FOSS: Research: Middle School Multimedia Evaluation
By Dr. Rebecca Deutscher, Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California at Berkeley

FOSS is in the process of evaluating the multimedia component of the nine middle school courses (Electronics, Weather and Water, Diversity of Life, Populations and Ecosystems, Human Brain and Senses, Force and Motion, Planetary Science, Earth History, and Chemical Interactions). Some of you probably were contacted this past spring about completing an online survey. The survey was e-mailed to teachers and FOSS professional developers who have been working with the middle school FOSS courses. Approximately 700 participants completed the survey, which focused on how the multimedia component of FOSS is being used in classrooms and workshops.

There are four main areas that are being examined in the multimedia survey. The first area is the school environment. The FOSS team is interested in the number of students using the multimedia, types of schools and classrooms, and how the classrooms are set up. Certain types of classrooms may be more conducive for using the FOSS multimedia. There are also different teaching styles and classroom environments that are of interest.

The second area involves looking at the technology teachers have in their schools. The FOSS team is interested in how many students per computer, what kind of technology the school has, where students generally use computers, if the students have access to the Internet, etc. FOSS wants to better understand the realities of science classroom technology in order to improve access to the multimedia. It is expected that in some schools the multimedia will be presented more as a demonstration because there are not enough computers in the classroom for students to access the multimedia. Other classrooms have multiple computer stations in their classrooms or even class sets of laptops. Other schools make computer labs available.

The third area involves examining FOSS multimedia on a general level. The FOSS team is interested in what courses teachers are using and how they are using the multimedia. The team is also interested in general impressions of the multimedia, whether teachers are following the teacher guide recommendations for using the multimedia, whether they received professional development on the FOSS multimedia, and whether they like the general format of the system.

The final area FOSS is examining is the specific multimedia components within each course. Teachers gave us feedback about whether they are using specific sites and rated how much these particular sites affect student learning. They also gave us feedback about the usability and the help features for each course. Another aspect of this study involved surveying FOSS professional developers on whether they include the multimedia component when doing a workshop. The FOSS team is interested in what experiences teachers have with the multimedia during a FOSS middle school workshop. Is there a link between teachers who use the FOSS multimedia and those who have it as part of their professional development?

By collecting this data, the FOSS staff will have a better understanding of how teachers use the multimedia componen of FOSS. This information then can be used to improve professional development, teacher guides, and the multimedia itself in future versions. In addition, the FOSS team is interested in whether teachers feel the multimedia enhances student learning.

Currently the data from this study is being analyzed and the results should be known in the next few months. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me at fossresearch@ berkeley.edu.

Thank you to all of the teachers and FOSS professional
developers who participated! We greatly appreciate all your
feedback.