leadership ability.<\/p>\n

And he said there is anecdotal evidence that students with autism spectrum disabilities are well served by SCALE-UP.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir technical prowess makes them leaders oftentimes, and they are not used to that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Currently, SCALE-UP is being used in every computer science and engineering class students take in their first two years. It is also being experimented with in some history, anthropology and other non-engineering courses.<\/p>\n

In addition, all of the classrooms in the new Student Success Center and Classroom Building, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2015, are being designed as active-learning rooms.<\/p>\n

It would have been hard to predict that Doom would be a pioneer of cutting-edge teaching techniques in higher education. He grew up in Detroit in a family of autoworkers, was the product of Detroit public schools and became the first member of his family to attend college.<\/p>\n

He became interested in computer engineering as an undergrad at Bowling Green State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recognized that mathematics was the tool that you used to solve all of the important problems,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd to use mathematics on problems of a large scale, you had to use computers to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doom obtained his master\u2019s and Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from Michigan State University and in 1998 joined the faculty at Wright State despite receiving offers from Intel Corp., Argonne National Laboratory and two other universities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to Wright State primarily because this institution is young and agile,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you want to teach things in SCALE-UP, for example, the administration will let you try it out. That was just so attractive to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doom preaches the gospel of computer science as a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding computational devices that can interact with each other and make people\u2019s lives more convenient, safer, more enjoyable\u2014that is the new wave of consumer technology,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople who can enable that\u2014who can envision cool ideas\u2014they are going to drive society\u2019s direction and changes and make a nice living for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Computer science and engineering professor Travis Doom has pioneered Student Centered Active Learning Environment, or SCALE-UP, an innovative classroom environment. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":28106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,4267,743,2023,725,715,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-computer-science-and-engineering","category-engineering-computer-science","category-faculty","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28089"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35636,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28089\/revisions\/35636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}