Ac 2011-702: Integrating Gallery Walks and Wikis in a Syn- Ergic Instructional Activity: an Exploratory Study of Students’ Perceptions

The effectiveness of classroom-based active learning environments in transferring their benefits outside the classroom remains nebulous. We present exploratory results of students’ perceptions of a synergic integration of Gallery Walks (an active learning strategy) with a course Wiki (a collaborative Web 2.0 tool). This integration was designed to extend the benefits of active learning beyond the classroom and into a more permanent and accessible digital learning community. An anonymous exit survey was administered online at the end of the course to measure students’ perceptions on the impact of this instructional strategy. The survey used an involvement scale for both Gallery Walks and Wikis, and a series of open-ended questions regarding the strengths and weaknesses of these two instructional tools. A one-sample t-Test using the middle of the scale (the lecture involvement) as the test value indicated a statistical significant higher involvement for the Gallery Walk than the lecture. No statistically significant difference between Wikis and lectures was found. These findings indicate that students perceived Gallery Walks as out-of-norm-classroom activities, while Wikis were perceived more as an extension of the classroom activities. Students’ open-ended feedback on the two instructional tools complemented these quantitative findings. Context of the study Instructional Context Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology (IgMetPet), a course that focuses on identification, description, and origin of igneous and metamorphic rocks, provided the context for this study. This course is a required course for all undergraduate geology and geophysics majors. Petrology courses with similar content are considered essential components of the core curriculum for the bachelor of science degree in geology in the United States 5. At our university, the IgMetPet course is typically taken in the second semester of the sophomore year. Students are expected to have already completed the mineralogy and chemistry courses as pre-requisites for this course. The course may include graduate students who are meeting deficiency requirements, or desire to refresh their background knowledge in Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology. Enrollment in this course typically varies between 11 and 22 students, but in the last three years the enrollment has moved toward the upper level of this range varying from 18 to 22 students.