Center for Digital Learning

Professional Bio:

Professor Pani Chakrapani obtained his BS and MS degrees in Mathematics from the University of Madras in India and his subsequent research work was in the area of automatic theorem proving in the School of Automation at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He has been a professor and the director of the Computer Science program at Redlands for the past three decades, teaching a wide range of courses in Computer Science such as introductory programming courses, Principles of Programming Languages, Business Analysis and Excel, Internals and Principles of Operating Systems, Introduction to Computer Theory, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Database Systems. Chakrapani is an elected senior member of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and a senior member of IEEE (Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers). He is a fellow of the ASBBS (American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences). He has presented his research work in multiple conferences and journals in the areas of software engineering, computer education and artificial intelligence.

Project Summary:

This automation project is aimed at creating video segments for certain sections of the subject matter covered in two different computer science courses. The introductory course in programming covers topics in three distinct knowledge areas such as programming environment, syntactic elements of a specific programming language and the process of problem solving. The videos created through this project will help as an additional aid to students to learn the material at their own pace, when needed. These video segments will also provide a first step in considering relevant pedagogy needed to create a "flipped" classroom for those topics. The course on Business Analysis covers the topics of Statistics and Management Science and the videos created for this course will be learning aids for the students in addition to class room instruction and the use of textbooks.

Professional Bio:

I received my PhD in Zoology from North Carolina State University and my BA in Psychobiology from Claremont McKenna College. I am currently an Associate Professor in the Biology Department and have taught at the University of Redlands since 2008. I'm broadly interested in physiology with specific focuses on endocrinology, neurobiology and reproduction. The courses I offer include: Principles of Biology, Human Physiology and Research Methods. Prior to working at Redlands, I held research positions at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the US Environmental Protection Agency I am interested in research aimed at improving human health. My current research projects focus on using mouse behavior as a model for human health. Using this approach, I am currently focused on establishing a mouse model of autistic-like behavior.

Project Summary:

Training Tutorial for Students Taking Research Methods Courses Students earning a BS in biology are required to complete a year-long course entitled Research Methods in Biology. This course allows the students to work under the close mentorship of a single faculty member conducting research in that faculty member's area of expertise. One significant hurdle my students face every year is the initial training they must complete before starting their research. All students working in my lab must complete basic animal husbandry and handling training before they can be taught the specifics of the behavioral assays they will be using for their research. These two levels of required training comprise a significant amount of work both for the students and for myself. Recently, our lab was contacted by an editor at the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) and invited to submit a manuscript for publication. JoVE is much like other scientific journals in that all submitted articles are peer reviewed prior to publication and all published papers are indexed in subject-relevant indexing sites like PubMed. However, JoVE is unique in that all published papers also include a narrated video that accompanies the print publication. In my case, we were invited to submit a methods-based article describing behavioral assays used to measure autistic-like behavior in mice. As part of the publication process, the journal sends out a professional videographer to film in our lab. The resulting videos would be edited and narrated professionally by the journal and the resulting tutorial on our behavioral assays would be included online with the publication. The use of a professionally produced training video specific to my research will provide a consistently excellent level of training to all of my future research students beyond what I can provide currently. I will involve my current BIOL 460 students in the submission, peer review and videotaping process.

Professional Bio:

Heather King (B.A. Boston University, M.A./Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison), has been teaching in the University of Redlands Department of English since 2000. Her courses include regular offerings in her research field of eighteenth-century British literature, as well as courses in women's literature, children's literature (including Fairy Tales and Harry Potter), Shakespeare, and introductory courses to literary studies. She has been nominated for Professor of the Year three times, and honored by Sigma Tau Delta as English Professor of the year. Her scholarly publications include work on eighteenth century women writers like Frances Burney and Catharine Trotter, pedagogy, and Harry Potter.

Project Summary:

Adapting Jane Austen/Adapting to Jane Austen. The grant enables all students in my class to have the use of an ipad for the semester, which will make several projects possible. Students will take full advantage of the interactive, annotated ebook version of Pride and Prejudice published by Anchor Books, which includes maps, videos about 18c culture, and other resources. Students will be able to use the tablets for other course assignments during the term – we will watch multiple movie versions of the novels, which they can find on Amazon, Netflix, or YouTube. Also, we will be watching the vlog series "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries." This highly regarded adaptation will pair well with the adaptation theory we are reading as part of the course. Students will use the filming and editing capabilities of their tablets to create their own micro-adaptations for the course final. For the micro-adaptation, students will work in groups to select what they feel is an essential or representative element of the story (a specific scene, a specific character, etc), and present an adaptation that is limited in format only by their imaginations. They will produce a twenty-minute artifact (film, play, dance, song, etc) which is presented to their classmates as part of the final exam. Their classmates will then write their final exam on their peers' adaptations, utilizing the theories from the class to evaluate one of four possible micro-adaptations. I have been invited to submit an essay on this course to a special collection titled Adapting the Eighteenth-Century: Pedagogies and Practices.

Professional Bio:

Renée Van Vechten (Ph.D., UCI) specializes in teaching and researching U.S. and California politics, with a focus on legislative processes. Her research also embraces the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She has participated in APSA's Teaching and Learning conference as a track moderator and paper presenter since 2008, is the immediate past president of the Political Science Education (PSE) organized section of APSA.  In 2008 she was awarded the Rowman and Littlefield Award for Innovative Teaching in Political Science for a simulation she developed to teach Congressional processes.  Her short text, California Politics: A Primer, is going into its fourth edition (CQ Press, 2016), and is based on a more comprehensive, forthcoming textbook (The Logic of California Politics). She has also developed collaborative websites designed to engage students in discussions about U.S. politics. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Redlands (2003), she was a teaching fellow at the University of San Diego, and before that was a Kevin Starr Fellow in California Studies.  

Project Summary:

Having learned about the promises of "flipping the classroom," I believe that certain parts of my Introduction to American Politics lectures could be moved online to maximize the time we have in class to deepen and expand on the basics through exercises, and to practice what has been previously introduced in a text and/or an online lecture. The benefits of asynchronous lectures are clear: they allow students who tend to "zone out" to rewind and repeat parts of a lecture that they may have missed or need to hear again, and they are in control of creating a space in which they are receptive to learning. By flipping the classroom (or at least parts of it), I hope to devote more classroom time to several exercises (games, small group discussions, exercises) that I have developed but simply don't have time to include during a typical year. For example, we could have played a game electing a student to a Congressional seat in order to show the movement of money, but we didn't have time this semester because I spent an inordinate amount of time addressing "facts" that were covered in the textbook; namely, how interest groups influence politics. Moving some of my lecture segments online will allow us to spend time in class probing what's otherwise obscure, to help them better make sense of current events, and to actively engage in exercises that help animate abstract concepts. I intend to produce a minimum of four lecture segments that can be uploaded to Moodle, where students can watch them on their own time. These four segments include these specific topics:

• (a) Political party history (which I didn't cover because we spent additional time on interest groups)
• (b) Selective incorporation: meaning and recent cases (not enough time to cover it last semester because we discussed actual Court cases)
• (c) Civil Rights: implications for groups since the 1960s (again, covered scantly)
• (d) Nationalizing policy (through 2 basic types of federal grants, categorical and block; through preemption; and mandates in the form of direct orders, cross-over sanctions, and cross-cutting requirements – these are easily confused by students.)

These are but a sample of the on-line segments about topics essential to learning about American Politics, which are difficult to cover effectively in a short amount of time.

Professional Bio:

Janee has a passion for preparing counseling students to become social justice advocates and empowering them to combat the many faces of mental health discrimination. Much of her research has focused on therapeutic engagement processes with diverse and often times underserved populations (i.e. Hispanic families, substance users, adolescents); demonstrating the importance of school mental health with an emphasis on strengthening service delivery models and identifying youth perceived barriers to seeking counseling services; and exploring how exposing new medical students to mental health literacy and anti-stigma and discrimination messaging may enhance self-care behaviors and patient care. Janee is a California licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor currently active in her practice at Inland Psych Redlands Inc. with over 16 years of broad clinical experience.

Project Summary:

This project will explore the merits of three forms of technology in engaging local youth in educational support services. Specific goal include: 1) engaging MA counseling students enrolled in CMHC 616: Introduction to Social Justice and Advocacy in a community service learning advocacy project; 2) reinforcing the use of technology to educationally engage counseling students and adolescents respectively and 3) improving emotion management within the community through educating adolescents. In collaboration with University of Redlands community partners, assessment will be conducted around the experiences and impressions of counseling students to deliver the information and perceived receptiveness; around the experiences and impressions of the adolescents to engage with the content in meaningful ways and their family's observations and impressions of their adolescent during the process.

The purpose of this project is to assess the effectiveness of 3 forms of technology in engaging local adolescents in educational support services. Curriculum will be designed to improve mental health literacy and emotion management. Service delivery will be conducted in keeping with the American Counseling Association's (ACA) code of ethics and guidelines on telemental health, e-therapy, digital ethics, & social media. Hypotheses are as follows: 1) providing educational and support services using relevant forms of technology will be viewed positively by adolescent participants; 2) youth will engage more wellness conversations and activities; 3) Counseling students will learn about various forms of technology that could enhance their future clinical practice and 4) Counseling students will enhance their theoretical understanding of advocacy and gain knowledge of specific advocacy strategies while participating in this project with special attention on the challenges of engaging youth.

Professional Bio:

Dr. Julius H. Bailey is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Redlands. He received a B.A. in Religious Studies from Occidental College and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests include African American religious history and new religious movements. He teaches courses on varied aspects of religion. He has written two books, Race Patriotism: Protest and Print Culture in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (University of Tennessee Press, 2012) and Around the Family Altar: Domesticity in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1865-1900 (University Press of Florida, 2005) as well as several articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries. He has also given lectures on African mythology entitled, "The Great Mythologies of the World: Africa," produced by the Great Courses DVD series.

Project Summary:

My project seeks to examine the differences in the ways students talk about and engage issues of race in the traditional classroom as compared to an online learning environment. I will be moving two weeks of my African American Religions and Spirituality course online during the spring 2016 semester. The topic during those two weeks will be black new religious movements that can be some of the more challenging groups to have discussions about. In some cases, the groups espouse black superiority, retribution to white Americans for past mistreatment, some advocate violence, etc. The goal for those two weeks will be to shift the focus from an examination of the individual groups to the broader context within which they emerged. To do so, I will create online lectures, mapping exercises, online asynchronous and synchronous class discussions, and have the students create projects focused on exploring and applying spatial thinking when considering the history, beliefs, and practices of the various religious communities.

Professional Bio:

Candace Glendening: A molecular biologist by training, I love teaching science to non-science majors. Bizarre as it sounds, I enjoy using the lab to explain science to people who are afraid of it! I've been teaching at Redlands for 12 years now. Before that I worked in a Pre-Harvest Food Safety laboratory at The Ohio State University, studying the genetics of anti-microbial resistance. I've also taught science at Morehead State University in Morehead, KY, and researched tumor suppressor genes at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA.

Brian Gadd received his BA in Biochemistry from Colorado College in 2004 and his PhD in Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology from the University of California, Riverside in 2012. He has been teaching as an adjunct professor with the Biology department since the Spring of 2013 and has returned full time for the 2015-2016 academic year as a Visiting Lecturer. Dr. Gadd teaches both M1 and upper division courses including Issues and Techniques in Genetic Engineering, Cancer Biology, and the Principles of Biology.

Project Summary:

The three-dimensional properties of biological systems are often the key to understanding how they function. However, the molecules involved are too small to be visualized via microscopy yet too big to be effectively modeled using molecule modeling kits commonly found in chemistry. Thus, students often struggle to grasp the spatial organization at the macromolecular scale. This project will explore the use of 3D printing, coupled with 3D visualization by utilizing student smartphones or tablets, to illustrate key biological molecules and concepts for both majors and non-majors alike. The low cost, flexibility, and pedagogical value that 3D printing allows is one reason this bourgeoning technology is rapidly making its way into STEM education. In addition, many tools are making incorporation into the classroom setting and lessons simpler. Utilizing 3D printing has potential in the biology classroom beyond the molecular molecule.

This is a pilot project to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of digital and physical 3D models to enhancing student understanding of key biological concepts. Toward this aim, we will use several 3D-printed models for demonstrations, as well as design and incorporate several hands-on exercises using 3D-printed and digital models in the classroom.

Professional Bio:

Julie joined the Department of Communicative Disorders in 1994. She graduated from the University of Redlands (B.A.) and University of Washington (M.S.). Julie is the Clinic Director for the Truesdail Center for Communicative Disorders. Areas of interest include adult neurogenics, voice disorders, adult and pediatric traumatic brain injury and assistive communication technology. Primary teaching responsibilities are in the area of assessment and intervention. Current research interests are clinical education pedagogy and measuring the development of clinical competence. Julie has studied the type of learners attracted to the field of Speech and Language Pathology, clinical settings which promote student learning and innovative ways to engage Speech-Language Pathology graduate clinicians in obtaining knowledge and skills across diagnostic clinical categories.

Amber is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Education Education specialist Credential Program. She earned her Ed.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from Aurora University in Illinois and her M.Ed. from National-Louis University in Chicago as an Educational Specialist with emphasis on mild/moderate disabilities. Her B.A. from University of Redlands prepared her for 25 years as a classroom teacher and seven years as an adjunct professor. Amber has served as a kindergarten teacher, a K-8 special educator and most recently as a Language Arts teacher of middle school Honors Students. Her research interests include teacher preparation, critical pedagogy and literacy, particularly with students who are gifted and qualify for special education.

Project Summary:

This project involves the development of training modules to serve areas of content needed for the Ed Specialist Credential and the Masters of Science degree in Communicative Disorders (CDIS).  These content areas include Health Education and Assistive Technology.   Through the use of the Moodle portal, instructor developed interactive content will provide opportunities for learning outside of traditional semester-based courses.  The online training modules will allow for flexibility in access and learning within a candidate’s/graduate’s program.  For both the School of Education and Graduate program in CDIS, online training modules will serve as efficient and effective alternatives to face to face instruction.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1.  Education Specialist:  Mild-Moderate Credential candidates have access to material for            credential standards in area of health and assistive technology. 
2.  Communicative Disorders Graduate Students will have access to material for establishment of competencies to meet accreditation standards.
3.  Students in the School of Education and Department of Communicative Disorders will have   opportunities to gain knowledge through flexible learning environments which will allow          students to complete programs in a timely manner.           

Candidates/Graduate students will print certificate of completion to be part of candidate portfolio/graduate advising file.