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Browsing by Author "Rao, Anusha S."
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Item Beyond content knowledge: transferable skills connected to experience as a peer-leader in a PLTL program and long-term impacts(Springer, 2020) Chase, Anthony; Rao, Anusha S.; Lakmala, Prathima; Varma-Nelson, Pratibha; Chemistry and Chemical Biology, School of ScienceBackground Being a successful peer-led team learning (PLTL) workshop leader involves developing content knowledge and workshop facilitation skills. These skills connected to being a peer leader, however, do not terminate at the end of one’s undergraduate program. In fact, many former peer leaders denote having been a peer leader on their LinkedIn profile. This study examines the transferable skills that former peer leaders identified as being valuable in their current positions. We conducted semi-structured interviews with former peer leaders from varying disciplines, universities, ages, and years since being a peer leader. Results Interview questions captured leadership experiences including successes and challenges of being peer leaders, roles and responsibilities, and specific transferable skills further developed by being peer leaders and how they are being utilized in the leaders’ current position. Conclusion Thematic analyses of these interviews indicate that former peer leaders recognize leadership skills, coping with many challenges (including not having the right answer), collaboration/teamwork skills, self-confidence, and problem-solving skills as being relevant and frequently used in their current work.Item Engineering and Informatics Student Multidisciplinary Learning using 3D Visualization and 3D Display of Radio Frequency (RF) Concepts(IEEE, 2018-10) Christopher, Lauren; William, Albert; Rao, Anusha S.; Dale, Ashley; Chase, Anthony; Joshi, Mihir Piyush; Krogg, Wendy; Abernathy, Bree; Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and TechnologyThis full paper addresses the Innovative Practice Category. We discuss our multidisciplinary approach to create a truly 3D representation and 3D display of RF signals in space through the development of two different training tools to enhance student understanding of Radio Communications. Both tools show the data on 3D autostereoscopic displays rather than rendered back to 2D displays. The first new tool is a series of 3D stereoscopic animations created by a multidisciplinary team of students from the Media Arts and Sciences (School of Informatics) and Electrical Engineering (School of Engineering) programs for use with an autostereoscopic display, where each animation focuses on a single topic within RF communication learning, using real-world examples. The second innovative tool models the Navy use-case of Electronic Warfare (EW) using examples with 3D antenna radiation patterns of signal propagation using U.S. Navy's SIMDIS interactive 3D visualization environment. The developed scenarios are displayed on an autostereoscopic display, allowing students to manipulate RF signals in a 3D environment. Learning gains were assessed via a 2x2 crossover experimental design an engineering student group. Compared to the control group, students showed gains in understanding of the 3D shape of dipole antennas and understanding of the multiple RF antennas in a cell phone, and the connections between mobile phone antennas and cell towers. The results from these interventions collectively indicate that a truly 3D representation in space can be used to enhance students' understanding of antennas and RF signals.Item Using a Student-Generated Mock Magazine Issue To Improve Students’ Awareness of Diverse Scientists(American Society for Microbiology, 2020-01) Robison, Jennifer D.; Berbari, Nicolas F.; Rao, Anusha S.; Biology, School of ScienceThis study explores whether integrating multicultural content within a genetics laboratory course affected students' awareness of diversity and their perceptions of scientists' identities. Genetics laboratory curricula typically focus on content and experimental procedures, with cursory references to the scientists who made these discoveries. The resulting poor racial and gender representation in the curricula propagate biases about the abilities and contributions of scientists from underrepresented groups, which may adversely affect the retention and success of students in these groups. Initially, students completed a pre-test in which they were asked to recall the names of geneticists and their scientific contributions. Later students created a mock magazine issue featuring a diverse set of experts in genetics, specifically members of traditionally underrepresented gender/sexuality and/or racial/ethnic groups. To facilitate this assignment, students were randomly assigned a geneticist from a pool of active research scientists, spanning a wide range of scientific and cultural backgrounds and identities. Each student wrote a 500-word biography of their assigned geneticist and read biographies composed by peers. Then, in groups, the students categorized biographies based on student-selected unifying themes into a table of contents. On the final exam, the pre-test was repeated as a post-test. In the pre-test, scientists listed by students were 94% male and 6% female, with no members of other underrepresented groups included. In the post-test, scientists listed by students shifted to 84% male and 16% female with 18% from underrepresented groups. These data suggest that this intervention increases awareness of the multicultural nature of scientists.