From the Dean's Desk -- September 12, 2013

RADFORD UNIVERSITY CHAPTER EARNS NATIONAL AWARD FROM SIGMA GAMMA EPSILON

Melissa "Luna" Brett, newly elected 2013-2014 President of Epsilon Eta Chapter, acquired the film Chasing Ice, scheduled the showings, advertised the event, and actually presented the film at each showing.

The society of Sigma Gamma Epsilon, The National Honor Society for the Earth Sciences, has recognized the Epsilon Eta chapter at Radford University as one of the first recipients of the society's Chapter Service Award. Two events Epsilon Eta coordinated to earn this award were presentations of the film "Chasing Ice" and serving the University and community by working with the Day of Science program.

The Radford Epsilon Eta chapter has also been named as a Sigma Gamma Epsilon 2013 Quality Chapter.

For more information, please visit the following links:

http://www.sigmagammaepsilon.com
http://www.sigmagammaepsilon.com/index_files/Page556.htm

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RACKSPACE VISIT TO RADFORD UNIVERSITY

On Tuesday, September 4, representatives from the Blacksburg office of Rackspace, the open cloud company, met with students, faculty and staff for classroom visits, a “Tech Talk” and job recruiting.

Three of the four full time “Rackers,” as Rackspace team members are known, were RU graduates: Alison Thomasson, Class of 2004, Steve Swenson, Class of 1997 and Alex Meade, Class of 2013.  They were joined by Sam Wright, a current RU senior graduating in December, and Dave King, both of whom are also a part of the Rackspace team.
During their presentation, Steve and Alison touted some of the benefits of working at Rackspace including the “Rack gives back” program that encourages employees to participate in local charitable events.  Rackspace frequently appears on national lists of “the best companies to work for,” most recently receiving recognition from Fortune Magazine and Business Insider.

For those who were more interested in an insider’s look at the way Rackspace operates, the team delivered a “Tech Talk” about problem solving and application launches within their company.

The visit concluded with a recruiting session for the company with current RU Information Technology students in Stuart Hall. Since most of the representatives present were Radford University alumni, the conversation was frequently familiar.

Joining the team for the event was Sam Wright, a senior who plans to graduate in December, who has been working with Rackspace for some time while completing his degree. Sam recalls “I had always heard Rackspace was the company to work for in the area in practically all my classes at Radford. I came to Rackspace through an information session held in Stuart Hall much like the one held on Wednesday, September 4.”

Following his introduction to Rackspace through the on-campus event, Sam submitted my resume and interviewed once or twice resulting in an internship for the summer. He adds “after that I was offered an extension of my internship through Mid-December to help finish up the project I was working on as well as full time employment to start in the fall.” 

Steven Swenson, a 1997 RU graduate, also shared his thoughts about his time on campus and his opportunity with Rackspace. He was drawn to RU by its beautiful campus and modern computer facilities available to undergrads. "Back in '88 when I started, RU had a lab with about 25 SUN microcomputers for the CS majors to use” Steven recalls.  “That kind of equipment wasn't even available for grad students at VA Tech at the time." 

In addition to his CS major he also played in the concert band and worked with an all-digital 4-piece band.  He later participated in a research project that built computer controlled home-automation into a handicap dorm room.

Following completion of his BA in Computer Science, Steven worked for Wachovia bank for ten years, then moved to Aceyus, a small software company based in Charlotte.  In February of 2012 he started with Rackspace, a cloud hosting provider, working in their Blacksburg office. “Rackspace really fosters innovation at every level” states Steven. “You see that in their involvement with open-source software projects and public events like hackathons.”

Another RU alumnus from the College of Science and Technology, Alex Meade, completed his degree in May 2012 and has been with Rackspace for several years with roles ranging from an internship to a full-time position. He recalls that his first day on the job was a little crazy. “Rackspace doesn't do internships like the ones you see on TV or hear about in the financial industry. I was thrown right into the fire with the rest of the team solving real problems and writing code. I was treated just like everyone else on the team and only got up to speed by working closely with other members of the team to finish tasks. I actually felt like I was contributing on day one, which I think is really rare.”

Alex really appreciates his colleagues within the company. “My favorite thing about working at Rackspace really is the people I get to work with. Not only does it make it easier to have intelligent conversations and get things done, but when you are surrounded by lots of motivated individuals there are always things going on such as lectures and workshops to help cultivate new skills in the office.”

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FLIPPED CLASSROOM: TAKING THE RADFORD EXPERIENCE TO THE NEXT LEVEL

For many Radford University students and alumni, the Radford Experience can be boiled down to the attention from and interaction with faculty and staff to the benefit of all involved.  This has traditionally been experienced in the academic setting where students find success with the support and direct participation of their faculty.  Radford University Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Anthony Dove is taking the Radford Experience to the next level through his research and experimentation with a flipped classroom model for his students, which helps calm nerves and improves engaged learning resulting in rising test scores.

 “In math over the last 20 years there has been a big push for reformed teaching” says Dr. Dove, who is in his second year at RU.  “When one looks at the numbers of students with math anxiety, it is obvious that we cannot continue with the old model and need to find a way to help engage our students.”

Dr. Dove creates brief videos of the core material from his traditional class lectures and posts them online where his students can access them at their convenience outside of the class.  “They can pause to gather their thoughts, rewind and review the material” says Dr. Dove “then in class we can spend time working on solving math problems using the concepts explained in the videos.”

By “flipping” or reversing the traditional class lecture/homework model, Dr. Dove finds that students better absorb the material presented on their own time and then can utilize class time working through problems rather than trying to solve them at home alone.  “Students actually spend a lot of time helping each other, increasing their own aptitude.”  Dr. Dove is able to spend his time in class working side by side with his students to assist their progress rather than being “on stage” presenting a lecture.  His research is showing that this model may have a rather dramatic influence on math proficiency.  “In a comparison between my traditional Math 111 students with in-class lectures vs. the flipped class, scores were about 8 points higher for those who took advantage of the videos at home and in-class hands-on work,” states Dr. Dove. 

The results are still somewhat in their infancy and Dr. Dove plans more extensive research during the coming academic year, but already it appears to be an effective and efficient model for success. He adds “It really only takes a few minutes to create and post the videos, freeing my class time for direct interaction.” 

Dr. Dove further enhances the classroom experience through the arrangement of seating into group “pods” encouraging participation and interaction among students rather than a traditional auditorium style layout.  Students appear to feel comfortable seeking assistance from each other due to the open nature of the class. 

Ultimately, the program works because teachers receive feedback almost instantly as to the students’ understanding of the material presented and can provide additional assistance or review some of the concepts introduced in the video.  Students are also typically less frustrated because they have more assistance from faculty and their fellow students as they try to complete the assigned problems as opposed to trying to struggle through them alone during homework. 

Since most of Dr. Dove’s students are elementary education majors who may teach math to their students following graduation, the flipped class method has potential benefits for generations to come as these future teachers will have less anxiety about their personal proficiency with math and could employ some of the same techniques they experienced.  Having online videos of these lectures also helps parents who want to be engaged with their children but don’t always feel comfortable with their current knowledge base as their last math class was likely more than a decade ago.

The flipped class idea has proven popular among students who were surveyed following the semester with less than 5% of the participants stating that they would have preferred a traditional class lecture model.   Dr. Dove’s research has resulted in an award for “Best Paper” at SITE 2013.  He currently has multiple papers under review for publication in national journals and is pursuing grants to continue finding ways to improve teaching and learning in the flipped classroom.  “The possibilities are endless as this material is out there not just for my students but the world” says Dr. Dove. We will continue to follow this story and report Dr. Dove’s findings in a future issue of the RU CSAT From the Dean’s Desk Newsletter.

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