Anticipated Benefits /Actual Results
Higher quality student work
Grades did improve somewhat from Spring 2006 (before the innovation) to Fall 2006 (after the innovation), but not as significantly as hoped. Table 1 compares scores on two particular assignments across the two semesters.
Assignment
Cumulative final exam
Spring 2006 avg. Fall 2006 avg.
77.16% 80.36%
Written take-home exam 83.24%
Table 1: score comparison
83.36%
More significant improvement was seen in the percentage of students earning “A” grades. Table 2 compares the percentage of “A” grades across the two semesters.
Assignment
Cumulative final exam
Spring 2006 % Fall 2006 %
17.2% 23.8%
Written take-home exam 30.2% 45.2%
Overall grade 20.7%
Table 2: percentage of “A” grades
23.8%
More productive class time
This was perhaps the biggest disappointment. The pedagogical plan required students to take the initiative and generate questions to guide the class discussions and presentations. They did very little of this. While some students responded favorably to the guided practice done in class, many did not respond so favorably to the lack of presentation in class.

Anticipated Problems /Actual Results
Technological glitches
There were indeed problems with the technology. Some students reported that the free version of
Quicktime, which the podcasts were designed to work with, did not allow them to view the lectures clearly. Some of these same students reported that they were unwilling to pay $35 for the professional version of Quicktime.
Poor attendance
Again, the results were as expected, and perhaps even worse. On a typical night, only about 50% of the class was present at the end, which was surprising considering the activity at the end was an exercise identical in format to the one to be directly graded.

Planned Changes in the Future Implementation of the Innovation
The results of the SALG were encouraging enough to try the innovation again, but there was enough negative feedback to warrant some changes in the implementation.
Clearer presentation of class expectations in the syllabus
To get students on the right track sooner, more details regarding the pedagogical plan will be added to the syllabus, along with comments from the SALG written by students who said they started doing better after following the program more closely.
Graded activities in preparation for class will be added
To provide students with more incentive to generate questions for class discussions, graded preparation quizzes in Blackboard will be required before class. The thought is that students who have lost points on quizzes are more likely to ask questions about their problem areas, perhaps because the quizzes will help them identify those areas.
More teacher initiated presentation in class
To compensate for students’ reluctance to generate questions for class, more class presentations will be prepared based on anticipated problem areas. These will go beyond the basic presentations in the podcast lectures.