The goal of the "Flexible Physics for the Google World" project is to create video-based learning objects to help prepare students and TAs for physics labs.
This project is sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching & Learning, with contributions from the Libraries, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), the Division of Student Life, the Office of the CIO, the Vice Chancellor of Administration, and the Provost.
Read more about the project.
Over the Fall 2011 semester, we created a full set of video-based learning objects to accompany Physics 208, an introductory course for majors in the biological sciences. The primary goal of each video was to help the students see the connections between the concepts they had learned in lecture and the real-world experiment in that week's lab.
Each video is about five minutes long, and covers: an overview of the relevant concepts, the goals of the lab, an outline of the lab procedure, and an introduction to the equipment.
This spring, we will be working on a second set of videos to accompany Physics 104.
Go to the video archives.
Initial assessment of our videos will focus on these questions: did the students feel more prepared, after watching each video, as they began each lab? Did they feel that the videos helped them understand the purpose of each lab? And, at the end of the semester, are they less likely to say "labs are not connected to lecture"?
The bulk of our assessment will be done by questionnaire throughout the Spring 2012 semester. The first semester student response was overwhelmingly positive-- exciting results for us!
Read more on assessment methods and outcomes.
There are many sides of this project that we are now working on in parallel. As we continue to make new videos, we are actively considering some technical questions and best practices: How do we best deliver these videos to students? Flash or HTML5? How do we make the videos and activities accessible? How can we use video meta-data to make the videos most Googleable?
Read more about what we're up to.
The Flexible Physics team has members from the Physics Department, Academic Technology, Learning Support Services and the Libraries.
Meet the people involved.