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Introduction to Psychology: Northern Arizona University Fully implemented, 2009. 2000/year foundational, survey-style class Traditionally, 8-11 uncoordinated sections/year Issues: Engagement. 63% study < 2 hours per week Student learning and achievement
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Introduction to Psychology:Northern Arizona UniversityFully implemented, 2009 • 2000/year foundational, survey-style class • Traditionally, 8-11 uncoordinated sections/year • Issues: • Engagement. 63% study < 2 hours per week • Student learning and achievement • Enrollment pressures and cost. $62/student • Consistency. Non-permanent staff, divergent grade distributions • Faculty perception, participation
Background and Overview • ABOR/Learner-Centered Education program • PIs: K. Laurie Dickson, Derrick Wirtz • Supplemental model • Goals: Promote learning and success, engagement/effort, consistency, full-time staffing, while reducing cost • Measures include knowledge assessment, grades, exam performance, student opinion surveys • Primary comparison: Fall 2005, 120-student traditional section • Redesigned course: • Team taught F2F section with substantial online supplementation • 400 students/section, back to back scheduling, coordination • GTA team approach with “early intervention specialist”
Redesigned Course Pedagogy • Web assignments • 4 per semester • Guided exploration and written reflection on web-based surveys and other activities • Pilot research suggested these effectively complement material • Required, repeatable online quizzes • Randomly sampled from test bank (Myers Exploring Psychology) • Student response system • Full credit for any answer • 10% of course grade • Email contact with struggling students
Fully Online Component • Institutional need for fully-online offering • Cost effectiveness, staffing, and course building were barriers • Co-designed by experienced former adjunct and M. Miller • Master content template created collaboratively • Staffing varies; adjunct during academic year, full-time in other sessions For full description and results please see: Miller, M.D., & Rader, M.E. (2010). Two heads are better than one: Collaborative development of an online course content template. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 6, 246-255.
Results: Grades • Redesigned course produces similar pattern as traditionally taught course. Note increased student effort, pattern associated with D and F grades.
But wait… • Could “non-exam” assignments or other factors have inflated grades? • How many students would have failed solely on the basis of exam scores? • What about learning?
Results: Exam Scores • Four versus two exams; otherwise comparable • Students in redesigned section scored significantly better better (p < .001). • 5.7% difference is about half of one standard deviation • In redesigned section, 6.5% would have failed on exam scores alone
Results: Learning Assessment • Both sections made significant gains (p < .001) • Degree of gain statistically indistinguishable across sections
Other Impacts and Findings • Communication and intervention • Email: Strategies for routing, managing and preventing • Positive response to proactive email contact • Study skills workshops • Student response system • Perceptions radically improved from pilot to current version • Students endorse SRS usefulness, though logistical problems persist • Students strongly endorsed usefulness of repeatable quizzes • Department and faculty impacts • Cost: $62 -> $43 • Team teaching/coordination approach • 90% of teaching done by full-time faculty
For More Information… • michelle.miller@nau.edu, laurie.dickson@nau.edu • http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michelle-miller/13/410/a73 • http://www.thencat.org/States/AZ/Abstracts/NAU%20Psychology_Abstract.htm • Miller, M.D., & Rader, M.E. (2010). Two heads are better than one: Collaborative development of an online course content template. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 6, 246-255. • Miller, M.D. (2009) What the science of cognition tells us about instructional technology. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 41, 71-74.