Presenters will showcase results of their 2-year project involving the implementation of a 1-1 Chromebook device model at a community college whereby all course content is built and delivered using Google Apps for Education. This session offers a blueprint for faculty to develop a similar program at their own institution.
This Discovery Session will be facilitated by faculty members from the College of DuPage (a large suburban community college outside Chicago) who were awarded an institutional "Resource for Excellence" grant that funded the purchase of a library of laptop devices (Chromebooks) which were made available to all students in classes taught by participating faculty beginning in the Fall of 2017. The project has continued through the most recent Spring 2019 term.
Over those two academic years, the project has been delivered in a wide variety of formats, including hybrid, honors, learning communities, & developmental courses, in disciplines like literature, composition, professional writing, Spanish, and opthamology. One especially promising venue has been in composition classes that merge credit-bearing Composition I with Developmental English. Our data is showing that this often underserved student population is reaping the greatest benefit from curricular redesign and access to technology.
Each class was specifically redesigned to use Google's GSuite content creation and collaboration tools, like Google Classroom, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites. Traditional assignments (i.e, essays) were replaced with innovative, interactive, multimodal projects; and students were required to bring his or her device to every class meeting.
Because our college attracts a wildly diverse population of students -- many are disadvantaged economically, or lack the digital literacy skills that are expected of a 21st century college student -- we saw this program as an equitable opportunity to offer such students a device for the entire length of the term. Our results indicate increased access and engagement, enhanced digital literacy, enriched group participation and collaboration, and a practical appreciation by students in being encouraged to use tools they were already somewhat familiar with, and will continue to use -- unlike most collegiate Learning Management Systems -- post-graduation.
This session will allow attendees to witness the mechanisms which went into securing the devices, the means by which students are given them, but also the course-based content that students create, including examples of individual work, group collaboration, and a meta-project built and delivered by an entire class.