Adapting guided inquiry learning worksheets for emergency remote learning

• Published in: Information and learning science 2020-08, Vol.121 (7/8), p.549-557
• Main Author: Howley, Iris
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Active Learning; Classrooms; Cognition & reasoning; Collaboration; College Students; Computer science; Computer Science Education; Concept Formation; Cooperative Learning; Critical thinking; Distance Education; Distance learning; Educational materials; Educational objectives; Educational Technology; Inquiry; Inquiry method; Learning Activities; Online instruction; Prior Learning; STEM Education; Students; Teaching methods; Technology Uses in Education; Undergraduate Students; Worksheets
• ISSN: 2398-5348; 2398-5356
• DOI: 10.1108/ILS-04-2020-0086

Purpose Process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) is a series of learning activities building on student prior knowledge guiding them to construct their own understanding of new concepts in collaborative roles. This paper aims to illustrate how POGIL worksheets can be adapted for low bandwidth and low-computing environments to accommodate the largest swathe of learners in higher education, as was the case during the switch to emergency remote learning in 2020. Design/methodology/approach The POGIL worksheets in this paper scaffold the discovery of new concepts while providing sample computer program output, guiding students to make predictions about the connection between program input and program output. Answers are provided to these questions after completion so that students may check their understanding or look to the answers as worked examples. These POGIL worksheets were used for the past two years in an in-person classroom situation with minimal computing resources, replacing 4/5 of a classroom lecture doing POGILs collaboratively. In the midst of emergency remote learning, these worksheets were adapted to complement asynchronous lecture videos, and also serve as lecture replacement as needed. Findings This paper discusses an approach to adapting POGIL worksheets for introduction to computer science for students who may not have the necessary digital tools (programing software, bandwidth for streaming video, etc.). While the context for this paper is computer science, POGIL has a deep history in chemistry education and other natural sciences, suggesting an approach that may be adapted for situations where hands-on laboratory experiments may not be possible. Originality/value CS-POGIL has many materials available for computer science, but this paper discusses 23 new worksheets and how to adapt them to the novel situation of emergency remote teaching.