1 iPods and Academia: The Duke First-Year Experience Tracy Futhey, Chief Information Officer Lynne O’Brien, Director, Center for Instructional Technology Educause Live May 17, 2005

2 Context for the Duke iPod project iPod project activities so far What we’ve learned so far Next year’s Duke Digital Initiative Overview

3 The Duke iPod Project How (why) did we did we do this?

4 Context: Before the iPod project Tech goals in University’s strategic plan Relationships with Apple & other technology companies Experiments with laptops, PDA’s, course management systems, streaming media, videoconferencing

5 Context: Timeline for Committing Feb04 Apple visit to Duke- explore project ideas w/ EVP, Provost, VP Stu Affairs, CIO, faculty Mar04 brainstorming on campus - students, faculty, tech staff Apr04 Duke visit to Apple - Provost, CIO, CS prof, student govt pres, senior technology architect May04 - decision to move forward

6 Context: Pre-launch activities Pre-loaded content Custom engraving Duke Page on iTunes Project Web site Lab environment for students who don’t own computers Identification of possible academic pilot projects

7 Context: Distribution to Freshmen Distributed 1, GB iPod devices to first-year students on Aug. 19, 2004

8 Context: Content Delivery Sources

9 The Duke iPod Project What have we done so far?

10 iPod Project goals Mostly an experiment, “scattering seeds” Technology innovation Student life, campus community New academic uses of technology

11 Project Participants Duke University Office of the Provost Office of the Executive Vice President Office of Information Technology Division of Student Affairs Center for Instructional Technology Apple Computer, Inc.

Academic iPod projects Economics Education Engineering German Literature Environmental Studies Foreign Languages ISIS Music Writing Asian/African Language & Literature Cultural Anthropology English Public Policy Religion Theater Studies Library experiments Website describes each project

13 Ipod as study tool Listening, practice and repetition in performance-based subjects Specialized vocabulary lists Playlists of audio material for review Portability increases use Music – Students listened to professional performances of Bach chorales, then removed one vocal line from MIDI files, sang the missing part and re-recorded the chorales with their voice.

14 iPod recording in the classroom Attachment makes iPod an unobtrusive, every-ready digital recorder Replace or supplement written notes Review of class content Verbal feedback Education course: Students recorded their tutoring sessions to review and evaluate strategies they used. Intro Economics: Prof. made course lectures available for review before exams.

15 iPod recording outside classroom Recording interviews, personal field notes, environmental sounds iPod holds many hours of recording Digital files can be edited for class projects German Lit – Students recorded interviews with Americans to see how key events in Berlin’s history are perceived in U.S. and included audio clips in presentations. Electrical Engineering – Students recorded pulse rates during physical activities and environmental sounds and used files to study digital signal processing concepts.

16 iPods for disseminating course materials Audio materials (original or commercial) on iPods allow portable use of course content Content distributed via Duke server, iTunes and Podcasting Spanish – Instructors recorded Spanish novellas, vocabulary for student download. Students purchased Spanish songs via iTunes & submitted their recorded audio exercises to teacher. Theater – Students analyzed digital recordings of early radio shows then shared radio plays they created through course podcast.

17 iPods for storing and transferring files Portability and fast transfer rate Back up or transfer large multimedia files Information Science & Information Studies – Students used iPods to transfer multimedia files from assignments. They also discussed intellectual property policies and the ethics of new forms of information gathering, processing and transmission. Music – Students brought music from their personal collections to play and analyze in class. Engineering – Students brought MP3 files to the lab to analyze waveforms, compression, sample rate and other parameters.

18 The Duke iPod Project What have we learned so far?

19 Some early, tentative conclusions Digital audio useful in varied disciplines Recording devices = key tool “Fun factor” matters Little device made big ripple in technology infrastructure

20 More early, tentative conclusions Faculty ideas and interest exceeded expectations. Innovation with iPods prompted exploration of other new technologies. Project increased collaboration among campus IT groups and other departments.

21 Unanticipated outcomes Extensive global publicity New opportunities for collaboration Content issues made some academic explorations difficult  Copyright complex, even for publishers  Multiple places for storing, moving accessing content frustrates users  Academic interests vs what’s commercially available

22 Assessment and Challenges Dimensions of Evaluation-Academic Uses…  Feasibility of iPod to support teaching & learning  Improving logistics of course delivery  Enhancing student learning and outcomes …Amid Non-Trivial Challenges  No baseline info; students had iPod from day1  Instructors changing plans along the way; no strategy for unknown/unsupported projects  Correlating iPod use with any improvement (some using audio for first time)

23 Next year’s assessment Have more structured, common evaluation strategies across projects with similar goals and activities Resolve some technical issues that confounded evaluation results this year

24 The Duke iPod Project What’s next?

25 What’s next: Review process Initially planned to review at end of academic year Overwhelming interest in earlier decision from faculty & students for planning Relied on fall evaluation results from CIT Convened ad hoc faculty review group Assumed options going in where continue, extend 1 more year (to more fully evaluate), or discontinue

26 What’s next: Why not repeat exactly? iPods were perfect for most digital audio uses and some others Not enough courses had such needs to justify giving them to every first year But for those courses that did, restricting based on class was too limiting Once we move from class-based to course-based technologies, other useful technologies need to be considered

27 What’s next: Duke Digital Initiative Build on iPod project; focus on course use Add other technologies based on faculty feedback:  Digital audio  Digital images  Digital video  Tablet/handheld PCs  Collaboration tools