The Tablet PC Project at The University of Virginia Charles M. Grisham Chief Technology Officer Professor of Chemistry University of Virginia

A Partnership to Explore Classroom Transformation Partners: Thomson Learning Microsoft Corporation Hewlett Packard Corporation University of Virginia

What’s in it for each? Thomson – what will textbooks become? Microsoft – software to serve higher ed Hewlett Packard – computing form factor UVa – can we improve teaching/learning?

Student profile At Uva, last year – 80% brought laptops to college 0% brought them to class…. ~0% learn actively

The Tablet Project 400 HP Tablet PCs deployed in three courses: Cognitive Psychology Introductory Statistics Biochemistry

Statistics Lecture – 3 hrs/wk Discussions – 50 minutes twice/wk Lectures – content provided in OneNote with students taking their own notes within a OneNote chapter template In-class simulations and software demonstrations on Tablet

Statistics Discussions Students work in small groups on application problems related to current lecture topics Students do computations on their tablets, write up solutions as a team, and submit their work electronically

Cognitive Psychology Exploiting the Tablet’s unique ability to bring lectures and textbook together Students take notes on Tablets, and add figures (online from textbook) in appropriate places Much of the course involves special drawings that are compared with text figures – neither paper nor laptops can do this

Biochemistry Lecture slides in OneNote allow students to annotate as they go OneNote assignments – UDo files – challenge students to draw structures, reactions, chemical mechanisms, graphical relationships, calculations

Biochem Online - iLrn Thomson’s iLrn site provides: 3D protein modeling exercises Flash animations of text figures Java applets explaining complex concepts Pre- and Post-tests to assess learning Grade data transfer seamlessly between Thomson iLrn site and UVa Instructional Toolkit Gradebook

Biochemistry assets Flash animations: Thomson iLrn site from Toolkit: Many of the media assets (protein modeling, Flash, Java applets, etc.) provided by two grants from the National Science Foundation

Project Logistics UVa’s Office of Information Technology and Communications provided: Multi-frequency wireless in our classrooms Authenticated linkage to Thomson iLrn site via Instructional Toolkit Collaboration to establish secure log-on Access to UVa-licensed software for Tablets

Assessment Thomson Learning, Microsoft, and HP are sharing the cost of research on impact of the Tablets on teaching and learning Reed Haldy McIntosh NCHEMS (National Center for Higher Education Management Systems)

Results? Too soon to tell, but… Very positive student response Growing wave of Tablet interest at UVa