Redesign of PSYC221: Social Psychology

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• Redesign of PSYC221 Social Psychology
• UMCP
• Sponsored by the Curriculum Transformation
  Project
• Charles Stangor
• Julie OBrien
• Marcy Marinelli
• Tom Wallsten
• (Psychology)
• Katherine McAdams
• (Undergraduate Studies)

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Course Psychology 221 Social Psychology

• Taken by almost all of our 1100 psychology majors
• Popular with non-majors CORE requirement.
• Psychology offers over 600 seats/year

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Why the Redesign?

• Discussion sections were too large
• Graduate students overburdened
• Wanted more access to faculty members
• Course content and evaluation drift

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The Redesign

• Replacement model
• Discussion sections replaced with online weekly
  learning modules
• Instructional team one faculty instructor, three
  graduate TAs, and a team of 6 undergraduate
  teaching assistants
• The two large lectures (150 seats each) were
  combined into a single lecture (450 seats)

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Benefits

• Students have more flexibility in the method and
  timeframe for their learning
• Students complete 9 online weekly critical
  thinking modules
• TAs hold regular office hours
• More personalized student-TA interaction
• More standardization in course content across
  sections and semesters.
• Graduate student load reduced by 1/3

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Assessment Exams
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Assessment Written work
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Difficulties

• Instructor must really be involved
• Large classroom can be difficult
• Clickers and Attendance
• Behavioral issues
• Student expectations/Curriculum disparity
• Can we sustain?
• Department level, College/campus leve.
• Can we generalize?

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