The National Science Foundation recently awarded Kenneth Goldman, associate professor of computer science and engineering in the School of Engineering, a $562,000 grant to assist his efforts to transform teaching methods.
Goldman is currently working to incorporate active learning in undergraduate classrooms through studio and foundation courses.
“Active learning is how people learn naturally,” said Goldman. “We try to do something, run into a problem and then refine our understanding in order to address that problem.”
According to Goldman, there are many forms of active learning that can occur in the context of coursework; however, the majority of courses currently do not encourage students to be active learners.
“Many of our courses are currently taught in a traditional style, where students attend lectures and then do their active learning [through] homework and projects outside of class,” said Goldman.
Foundation classes prepare students outside of the classroom through reading assignments and videotaped lectures.
“We want to move the passive lecture-style content out of class time to make room for a more interactive teaching style,” he said.
Studio classes are based on inquiry-based learning and are similar to architecture and art courses, requiring students to work in teams on semester-long projects.
“Often students will propose projects themselves. Through the course of working through the design and implementation of these projects, students will naturally run into problems that will cause them to refine their design and implementation skills,” he said.
Students will also critique fellow classmates’ work as well as receive reviews from faculty members.
Studio courses are not only intended to attract engineering students but also students from other disciplines. Goldman plans to create studio courses that bring together different areas of expertise, resulting in collaboration on projects.
“[Computer science] students might work with architecture on the design of virtual spaces, with mechanical engineering on robotics projects, with biology students on genome mapping projects [and] with art students on video games,” said Goldman.
Several studio courses will be co-taught by professors in different disciplines, and students may be enrolled with different expectations for their contributions to the project.
“Everyone collaborates toward the same goals,” said Goldman.
Other computer science faculty participants include professors Ron Cytron, Roger Chamberlain, Christopher Gill and Cindy Grimm. Goldman is collaborating with Peter MacKeith, associate professor of architecture, for studio instruction. Associate Professor of Education Keith Sawyer and Professor Lynn Stein of Olin College of Engineering in Boston will assist in professional development of the program.
NSF formally announced its decision to award Goldman with the grant on Oct. 10 at a meeting of the student chapter of the Association for Computer Machinery.