Creating a Framework for Multidisciplinary Studies in Marine Affairs 510

Assistant professor Annette Olson uses email, Web pages, and online bibliographic searches to enable her students to explore complex, multidisciplinary questions in Marine Affairs 510: Ecological Concepts for Decisionmakers. These technologies also help Olson to support and guide the class more effectively.

A major advantage of this methodology is that students learn about the field under conditions similar to what they can expect in their future professional work. Students gather the latest scholarly research, work with current datasets, exchange email, post papers on the Web, and interact in teams, just as they might do in a corporation or agency.

The class of 25 graduate students meets twice weekly. To explore issues, the class divides into teams, with each team focusing on a particular topic--such as Puget Sound salmon, contaminated sediments, or marine sanctuaries--for a term project. The instructor and each student have individual email accounts, each team has its own newsgroup, and the class has its own Web site, which is password-protected.

"The teams begin by working together on background research," says Olson. "Each student writes an essay that I and another team member review. Then the team collaborates on writing a report to be posted on the Web."

With the class essays and reports on the Web, students easily can review each other's work, which encourages interaction and synthesis. Finally, the entire class discusses the work of each team.

Documenting the Data

"With many Web sites, you have no clue how well their claims are documented," says Olson. "You often can't backtrack to find out whether a statement is based on twenty studies or one, so you have no way to evaluate a claim."

Olson's students also discuss designs for credible Web documents. Their design for a Web scholarly paper has several different levels of detail.

"First, a presentation level gives the structure of the idea," explains Olson. "Next, an intermediate documentation layer links to key points. Finally, a bibliographic level could include links to raw data."

The First Round of Technical Challenges

"At first we had nightmarish compatibility problems," remembers Olson. "If everyone had been working in one computer lab, using identical computers, it would have been easy. But graduate students do a lot of their work at home on their own personal computers, with a variety of word processing packages and versions."

Distributing the documents through Web pages is proving to be simpler. "The Web is a much less complicated way to make files available," explains Olson. "The technology fell into the background once we sorted out how to make it work. It's not an issue anymore, yet my students are not becoming tech-nerds.

"Overall, I learned that you can't just drop technology into a class on short notice," says Olson, acknowledging the work of dedicated UWired and library staff who consulted on design and technical problems, formatted first drafts of course material for the Web, and taught skills sessions for students. "It takes preparation and experience to be sure that technology enhances rather than interferes with the process of the course."

Working on the World Wide Web is now routine for Olson and her students.

Faster Literature Searches

"It's wonderful to have current, top-of-the-line literature so accessible," says Olson. Students quickly find the best and most appropriate literature for their topic, giving them more time for study and discussion.

New Channels of Communication

Olson then sent weekly email messages asking each student to identify what was "clearest" and "muddiest" to them about the previous week's studies. "Not everyone responded," says Olson. "I didn't expect them to. But those who had something on their mind did."

She says some of her students are quite reticent, and this approach gives them a comfortable way to ask questions. Olson then either works with the person one-on-one or addresses the issue in class.

"What I love about this method is that frequently the students feel their questions are so elementary that they are not worth asking," continues Olson, "but actually they get at the key issues. Having this kind of feedback available is one reason I now have the students write their essays and team reports in a series of steps. I can interact with students right away when they are having trouble."

Annette Olson says sending weekly email messages to students opens a channel of communication and gives them a comfortable way to ask questions.

Interconnected Perspectives

"We are still exploring what constitutes a useful, scholarly study in this emerging field," Olson explains. "Issues are complex and research is often spotty or lacking. It is not always clear which aspects are important to consider when developing a policy recommendation."

Olson hopes that other professors teaching classes on topics such as policy analysis and ecological processes will assign their students to review the SMA 510 papers. As these classes respond with their own studies and put them on the Web, a system of linked perspectives on a complex issue can be created.

"Such interconnected activities provide a framework within which we can explore the substantive issues of the field," says Olson.

"One of my longer-term goals--my fantasy--is to create just such interactions between classes, across disciplines, maybe even across institutions. A major benefit would be tangible and exciting educational activities for everyone involved."

For more information about the course or its methodology, you may contact Olson via email at olsonam@u.washington.edu