1 / 9

The SCALE Efficiency Projects New Developments

The SCALE Efficiency Projects New Developments. Lanny Arvan, Director SCALE l-arvan@uiuc.edu http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/SCALE/. Brief Background. Efficiency Projects Started in Fall 97 See Conference Proceedings http://www.aln.org/conf97/slide/arvan/arvan/index.htm

earl
Download Presentation

The SCALE Efficiency Projects New Developments

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The SCALE Efficiency ProjectsNew Developments Lanny Arvan, Director SCALE l-arvan@uiuc.edu http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/SCALE/

  2. Brief Background • Efficiency Projects Started in Fall 97 • See Conference Proceedings http://www.aln.org/conf97/slide/arvan/arvan/index.htm • See Journal of ALN http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/jaln_vol2issue2.htm • Continuation and Further Projects with SCALE Renewal Grant

  3. Focus on High Enrollment Courses • We are not saying the 20 - 30 student course can become more efficient with ALN • Most instructors report time spent teaching with ALN goes up • Turoff, Estabrook, and others argue ALN classes can’t be too large • Yet there are many very large courses on the UIUC campus • Quite a few have benefited from an ALN component

  4. Why Do It? • FTEs don’t track IUs very well • In high enrollment courses much instruction is done by graduate assistants • In some disciplines the GAs future job market prospects are bleak • There are many high enrollment courses that students want but can’t get into

  5. The Real Reason • Frank Mayadas wanted it done. • Chicago School Argument: If the projects represent real efficiency, why did they need Sloan Foundation money to get underway? • Institutional Inertia Because • Internalizing benefits • Very risky • Going against the culture

  6. Some New Developments • Spanish Project Underway • Diane Musumeci Project Coordinator • Prof. Pin Ng developed ALN materials for Econ 173 • GAs reduced by more than 50%

  7. Other Developments • NetMath (distance learning) to our own on-campus students • Flexible scheduling - part on-campus, part distance learning. • A bootstrap effort - Large class humanities instructors combining automated quizzes with writing across the curriculum assignments

  8. Truth in Advertising • Not all projects completely satisfying • In Economic Principles, many students in the ALN sections didn’t access the online lecture, a substitute for the quiz section. • In a remedial Physics course targeted at students with inadequate preparation, retention rates in the engineering-physics course seemingly unaffected. • Can make up for physics deficiencies but not math deficiencies

  9. We Are Persevering with • Backing of the academic units and the campus • Great effort by some heroic faculty

More Related