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Institution A: General Psychology Abstract The General Psychology course offered at Institution A is the first required course for Psychology majors and is also required for five other majors at INSTITUTION A. In the General Education Program (GEP), General Psychology is one of five courses in the Social Science section in which students must take 2/5 courses. Of the other course options, it has the highest enrollment with approximately 67% of all students taking the course. Enrollment for this course has fluctuated over the past five years. The average course enrollment per year is approximately 900 students; 50 students per section. On average, twelve sections are offered in the Fall semester and six in the Spring (occasionally a summer section is offered). This course is taught by both full-time faculty (50%) and adjuncts (50%). Each instructor designs their own version of the course and chooses their own textbook leading to lack of standardization, course drift and redundancy of tasks. It is a lecture style approach, which does not account for diverse student learning styles. The DWF rate is 12%. There are several academic problems we are addressing with the redesign of General Psychology: staffing issues, course drift, redundancy of effort, and lack of active learning. First, fiscal constraints at the university level have resulted in our department relying on an increasing number of adjuncts who may or may not receive proper guidance in course development. Additionally, in the past two years, the department has had to rely on Master's level graduate students to teach the course as full instructors. Taken together, we have had difficulty finding experienced personnel to fulfill teaching slots in our courses. Second, since General Psychology is not standardized, each instructor creates his or her own version of the course. Thus, multiple versions of General Psychology are taught by a variety of instructors at differing skill levels, resulting in "course drift". This drift may result in overall lower course quality. Third, instructor's use of time is inefficient and leaves little time to assist the student who may need extra help; instructors spend a lot of time on redundancy of task, grading exams by hand, and entering grades. Finally, in its traditional lecture format, the General Psychology course does not necessarily promote motivation, interest in course content, active learning, or account for different learning styles, which may contribute to the 12% DWF rate. It is our goal to become more efficient and effective through the course design. Our plan for redesign is the replacement model. Using this model, we will collapse three sections of 50 students into one section of 150 students. We will reduce the number of in-class meetings by half. During the in-class meetings, we will use interactive activities for most of the period rather than lecturing. In-class activities will be designed to promote active learning and to follow-up and coincide with course material for the week. Additionally, the in-class meetings will prepare the student for next week's topic. For the remainder of the week, we plan to use technology for assessment and discussion of weekly topics. Via online assessments, students will receive immediate feedback on their performance and areas in need of improvement. Undergraduate learning assistants (ULAs) will help with peer tutoring, discussions, other learning activities assigned online, and technology issues that arise. The redesigned course will enhance quality in several ways. The redesign of General Psychology will improve the standardization of the course, which will help prevent course drift. Further, the redesign will enhance quality by providing more learner-learner interaction, instructor-learner interaction, and active learner-content interaction. With the use of time-saving online assessment, instructors will have more time to interact with students, either in-class or in the online environment. Using online discussion forums, students will be divided into small groups where they can interact with each other, the instructor, or the ULAs. These types of interaction have potential to promote student satisfaction with instruction, which can lead to increased motivation, interest, cohesiveness, and learning. Additionally, the use of online assessment will provide immediate feedback to the students and direct them to supplementary materials. Instructors and ULAs will evaluate student progress and feedback aimed at providing guidance to students who may need extra help. Using the online class time, we can link students to interesting content that is discussed by experts in the field of psychology and applicable to their lives. The use of class time for activities rather than merely lecture will promote active learning and collaboration on small group projects. The Psychology department will assess the impact of course redesign by implementing a pilot program in Spring 08 comparing the redesigned course with several sections of the traditional course. We plan to offer two redesign sections of 100 students and two sections of the traditional course of 50 students each. We will use an end-of-course comprehensive multiple-choice exam as the main tool for assessing the effectiveness of instruction. The test will contain a representative sampling of questions for common chapters covered. It will contain three types of questions: knowledge, critical thinking, and applications questions. All questions on this exam will be different from those found on previous quizzes and tests; however, the form of questions will be similar to ones previously used in that they will have similar prompts for directing students to access their knowledge, to think critically about the material covered, and to apply their knowledge. We will investigate training students to improve their abilities to answer critical thinking and application questions using practice and test questions often involving simulation of everyday and professional applications of psychological knowledge and thinking. Questions similar in form and sampling comparable content will be used on the comprehensive exam. As student satisfaction is often related to learning, we will also compare student's satisfaction with the courses. We will also compare the DWF rate between the redesign and the traditional courses. The redesign of the General Psychology course will produce cost savings in several ways. Full-time faculty currently teach half of the sections (nine) of the traditional course and the other half is taught by adjunct. Fewer instructors will be needed to teach the course since the number of sections will be reduced by 1/3. As few as one full-time faculty members will be needed to teach the course throughout the year. If interested, full-time faculty can contribute their expertise to the redesign of the course, the course will be standardized and of a high quality. With improved quality, adjuncts can teach this course without concern for course drift and low course quality and will receive training to help them with the teaching process. With the redesigned course, standardization reduces redundancy of work. Currently, we propose we will use the cost savings incurred through the use of the course redesign to continue the program. For example, we need to pay ULA's to continue to assist with the course in its redesigned structure. Additionally, we might use the cost savings to pay for a new course and corresponding "leadership/mentorship" certificate to help sustain the redesign version. Application Narrative The Redesign Model Use of the Replacement Model for General Psychology Our team selected the Replacement Model for General Psychology. This model reduces the number of in-class meetings, replaces some in-class time with online interactive activities and also makes significant changes to remaining in-class meetings. Our students will meet once a week for 1.15 hours where pre-arranged, empirically-supported class activities will be used. Lectures that normally lasted the full period requiring students merely to take notes will be replaced by (a) pre-designed activities that engage students in the material and demonstrate their mastery, (b) short activities that help explain the online portion of the course and preview the following week's topic, (c) brief direct instruction on material that students found challenging (based on poorer performance on online quizzes from the previous week) and (d) opportunities for one-on-one or small group tutoring for any struggling student. Thus, we will reduce the number of in-class meetings and maximize student learning when meeting in-class. When students are not in class, their time will be spent engaging in activities that are assumed to be better accomplished online. Online quizzing, videos, interactive learning objects, discussion, and activities will engage students in the material in two distinct ways. First, the technology provided by our chosen publishing company will provide students with a personalized learning experience. Students will take pre-quizzes and receive a personalized study plan for a given chapter. Then, students will take numerous chapter quizzes until they have mastered the material, receiving specific feedback on why a given incorrect answer is not correct. In addition, students will not only read the textbook but interact with the material using videos and learning objects that provide feedback on performance. Second, the online discussions and pre-designed activities will utilize a social-constructivist approach to learning whereby students learn from interacting with one another. These social-interactive activities will promote a stronger learning community, decreasing the possibility of a student feeling as if they are "on their own" in understanding the material. These activities will be reinforced by the in-class active learning activities that will be small-group based. Overall, the online portion of the course will increase flexibility of student participation that cannot be accomplished in the traditional format. Reasons for Choosing the Replacement Model One reason INSTITUTION A chose the Replacement Model is based on the experience of our redesign team. All departmental team members have strong profiles on effective teaching and learning techniques, online education, and student assessment. Thus, we wanted to choose a redesign model that would utilize this experience to include a new online component. Another reason is our student population. INSTITUTION A students are mostly traditional who either grew up near the campus or come from farther away and live on campus. In other words, we do not market as a distance education university. Our students are only beginning to take more online courses and the technological structure is not pervasive enough to support one of the university's highest demanded courses in a fully online format. A third reason is based on the support and technological materials that are available from publishing companies. Rich educational material is available at an affordable price facilitating the inclusion of the kind of online component that fits with the Replacement Model. These resources, however, are not affordable or extensive enough for an emporium or buffet model. How the redesign implements Five Principles of Successful Course Redesign In this section, we describe how our course redesign implements the five NCAT principles of successful course redesign, including how the redesign improves quality of education and reduces overall cost to the student. Principle 1: Redesign the whole course. Institution A is experiencing continued monetary issues preventing the Psychology Department from having its full capacity of faculty members. As a result, the department has had to rely on more adjunct instructors not only for General Psychology but also for many upper-level courses, including courses in our graduate program. Our rural location makes it challenging to find enough adjuncts to cover upper-level courses. This resource situation has resulted in three major issues: significant course drift due to a lack of standardization, redundancy of efforts in course design, and not enough full-time faculty members teaching upper-level courses in their area of expertise. With the financial situation not improving in the near future, a need exists to redesign our most offered course. To combat the related issues of course drift and redundancy of efforts, our team is in charge of all course design elements and will meet in the future for subsequent whole-course updates. All course content will be standardized and every instructor will be committed to this new structure, following the same schedule and measuring the same student learning outcomes. The inclusion of a major technological component facilitates student learning that is reflected in the research literature on best practices, allowing each instructor to be a "guide by the side" of students instead of the ineffective "sage on the stage". To address the issue of course coverage, three sections of General Psychology will be collapsed into one (18 sections/year to 6 sections/year), with smaller peer groups existing within the larger section to maintain a sense of a small learning community. The redesigning of General Psychology allows the department to service the same number of students with reduce staff and to shift personnel in more logical directions (i.e., full-time faculty from General Psychology to upper-level courses). In sum, the new course will improve the quality of education through standardization of the content (including learning goals and objectives), as designed by the team. Course drift will be eliminated and students will receive comparable knowledge and experiences across all sections. The course will reduce cost by eliminating the duplication of efforts in course preparation and by decreasing (a) the number of sections and (b) the number of full-time faculty members teaching the course. Principle 2: Encourage active learning. Our course redesign eliminates traditional lectures and replaces them with content that is interactive. We improve the quality by having students engage in online discussions, writing, applying material to their own life, receiving personalized feedback on progress, etc. These techniques have been shown via research to be successful in helping students learn. As most students are used to passive learning, we plan to create an orientation to explain the new expectations and goals of the redesign course. Students will receive overt reinforcement of active learning during in-class activities. They will learn not only the material in a meaningful manner but also learn about our overarching goals of active learning and why such an approach is better for them in the long run. In other words, we will overtly teach the NCAT principles to the students to help them shift from passive learning (which is ineffective but easy) to active learning, which will require greater effort from them. We will reduce the cost through active learning by changing the role of the instructor. The instructor becomes a facilitator of student learning, no longer needing to be course designers. (Note: For more information, please see information under the section above titled "Use of the Replacement Model for General Psychology".) Principle 3: Provide students with individualized assistance. Our redesign provides individualized assistance both online and in-class. As already noted, online components provide personalized study plans and feedback on progress. Our in-class time will be structured such that the last 15 minutes or so will be devoted to one-on-one or small-group tutoring for struggling students or any student who would like individualized attention from the instructor. The overall goal of the intentional in-class tutoring time is to decrease the DFW rate. Our university's "help desk" will be used for any non-content-related questions and the chosen publishing company will provide assistance to any technology-related question of their content (e.g., a learning object that does not work). This redesign improves the quality of education by offering students help when they need it and by implementing personalized feedback. Online help will be available 24/7, at the moment when students are "stuck" instead of hours later at a prearranged office hour. This redesign reduces cost by using mainly adjunct faculty for instruction and undergraduate learning assistants (ULAs) for additional personalized assistance online. Principle 4: Build in ongoing assessment and prompt feedback. Our redesign utilizes online aspects that provide prompt feedback (e.g., online quizzes, personalized study plan, etc. as explained above). In particular, our online quiz format will provide students with information on why they did not get a question correct, with a link back to the portion of the e-text that contains the information for them to review. Major concepts will have text, videos, and interactive learning objects, providing students with multiple explanations that vary by learning style. As explained above, software will provide instructors with information on which topics have been learned by the students and which ones need additional direct instruction for the in-class time period. This redesign improves quality by increasing the frequency of assessment through low-stakes quizzes to permit mastery of material. The redesign reduces the cost by replacing hand-grading with automatic grading. Principle 5: Ensure sufficient time on task and monitor student progress. The course redesign will have both in-class and online activities created to monitor student progress of the material. Student use of online activities can be monitored through technology while in-class time on task can be assessed by the instructor. Although some elements of the course may appear to be self-paced, students will be required to reach certain milestones at specified times. Likewise, the social-constructivist elements will assure students do not feel alone in learning material. Mandatory attendance and completion of low-stakes quizzes provides needed structure for students to succeed. This redesign improves quality by increasing student time on task in a standardized format that does not exist in the current traditional format. Students will be able to monitor their own progress and see how best to utility their time. This redesign reduces cost by reducing the need for in-class oversight of student progress (i.e., it will be easier to track online student time on task and progress). Learning Materials We are in the process of selecting one textbook from one publishing company and cannot give exact details at this juncture. Regardless of which text is chosen, the following learning materials will be made available:
In addition to the materials provided by the publisher, the NCAT team will consult with published research and with the other members of the Psychology Department to create a collection of active learning activities. Short videos written and videotaped by members of the department will be created to help students understand certain material. Cost Reduction Strategy Institution A’s enrollment profile for General Psychology is stable enrollment. We are going to reduce cost in two ways. First, our redesign will reduce the number of sections and increase the section size. Three sections of 50 students will be collapsed into one section of 150 students. Second, our redesign will change the mix of personnel teaching the course. We will increase the number of adjunct faculty and decrease the number of full-time faculty (from 50% full-time to 16-33% full-time faculty). In addition, we will train and pay ULAs to help deal with course management issues. This reallocation allows full-time faculty to teach upper-level courses where finding adjuncts is more difficult. It also gives valuable experience to students serving as ULAs. Their service also may earn them a "leadership/mentorship" certificate that our department is proposing to the university whereby students engage in real-life leadership/mentorship opportunities (including serving as a ULA) and earn a certificate upon graduation designating their achievement. By making these changes, INSTITUTION A reduces the cost-per-student from $89 to $32. We chose to reduce costs in these two manners to address our academic issues facing General Psychology/Department and to match our department's mission statement and action priorities. First, collapsing sections and changing personnel helps our department with its staffing issues. As explained above, we do not have enough instructors to cover our courses. We struggle to find adjuncts to teach upper-level courses due to our location in rural Maryland . Switching full-time faculty from General Psychology to upper-level courses eases our staffing issues. The few adjuncts we have in the area can be trained and used for the fewer sections of General Psychology. Second, our cost reduction strategies help our department accomplish tasks outlined in our mission statement and action priorities. Specifically, our mission is to promote real-life experiences for students. The ULA component of the redesign allows our students (majors and non-majors) to engage in this experience and earn a certificate as well. Our department also seeks ways to promote retention of students and efficiency and effectiveness. Thus, having ULAs help with aspects of the course will provide students peer tutoring experiences that research has shown to be associated with student success. ULA help gives instructors more time to help students as well, making better use of their time. Our main way of using the cost savings is to fund additional for full-time faculty members (as mentioned above, we are not at our full capacity). Timeline Spring 2007
Summer 2007
Fall 2007
Spring 2008
Summer 2008
Fall 2008
Spring 2009
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