Cooking with CHEF

1. Ingredients : What is CHEF? • CompreHensive collaborativE Framework • Open source Course Management System from University Michigan • hosted at Midwest Instructional Technology Center • used at Earlham College: • Fall semester 2003 : Living, Learning & Community (2 classes of 20 students each), Management Senior Seminar (10 students) , Cell Physiology (30) • Spring Semester 2004 : Emerging Disease Seminar (15 students), Human Relations and Organic Decision Making (37), Strategic Planning and Marketing (18), Senior Seminar (3). Appetizer : What does CHEF look like? • Entrée : 1st course - Student Evaluation All students in Cell Physiology (Fall 03) completed a hard copy survey. • A third of the class had used a CMS before (Course Compass) (11 students). Of this number half thought CHEF was the same or better than Course Compass (5 students) and half thought Course Compass was better (5). Entrée : 2nd course - Faculty Evaluation All five faculty who participated in the Fall ’03 trial completed a printed survey. • Entrée : 3rd course – System Management • CHEF installation. No central manual. Disparate documents for various components. Needed help from developers to install. • Maintenance & System Admin was straightforward as was updates to the system. • Java expertise not necessary. Customization involves working with the Velocity Template Language. • Support. Reliant on small number of developers at University Michigan • Performance over network was affected only by network worms (e.g. Code-Red). Usability issues: Faculty who weren't used to using web based applications (such as web mail) were perplexed by the number of steps necessary to upload files and were also confused by the non-functioning 'back' button. Clearly, some training in the use of Chef would be needed before roll out. Experienced faculty were exasperated by the lack of basic functionality such as copying courses and not being able to move smoothly from one tool to another. Reliability issues There were a number of surprising reliability issues with the system - at one point duplicating more than one assignment at a time was guaranteed to generate a 'horrible exception error' and need cleaning up. These were resolved with bug fix updates to the CHEF system. • What was the coolest thing CHEF did for your course?“decreased paperwork / let organize resources”, “allowed instant access to extra material” , “made collection of assignments easy”. • CHEF as an empowering tool.“detailed feedback in the text and their papers; this is a primary reason I wanted CHEF. Papers then returned on line” • In terms of managing a course, did CHEF help materially?“Somewhat, in terms of helping to encourage students to submit their work in a timely manner”. “Yes. Few handouts, easy access to references.” “Cut down on [student] copying”. “Swings and roundabouts. It was good to be able to put up assignments and resources, but the schedule and announcements were a frustrating waste of time.” • Can you envision how a CMS (eg CHEF) could be of great use in managing a course?“Quizzing and grading would be what I'm looking for.” “Excellent way to get info to students.” “Automatic grade sheet. Ease of submitting and returning assignments.” “Out of classroom discussion holds some possibilities.”Currently, a quizzing / assessment tool is a major omission from the CHEF system and the grading tool does not accumulate grades between assignments. • Can you envision areas where a CMS (CHEF or other) might change your teaching and allow you to do things differently?“Prepare for class based on work they submit before class.” “Potentially all quizzes and exams on a CMS save class time.” “With online autograded quizzing and comprehensive gradebook a CMS would be worth my time.” • CHEF was used rather erratically in this course and a consistent comment was that the system was not used enough. • CHEF was helpful to learning experience: in resources, assignments, • CHEF detracted from learning experience : Having assignments posted online instead of handed out in class (7) • Making CHEF experience better : more resources, more CHEF based work, more consistent / frequent use. An online survey was given to the 3 Management classes from the Spring semester ’04. Because this occurred just before spring break we only obtained 9 responses: Mark Pearson and Manuel Rendon Cooking with CHEF Earlham College Instructional Technology And Media & MITC Technology Specialist Dessert – CHEF & Sakai. March 17th 2004