Session M3C 978-1-4244-4714-5/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE October 18 - 21, 2009, San Antonio, TX 39 th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference M3C-1 Engagement of Millennial Students Using Web-based Screen Movies to Replace Traditional Lecture in Lecture/Lab Courses Jon Sticklen, Mark Urban-Lurain, and Daina Briedis Michigan State University, sticklen@msu.edu , urban@msu.edu , briedis@egr.msu.edu Abstract - An emerging literature focuses on differences in learning style between the so-called millennial generation and preceding generations of students. Concurrently, engineering educators have developed a number of intuitions about millennial students, most with the common theme of lowered tolerance for lecture settings. Two current threads addressing the “lower attention span problem” are (a) approaches under the rubric active learning and (b) technology developments such as web-enabled screen movies and pod-casts. The second thread is often aimed at a technology “fix.” Experience shows that any technology fix is of itself minimal value. Specifically, our research question is the following: In traditional lecture/laboratory courses what is the effect of replacing lecture sessions with web-based, voice-over slide presentations punctuated with full screen demonstrations and interactive quizzes? We report results from a side-by-side study that replaces lecture with screen movies for three of ten lab sections in a high enrollment, computer tools and problem solving course. Results generally indicate no significant difference between the treatments for learning outcomes, attitudes towards engineering, and attitudes towards the screen movies. Student survey data indicates very favorable attitudes towards the screen movies in general. The results are encouraging given the early state of screen movie development. Index Terms - millennial student, web-enabled voice-over movies, active learning, hybrid course, alternative models for high enrollment classes. INTRODUCTION An increasing number of academics share common perceptions about the so-called millennial students - students who are matriculating to universities in the early years of the twenty-first century. These perceptions encompass a large range of anecdotal observations; many focus on differences between millennials and former generations in their learning styles and on differences in effective means of supporting learning of the millennials. Definitive studies demonstrating these putative differences are lacking in the literature, but discussion of the millennials is growing across a broad range of disciplines; e.g., [1-3]. A point that is commonly mentioned by faculty is that the millennials have little patience with standard linear textbooks, or by extension, with linear text put up on the web as PDF. Experience with and immersion in multimedia experiences, usually web-based, are often thought to be the reason for this attitude towards the linear presentation of textbooks. Whatever the reason, there is a need to reexamine knowledge-delivery methods with the goal to better meet the needs of millennial students. We do not seek a “tech fix.” Our first goal is to leverage current technology capabilities while starting from the position that we will embed active learning in our applications of current technology. Our second goal is to determine the initial viability of the hybrid class model in which lecture is replaced by screen movies and lab or recitation continues as a live activity. Our second goal is motivated as follows. It is often pointed out among engineering educators that “we know what the problem is - all we have to do is fix it.” The problem pointed to is the large lecture format of many of our first and second year classes. The way to fix the problem is quite simply to do away with those high enrollment courses, replacing them with classrooms having 20-30 students and a seasoned and interactive faculty person. The “problem” and the “fix” are independent of discussion of millennial students. In a perfect world, classes of fewer than 20 students would be the norm at all levels. In the current economic climate that perfect world will not be attainable in most institutions. Developments to help make a high enrollment course more engaged or active include the one- minute paper [4], personal response systems [5], cooperative learning methods in general [6], and a number of others. But the large lecture format remains. For a technical course that has lecture and a small group meeting (recitation or lab), we see an alternative model: a well crafted and executed set of content screen movies and the standard small group meetings. This second model is essentially a hybrid class model: part on line, and part live. But there is a twist. Typically it is difficult determine in a principled way what part of a hybrid class should be online and what part should be live. In our setting, the online portion of the course is precisely the course part least palatable for millennial students - the portion that is traditionally a large lecture. In our model, the live part of the hybrid course remains the small group meeting.