Supporting Instructors in Designing Tablet PC-Based Courses

Nowadays, there are multiple examples of technologies which can drive major positive changes in classroom settings. In particular, the flexibility of Tablet PCs and digital ink has the potential to achieve a wide range of educational goals and promote a more dynamic classroom environment. However, as the possibilities of these educational technologies grow, it seems necessary to consider their role by conceptualizing the knowledge they provide. In this work we propose an approach based on the use of conceptual maps to generate instructor guidelines for designing Tablet PC-based courses. Our approach combines the instructional domain with the technological one in order to offer practical guidelines to design and develop both lecture materials and active learning tasks, providing a systematic and flexible way to organize the teaching process in Tablet PC-based courses. The approach has been implemented in a pilot section during a first year Computer Engineering course with successful results.