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Redesigning 101: Improving learning and outcomes in foundational courses

Redesigning 101: Improving learning and outcomes in foundational courses. Consider your foundational courses. What problems do you typically face?. What strategies have you used (successfully or not) to address these challenges ?. You’re not alone. . Foundational courses: “Broken”

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Redesigning 101: Improving learning and outcomes in foundational courses

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  1. Redesigning 101:Improving learning and outcomes in foundational courses

  2. Consider your foundational courses. What problems do you typically face?

  3. What strategies have you used (successfully or not) to address these challenges?

  4. You’re not alone. • Foundational courses: “Broken” • Design problems: Widespread and severe • Impact on students, faculty, institution…

  5. Course Redesign • National Center for Academic Transformation • Improve learning while reducing cost • How: Instructional technology, reorganization, nontraditional pedagogy

  6. Guiding principles • Redesign the whole course • Active learning • Individualized assistance • Ongoing assessment & prompt feedback • Emphasize time on task; monitor progress Evidence-based, goal-driven

  7. Models • Supplemental • Replacement • Emporium • Buffet • Linked workshop

  8. Technology: NCAT’s approach • Goal driven not gadget driven • Makes achieving the principles feasible on a large scale • Reliance on LMS features as well as discipline-specific commercial products

  9. Memory, attention and technology • Testing and spacing effects (McDaniels; Karpicke; Bjork) • Attention and memory (Rensink) http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/ASSChtml/ASSC.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voAntzB7EwE • New learning and memory (Nickerson and Adams) • “Flow” and optimal difficulty (Csikszentmihalyi; Dickey) Miller, M.D. (2011). What college teachers should know about memory: A perspective from cognitive psychology. College Teaching, 59, 117-122. Miller, M.D. (2009) What the science of cognition tells us about instructional technology. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 41, 71-74.

  10. NAU’s Intro to Psychology Problems: High demand; poor grades; low engagement and time on task; poor attendance; faculty time used excessively and inefficiently; numerous uncoordinated sections Solutions: Supplemental redesign; increase section size and bring in coordinator; team-teaching; student response system; experiential web assignments; repeatable online quizzes on textbook chapters prior to coverage in class Results: Increased student effort, 90% taught by full time faculty, cost savings

  11. Enrollment trends

  12. Results: Grades Redesigned course produces similar pattern as traditionally taught course. Note increased student effort, pattern associated with D and F grades.

  13. Results: Exam Scores • Four versus two exams; otherwise comparable • Redesigned section is much larger • Students in redesigned section scored significantly better (p < .001). • 5.7% difference is about half of one standard deviation

  14. Fail/Withdraw Mid-redesign

  15. Fail/Withdraw Mid-redesign

  16. Further Examples • ASU, Women in Society • Problems: High demand; lack of personalized feedback; lack of critical thinking component; poor grades • Solutions: ULA/GTA led sections; peer mentoring; online auto-graded quizzing; small-group online discussions; experiential assignments • U of A, General Chemistry • Problems: Lecture-lab coordination; “discussion” sections >100 students; passive learning; low student skills and lack of support; excess demands on faculty time • Solutions: Common exams and course materials; coordinated planning; GTA-led discussion sections integrated with lab; online simulations; improved lab exercises emphasizing active learning • More at http://thencat.org/PCR/Proj_Discipline_all.html

  17. Getting There

  18. Readiness and planning • NCAT’s readiness criteria • Phase I: Building Commitment • Phase II: Planning • Phase III: Implementation, Capacity Building

  19. What successful projects have in common: NCAT’s view • Incremental phase-in • Support and buy-in at all levels • Minimal time creating materials • Redesigning all sections of the course

  20. Wieman’s view • Broad department support and participation • Focus on taking action, not on “kids these days” • Department and individual incentives • Faculty investigate outcomes Wieman, C., Perkins, K., & Gilbert, S. Transforming science education at large research universities: A case study in progress. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, March-April 2010.

  21. Setting up for success: Institution • Explaining and “marketing” the project • Technical issues • Agreeing on objectives • Upfront costs • Avoiding the “lone hero” model

  22. Setting up for success: Course designers • Redesigning all sections of the course • Making class time participatory • Avoiding “optional” • Resisting gadget-driven design • Preventing backsliding • Balancing foundational and higher-order skills • Emphasizing student effort

  23. Setting up for success: Course instructors • Mananging/minimizing email • Students not purchasing materials • Students not making time commitment

  24. Costs and resources • What does cost-efficiency mean? • What happens to savings? • #1 resource: Faculty time • Common strategies: • Increase class size / reduce sections • Decrease time demands • Reorganize staffing

  25. Wrapping Up What do you need to move forward?

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