Our department is fully committed to improve our undergraduate physics teaching by exploring the use of new and effective methods in teaching our undergraduate classes, especially introductory level courses.

Initiated by Dr. K. Kelvin Cheng in 1999, we have implemented online homework to all our 1308 and 2301 classes starting Spring 2000 at TTU. In Dr. Cheng's sections, WebCT, an online course tool (with online gradebook, online office hours, webmail and online bulletin board) has also been tightly integrated with online homework. Students in those sections are able to monitor their performance and progress online, as well as communicate with their instructors online via online office hours, intranet mail and bulletin board. In addition, simulations (java applets) and computational techniques based on MATLAB, IDL and MAPLE are currently used in both undergraduate and graduate courses to enhance the teaching efforts. Dr. K. Kelvin Cheng also participated in two invited NSF-sponsored physics education workshops, Harvard 1988 and Lawrence University 2002.

This internet technology project is in collaboration with Dr. Catherine Crouch, Harvard University, and Dr. Beth Ann Thacker, TTU. In addition, we have received a 2-yr teaching grant from Teaching, Learning and Technology Center of TTU, to support this important project. Dr. K. Kelvin Cheng is the Principal Investigator of this Physics Education Project. Results of this 2-yr project has been submitted for publication. Also, this work has been presented in a half-hour invited talk at the National AAPT meeting in January, 2002 ("Assessing the Web" session).

Courses taught

Undergraduate

Graduate