Parents Fund for Cal

Advent of the Digital Classroom

Innovative classroom technology, courtesy of The Parents Fund, allows students to identify their preferred learning styles and choose their favorite study aids.

By Julie Chiron

Fall 2004 | Today’s Cal undergraduates are benefiting from technology’s impact in the classroom, thanks to donations to The Parents Fund. Many professors on campus are experimenting with a variety of electronic study aids that enrich the learning experience and help students improve academic performance.

Chemistry Professor Mark Kubinec considers his "Digital Chem 1A" class "the most technologically sophisticated class in the world." Brian Donohue photo

"It used to be that there was a lecture, and either you got it or you didn’t. Or there was a text, and you got it or you didn’t," says Sharon Fleming, professor of nutritional sciences and toxicology in the College of Natural Resources. "Students learn in different ways. I honor that by giving them a range of learning options. They can pick and choose what works best for them."

Professor Fleming makes her lecture notes available on the Web to students using Blackboard, a program that UC Berkeley’s Educational Technology Services offers to faculty. Through the class Web site, students also can receive important announcements, download old exams to use as study guides, and connect with classmates.

"Students are grateful for the information that is available to them. The downside is that I am giving them more material to study," says Professor Fleming. "We’re asking them to be more sophisticated learners when they get to campus." She suggests that students who understand their preferred learning styles will be better prepared to identify which study aids are most useful.

Chemistry Professor Mark Kubinec uses technology both in and out of the classroom to offer what is, by his assessment, "the most technologically sophisticated class in the world." Students in his freshman chemistry class, dubbed Digital Chem 1A, have access to class lectures — going several years back — in a variety of formats including slides, audio, and video.

Even more impressive are the in-class quizzes. Students take the quizzes electronically, and responses are automatically tallied and projected on large screens at the front of the lecture hall. Students then discuss their answers before taking the quiz again. Professor Kubinec uses the quiz technology to foster in-class debate and make the class more interactive.

Outside class, students can track the results of their tests through their own accounts on the class Web site. Soon the system will be capable of sending students e-mails that, based on their performance, suggest areas where they should focus their studies — as if all students in the 300-person classroom had personal tutors monitoring their progress.

Professor Kubinec is pursuing funding to study the educational benefits of his Digital Chem 1A project. Such a study could pave the way for expansion of the digital classroom across the Berkeley campus, the UC system, and eventually to classrooms across California. For more information on the digital classroom or Professor Kubinec’s research, call Jennifer Kitt at 510/643-2471.

Visit the course web site for Digital Chem 1A.