Ecampus Research Fellows

Proposed research abstract
The outcomes from hybrid delivery of a general chemistry lab course, presenting 4 traditional brick-and-mortar chemistry lab experiments and 4 virtual lab activities, will be compared to those from our traditional (decades-old) brick-and-mortar general chemistry laboratory course that contains 8 on-campus lab experiments. The study will be conducted in Sp19 term in CH205, a general chemistry lab course aimed at pre-engineering students. Students in the test group, comprising 4 sections of approximately 24 students, will alternate between virtual and traditional activities that cover equivalent content and with identical learning outcomes as control group comprising at least 4 class sections. At the conclusion, student surveys, and instructor interviews and student work products and outcomes will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of this hybrid lab course delivery at OSU. Results will be disseminated at an OSU conference, a national education conference, and used to provide seed data for external funding proposals. These results will also inform decisions on further use or scaling of hybrid lab delivery in Chemistry.

Proposed research abstract
Online education provides learners with additional avenues to interact with course material and each other. This is especially true for students who tend to take a back seat in traditional face-to-face courses, because of social barriers, the rapid pace of oral communication, or other reasons. Access of materials around the clock and independent of a specific physical location is often cited as a major advantage of online instruction. Interestingly, research suggests that the latter may actually be perceived as a disadvantage by students in professional curricula using online instruction. From the instructor perspective, the online environment allows for preservation of student interactions with the material, and may also generate opportunities for individualized review and feedback. However, for an online course to be effective, the workload for instructors can be significantly higher when compared to traditional instruction; and time is a rare commodity for faculty in professional programs including veterinary schools. Hybrid course delivery has the potential to combine the benefits of online course delivery with those of traditional face-to-face instruction. The primary outcome of this project is a deeper understanding of the differences in the student and instructor experience between the hybrid delivery and traditional on-campus instruction of a skills-based course – within the context of a professional curriculum. The following aspects of the instructional experience will be highlighted: Student perception, student learning, student engagement, student interactions; instructor time commitment, and instructor experience. A secondary outcome is the exploration of collaboration and communication platforms identified by students in their interactions with each other and the instructor.

Proposed research abstract
In recent years, online learning has become increasingly widespread and has attracted considerable attention. The promise of adaptive learning has been closely associated with the concept of online learning. However, design for adaptive learning to better facilitate performance has not been well connected with individual emotions and cognitive load during the learning process. Many adaptive learning systems are conceptual rather than implementable designs. Thus, in order to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of an adaptive learning system, we designed a one-factor, three-level experiment. Three learning systems (static, adaptive with repeated representation, and adaptive with new representation) will be used as the stimuli. Emotional valence and cognitive load will be examined using electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking. Learning outcomes will be measured by the evaluation scores of knowledge retention. We will consider several structural equation models (SEMs) to examine the underlying relationship between learning system, emotions, cognitive load, and learning outcomes.

Proposed research abstract
Most of the studies that examine factors that affect student’s choice in online versus face-to-face class focus on individual factors such as self-efficacy, personal motivation, preference, perception, flexibility, satisfaction with past online course etc. These studies were mainly conducted under the condition where either online or face-to-face class is available to the students, but not both. None of the research within existing literature has examined the effect of peer-influence and other social factors that could affect student’s choice in online versus face-to-face class when both are available and accessible to students. The objective of this study is to explore the role of peer influence and other social factors on students’ decision between online and face-to-face class. A mixed-method approach that include students’ self-reported reasons for choosing the instructional mode through survey and students’ cohort data to triangulate the survey responses will be utilized for this study to identify the peer-influence and social factors. A predictive model will be developed and validated using the enrollment data. The results from this study could provide insights into student advising, facilitate and encourage participation in online learning, and capacity planning for departments that are offering same courses in both online and face-to-face format.

Proposed research abstract
There has been a paradigm shift in research towards a community-engaged framework – such an approach situates research in the context of community questions, needs and priorities to ensure the ultimate research products are useful and actionable. Through existing research projects, we have identified a need for increased student involvement in community-engaged research (CEnR). This research spans data collection with citizen volunteers, holding focus groups to evaluate research translation products and evaluating health promotion and risk prevention messaging (i.e. environmental health literacy). This research occurs predominantly via face-to-face interactions. Given the need for increased student experiential opportunities that are free of geographic or fiscal constraints, this project will investigate online learning platforms as a method for connecting students with research learning opportunities, specifically within the fields of CEnR and research translation. Importantly, such a platform will expand the reach of OSU and is designed to enhance OSU research responsiveness to stakeholder concerns by facilitating increased access of stakeholders to OSU research and increased access to experiential learning for OSU students. This project will investigate the following: 1) existing online research platforms and methods for adapting best practices in CEnR and research translation to an online format; 2) student perceptions of learning and research via an online platform; 3) community perceptions of participating in online community-engaged research and; 4) evaluate the ethical considerations of data safety, participant confidentiality and data sharing/access when conducting online interactive research.