| Authentic Inquiry This
page includes examples of Web-enabled authentic inquiry from
 Accounting
Group Project: Not-for-Profit
and Government Organizations
Kevin Michel and Frank Fronhoffer, Accounting 410 (Accounting for Not-for-Profit
Organizations and Governments), University of Maryland University College
This assignment asks study groups to use the Web and other resources to gather
information about particular issues relating to not-for-profit organizations and then
discuss findings and present a position paper outlining the conclusions reached in the
online class conference. The assignment also pays particular attention to evaluating
Web-based sources of information. Position papers are required to paraphrase and discuss
rather than quote verbatim the concepts, ideas, and arguments found on the Web; only in
appropriate contexts may direct quotes be used.
The assignment, part of a course delivered entirely online, suggests ways to mine the
Web for relevant documentation and typical practices and to use collaborative learning as
a means of inducing accounting students to adopt practitioner stances in evaluating their
profession. As the assignment makes clear, actuarial skills are only one part of that
profession; to succeed in a contemporary business environment, accounting students must
also learn to think critically, work in teams, and make group decisions.
This example features the use of Web sites.
American History
Women and the American Experience (course homepage)
John McClymer, History 113 (Women and the American Experience), Assumption College
This course takes as its premise the idea that students learn best when asked to do
what actual historians do. Designed as an intermediate-level undergraduate survey course,
the class uses a combination of textbooks and online primary sources. There are a great
number of assignments encouraging students to read sources in the context of their times
and to ask questions about 19th century cultural ideas and concepts. For instance, one
assignment asks students to choose one poem and one illustration from Godey's Lady's Book, a
magazine immensely popular in the 1850s, and analyze which best illustrates the notion of
the "woman's sphere" in that era. Another assignment has students visit the Silent Ladies
site at the University of New Orleans and choose two actresses of the silent film era who
embody the sexuality that Parker lampooned in her poem "The Flapper."
This course and its assignments suggest many ways to supplement the shorthand
information of textbooks with a lively range of online readings and sources and to teach
students to think of themselves as historians by allowing them to discover multiple points
of entry into the topics covered.
McClymer's case study for this course, a contribution to the American
Studies Crossroads Project, provides further information about his approach to
authentic inquiry and learning.
This example features the use of Web sites and images.
Macroeconomics
Economics Stock Project Web Information
Jay Kaplan, Introduction to Macroeconomics, University of Colorado at Boulder
This assignment asks students to use Yahoo's stock symbol lookup as a means of finding out information
about a public company and basing projections about that company's future circumstances on
the findings. In particular, the assignment asks students to calculate the company's price
to earnings growth ratio (PEG) over a 10-year period and use it to determine whether
purchasing the company's stock would be a wise investment decision.
This assignment suggests ways to use the Web to give students hands-on experience of
economic concepts in action. By thinking in the role of investors, students learn to
connect textbook knowledge with real-world practices and thereby enhance their
understanding of the macroeconomic sphere.
Kaplan's courses on Macroeconomics (Econ 2020) and Microeconomics
(Econ 2010) contain further examples of using online resources to connect theoretical
knowledge with real-world practices.
This example features the use of Web sites.
Sociology
Doing Sociology on the World Wide Web
Robert E. Wood, 50.920.207 (Introduction to Sociology), Rutgers University Camden
Campus
This interactive assignment asks students to answer 27 questions about Web resources
that pertain to sociological learning and research and submit their answers to the
professor. The tour leads through a series of sites and databases containing information
on subjects like demographics, literacy, household income, sociology resources on the Web,
and the local economy. Students are required to use each site to find answers to
questions. For example, in Question 20 they examine the University of California's
Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA) Archive and find out if "(reported)
happiness increases with (reported) class position."
This assignment introduces sociology students to key online resources in their field
and suggests ways of using Web-based resources to teach rigorous research and evaluation
skills in any discipline.
This example features the use of scripts,
Web sites, and text.
This project is a joint initiative of the Center for the Virtual University and the Center for Teaching and Learning
at UMUC.
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