TRANSFORMING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH COURSE REDESIGN

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TRANSFORMING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH
COURSE REDESIGN
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TODAYS DISCUSSION

• The National Center for Academic Transformation
• Overview of the Methodology and Findings of the
  Program in Course Redesign
• Proven Models for Successful Redesign
• How to get the most out of this conference

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• Established in 1999 as a university Center at
  RPI funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts
• Became an independent non-profit organization in
  2003
• Mission help colleges and universities learn how
  to use technology to improve student learning
  outcomes and reduce their instructional costs

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NCAT PROGRAMS

• Program in Course Redesign (PCR)
• 30 institutions
• Roadmap to Redesign (R2R)
• 20 institutions
• Colleagues Committed to Redesign (C2R)
• 60 institutions
• State and System-based Programs
• 50 institutions

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TRADITIONAL INSTRUCTION
Seminars
Lectures
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BOLT-ON INSTRUCTION
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WHATS WRONG WITH THE LECTURE?

• Treats all students as if they are the same
• Ineffective in engaging students
• Inadequate individual assistance
• Poor attendance and success rates
• Students fail to retain learning

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WHATS WRONG WITH MULTIPLE SECTIONS?

• In theory greater interaction
• In practice large class size
• In practice dominated by the same presentation
  techniques
• Lack of coordination
• Inconsistent outcomes

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ASSUMPTIONS THAT GET IN THE WAY

• Improving quality means increasing cost
• Adding IT increases cost
• Using IT may even threaten quality

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THE ONE PERCENT SOLUTION

• Maricopa Community College District
• 200,000 students
• 2,000 course titles
• 25 courses
• 44 enrollment

All CCs 51 All four-year 35
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• PROGRAM IN
• COURSE REDESIGN
• To encourage colleges and universities to
  redesign their approaches to instruction using
  technology to achieve cost savings as well as
  quality enhancements.

30 projects 50,000 students
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WHAT DOES NCAT MEAN BY COURSE REDESIGN?

• Course redesign is the process of redesigning
  whole courses (rather than individual classes or
  sections) to achieve better learning outcomes at
  a lower cost by taking advantage of the
  capabilities of information technology.
• Course redesign is not just about putting courses
  online.
• It is about rethinking the way we deliver
  instruction in light of the possibilities that
  new technology offers.

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WHY REDESIGN?

• Look for courses where redesign will have a high
  impact
• High withdrawal/failure rates
• Students on waiting lists
• Students turned away graduation bottleneck
• Over enrollment of courses leading to multiple
  majors
• Inconsistency of preparation
• Difficulty getting qualified adjuncts
• Difficulty in subsequent courses

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QUANTITATIVE (13)

• Mathematics
• Iowa State University
• Northern Arizona University
• Rio Salado College
• Riverside CC
• University of Alabama
• University of Idaho
• Virginia Tech

• Statistics
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Ohio State University
• Penn State
• U of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
• Computer Programming
• Drexel University
• University at Buffalo

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SCIENCE (5) SOCIAL SCIENCE (6)

• Biology
• Fairfield University
• University of Massachusetts
• Chemistry
• University of Iowa
• U of Wisconsin-Madison
• Astronomy
• U of Colorado-Boulder

• Psychology
• Cal Poly Pomona
• University of Dayton
• University of New Mexico
• U of Southern Maine
• Sociology
• IUPUI
• American Government
• U of Central Florida

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HUMANITIES (6)

• English Composition
• Brigham Young University
• Tallahassee CC
• Spanish
• Portland State University
• University of Tennessee
• Fine Arts
• Florida Gulf Coast University
• World Literature
• University of Southern Mississippi

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TEAM EFFORT IS KEY

• Each team included
• Administrator
• Faculty experts
• Technology expertise
• Assessment assistance

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IT IS POSSIBLE TO INCREASE LEARNING WHILE
REDUCING COST

• 25 of 30 PCR projects improved learning the
  other 5 showed equal learning.
• 24 measured course completion rates 18 showed
  improvement.
• All 30 reduced costs by 37 on average, with a
  range of 15 to 77.

Program in Course Redesign
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WHAT HAPPENS TO THE SAVINGS?

• Stay in department for continuous course
  improvement and/or redesign of others
• Provide a greater range of offerings at upper
  division or graduate level
• Accommodate greater numbers of students with same
  resources
• Stay in department to reduce teaching load and
  provide more time for research
• Redesign similar courses
• Miscellaneous
• Offer distance sections
• Reduce rental expenditures
• Improve training of part-time faculty

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WHAT DO THE FACULTY SAY?

• Its the best experience Ive ever had in a
  classroom.
• The quality of my worklife has changed
  immeasurably for the better.
• Its a lot of work during the transition--but
  its worth it.

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WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT WE HAVE
LEARNED ABOUT QUALITY AND COST?

• The factors that lead to increased student
  learning and increased student retention are the
  same as those that lead to reduced instructional
  costs!

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FIVE PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESSFUL COURSE REDESIGN

• 1 Redesign the whole course
• Quality Eliminate course drift greater
  course coherence and quality control
• Cost Eliminate duplicate effort create
  opportunities for alternate staffing

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FIVE PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESSFUL COURSE REDESIGN

• 2 Encourage active learning
• Quality Learning is not a spectator sport.
• Cost Reduce faculty preparation and
  presentation time reduce grading time
• (e.g., interactive software, peer learning teams)

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FIVE PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESSFUL COURSE REDESIGN

• 3 Provide students with individualized
  assistance
• Quality Students get help when they are stuck
  and stay on task rather than giving up software
  tutorials, F2F in labs or help rooms, beep a
  tutor, SMARTHINKING
• Cost Apply the right level of human
  intervention peer tutors, course assistants

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FIVE PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESSFUL COURSE REDESIGN

• 4 Build in ongoing assessment and prompt
  (automated) feedback
• Quality Enables practice, diagnostic feedback,
  focused time on task
• Cost Good pedagogy with large numbers of
  students individual and group assessment
  faculty spend time on what students dont
  understand

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FIVE PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESSFUL COURSE REDESIGN

• 5 Ensure sufficient time on task and monitor
  student progress
• Quality Self-pacing vs. milestones for
  completion points for engagement
• Cost Course management systems can reduce costs
  while increasing oversight

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REDESIGN MODELS

• Supplemental Add to the current structure
  and/or change the content
• Replacement Blend face-to-face with online
  activities
• Emporium Move all classes
• to a lab setting
• Fully online Conduct all (most)
• learning activities online
• Buffet Mix and match
• according to student preferences

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REDESIGN CHARACTERISTICS

• Redesign the whole coursenot just a single class
• Emphasize active learninggreater student
  engagement with the material and with one another
• Rely heavily on readily available interactive
  softwareused independently and in teams
• Mastery learningnot self-paced
• Increase on-demand, individualized assistance
• Automate only those course components that can
  benefit from automatione.g., homework, quizzes,
  exams
• Replace single mode instruction with
  differentiated personnel strategies

Technology enables good pedagogy with large s of
students.
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SUPPLEMENTAL MODEL

• Maintain the basic current structure
• Change the content so that more is available on
  line
• Change interaction so that students are
  interacting more with the material
• Change the use of the time to reduce or eliminate
  lecturing and increase student interaction

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GENERAL BIOLOGY Fairfield University

• Inconsistent student academic preparation
• Inadequate student interaction with learning
  materials and complex topics
• Inadequate use of modern technology
• Inability of students to retain what they have
  learned (amnesia)
• Inability of students to apply biological
  principles to other disciplines (inertia)

• Memorization vs. Application of Scientific
  Concepts

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ACADEMIC GOALS

• Enhance quality by individualizing instruction
• Focus on higher-level cognitive skills
• Create both team-based and independent
  investigations
• Use interactive learning environments in lectures
  and labs
• to illustrate difficult concepts
• to allow students to practice certain skills or
  test certain hypotheses
• to work with other students to enhance the
  learning and discussion of complex topics

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• Traditional
• 7 sections (35)
• 7 faculty
• 100 wet labs
• 131,610
• 506 cost-per-student

• Redesign
• 2 sections (140)
• 4 faculty
• 50 wet, 50 virtual
• 98,033
• 350 cost-per-student

• Content mastery significantly better performance
• Content retention significantly better (88 vs.
  79)
• Course drops declined from 8 to 3
• Next course enrollment increased from 75 to 85
• Declared majors increased by 4

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REPLACEMENT MODEL

• Blend face-to-face with online activities
• Determine exactly what activities required
  face-to-face and reduce the amount of time to
  focus only on those activities in class
• Provide 24/7 online interactive learning
  materials and resources
• Include online self-assessment activities with
  immediate feedback

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SPANISHUniversity of Tennessee

• CHALLENGES
• Inconsistent student preparation
• Inability to accommodate all who would like to
  take this course bottleneck to graduation
• Inability to accommodate different learning
  styles
• Limited number of qualified
• instructors
• Time in class devoted to
• grammar and vocabulary
• not expressive speaking
• and writing

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• Traditional
• 57 sections (27)
• Adjuncts 6 TAs
• 100 in class
• 167,074 (2931/section)
• 109 cost-per-student

• Redesign
• 38 sections (54)
• Instructor-TA pairs
• 50 in class, 50 online
• 56,838 (1496/section)
• 28 cost-per-student

• Oral skills significantly better performance
• Language proficiency language achievement
• no significant difference
• A second Spanish project final exam scores in
• speaking, reading and listening were higher

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ENGLISH COMPOSITION Tallahassee Community College

• Primary goals
• Increase writing skills
• Improve student success (lt60)
• Increase consistency (100 sections)
• Replace classroom time with lab time and online
  activities
• Integrate reading and writing, provide immediate
  feedback and support collaborative learning
• Success rates Increased to 68.4
• Final essay scores increased (8.35 in redesign
  vs. 7.32 in traditional)
• Cost-per-student declined by 43

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EMPORIUM MODEL

• Move all classes to a lab setting
• Permit the use of multiple kinds of personnel
• Allow students to work as long as they need to
  master the content
• Can be adapted for the kinds of students at a
  particular institution
• Allow multiple courses the same time
• Include multiple examples in math

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THE MATH EMPORIUMat Virginia Tech

• Traditional
• 38 sections (40)
• 10 tenured faculty, 13 instructors, 15 GTAs
• 2 hours per week
• 91 cost-per-student

• Redesign
• 1 section (1520)
• 1 instructor, grad undergrad TAs 2 tech
  support staff
• 247 in open lab
• 21 cost-per-student

Replicated at U of Alabama, U of Idaho, LSU,
Wayne State, U Missouri-St. Louis, Seton Hall
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THE EMPORIUM MODEL77 Cost Reduction (V1)30
Cost Reduction (V2)
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FULLY ONLINE MODEL

• Moves all or most of the learning environment
  online
• Provides access to anyone, anywhere, anytime on
  demand
• Allows international groups of students to
  interact easily and learn from
  each other

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FULLY ONLINE MODELFine Arts, Literature, Math,
Psychology

• Traditional
• Redesign one class
• Emphasize instructor-to-student interaction
• Instructor does all grading and provides all
  student feedback
• Single personnel strategy

• Redesign
• Redesign whole course
• Emphasize student-to-student interaction and
  teaming
• Automate grading and student feedback
• Differentiated personnel strategy

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U. OF S. MISSISSIPPIWorld Literature

• Redesign
• Single online section
• Team-taught by 4 faculty and 4 TAs
• 50 automated grading via WebCT 50 TAs
• 31 cost-per-student

• Traditional
• 16 20 sections (65)
• Taught by 8 faculty and 8 adjuncts
• Faculty do all grading
• 70 cost-per-student

• Redesign triples course capacity.

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BUFFET MODEL

• Assess each students knowledge/skill level and
  preferred learning style
• Provide an array of high-quality, interactive
  learning materials and activities
• Develop individualized study plans
• Built in continuous assessment to provide
  instantaneous feedback
• Offer appropriate, varied
• human interaction
• when needed

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A STREAMLINED REDESIGN METHODOLOGYA Menu of
Redesign Options

• Five Models for Course Redesign
• Five Principles of Successful Course Redesign
• Cost Reduction Strategies
• Course Planning Tool
• Course Structure Form
• Five Models for Assessing Student Learning
• Five Critical Implementation Issues
• Planning Checklist

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FACULTY BENEFITS

• Increased opportunity to work directly with
  students who need help
• Reduced grading
• Technology does the tracking and monitoring
• More practice and interaction for students
  without faculty effort
• Ability to try different approaches to meet
  different student needs
• Opportunity for continuous improvement of
  materials and approaches

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THE NCAT WEB SITEwww.theNCAT.org

• Course redesign planning resources
• Project descriptions
• Monographs Lessons Learned
• Project contacts

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THE REDESIGN ALLIANCESecond Annual Conference

• How to get the most out of your conference
  experience . . .

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THE REDESIGN ALLIANCE

• Mission to advance the concept of course
  redesign throughout higher education to increase
  student success and access while containing or
  reducing instructional costs.
• Create a community of higher education
  institutions and others who are committed to and
  experienced with large-scale course redesign.

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THE REDESIGN ALLIANCE

• Program in Course Redesign
• Roadmap to Redesign (R2R)
• State- and System-based Programs
• Corporate Community
• Colleagues Committed to Redesign (C2R)
• Individual Institutions

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• Austin CC District
• Bedford, Freeman, Worth
• Blackboard
• Boise State
• Carnegie Mellon
• CSU at Fresno
• Connors State
• Dallas CCC District
• Eastern Washington U
• Educational Testing Service
• Fordham
• Georgia State
• Houghton Mifflin
• Indiana University
• Lorain County CC
• Louisiana State
• Ocean CC
• Ohio Learning Network
• Ohio State

• RPI
• Rio Salado College
• Riverside CC
• Seton Hall
• SMARTHINKING
• SunGard Higher Education
• Tennessee Board of Regents
• Thomson Learning
• U of Alabama
• U of Central Florida
• U of Hawaii System
• U of Idaho
• U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• UMass System
• UNC at Chapel Hill
• U of North Texas
• U of Southern Mississippi
• U of Texas System
• University System of MD

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REDESIGN ALLIANCENEW MEMBERS

• Alamo Community Colleges
• University System of Georgia
• CSU, East Bay
• DePaul University
• East Tennessee State
• Hawkes Learning Systems
• Hocking College
• Houston CC
• Idaho State University
• Indiana State University
• Miami University
• Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
• Minnesota State U, Mankato
• Northern Virginia CC

• Purchase College, SUNY
• Radford University
• Saint Cloud State U
• Santa Fe CC
• Southwest Minnesota State U
• SUNY at Oswego
• Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
• University of Calgary
• University of North Carolina
• University of South Carolina
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• WebAssign
• Winona State University

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SUNDAY

• Orientation
• Corporate Exhibits
• Opening Reception

Corporate Hospitality Suites Birds of a Feather
(Lunches)
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MONDAY MORNING

• Opening Keynote Kati Haycock
• Disciplinary Showcases and Roundtables
• Developmental Mathematics
• Humanities
• Mathematics (2)
• Psychology
• Biology
• Chemistry, Anatomy Physiology
• Statistics and Accounting
• Showcase and Roundtable for Administrators

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MONDAY AFTERNOON

• Whats New in Course Redesign?
• Developmental Math
• Developmental English
• Math in the Community College
• Math in the University
• Humanities
• Social Sciences
• Biology
• Chemistry and Geology
• Professional Education
• Social Sciences
• The Mathematics Success Project
• Panel State and System Course Redesign
• Poolside Reception

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TUESDAY MORNING

• Hot Topics in Course Redesign
• Feedback Forum
• How To Get Started
• Engaging Students in New Ways of Learning
• Working with Commercial Software I
• Working with Commercial Software II
• Developing a Valid Assessment Plan
• Avoiding Either/Or Choices Greater Flexibility
  
• Use and Reuse of Materials
• Applying the Five Models in New Ways
• But What about the English Department?
• Panel Assessing Student Engagement Featuring
  NSSE and CCSSE

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Other Pointers

• Be sure members of your team attend different
  sessions
• Talk to as many people as possible
• Redesign Scholars
• Redesign Alliance Board Members
• Others who have completed redesigns
• Visit all the Corporate Member Suites to benefit
  from their expertise
• Think about how others have gotten the
  conversation started on their campuses and plan
  what you will do next

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TRANSFORMING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH
COURSE REDESIGN

• Carolyn Jarmon, Ph.D.
• cjarmon_at_theNCAT.org
• www.theNCAT.org