Coppin State University
Course Title: Technology Fluency
Contact: Lidan Ha
Coppin State University (CSU) plans to redesign Technology Fluency. This course introduces students to the Windows-based operating system as well as Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint software. The course is required for graduation for all undergraduate students at CSU. In its traditional format, the course is offered in both face-to-face and online sections and serves on average ~510 students annually.
The traditional course faces four academic challenges. First, the course has a low success rate. From fall 2006 to fall 2008, 28.5% of the students received a grade of D, F or W; an additional 10.7% of the grades were missing. Since the course is required for all majors, the low success rate adds to overall retention and graduation issues at CSU. Second, student demand cannot be accommodated due to the limited number of sections and faculty. This affects students’ time to graduation. Third, students’ computer skills and learning styles vary. The traditional online and face-to-face formats do not satisfy all students’ needs, which, in turn, affect student success. Fourth, some students fall behind because they cannot afford the required course materials. Textbook and other materials costs become another roadblock to student success.
CSU’s course redesign will use a modified Buffet Model to customize the learning paths for students whenever possible. More specifically, a new “hybrid” course delivery format will be added to the current face-to-face and online options. Students will be allowed to switch among the three different course delivery formats whenever necessary without restrictions. All course content will be modularized, and students may test out of parts of the course that they have already mastered. MyITLab will be used to customize study plans to address individual student skill levels and provide in-depth project tasks. All assignments and exams will be conducted in and automatically graded by MyITLab. MyITLab also has sophisticated progress tracking capabilities. Undergraduate learning assistants (ULAs) will monitor students’ progress and answer their general course-related questions.
The student-centered learning environment created by the redesigned course will enhance the quality of the course and improve learning outcomes. The increase in section size will accommodate more students. Adding hybrid sections and allowing students to switch among the delivery formats as needed will serve the wide range of students’ computer skills and learning styles. By using the same structure, assignments and exams for all sections, consistency across sections will be ensured and duplication of effort will be eliminated. MyITLab, a more interactive, high-quality learning resource that has been used previously, will engage students at reduced costs. The team will take advantage of both software capabilities and ULAs to monitor student performance and progress and will identify potential problems at early stages and intervene appropriately.
Student learning will be assessed by comparing performance on four common exams (Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint.) In the fall 2009 pilot, three redesigned sections of ~50 students each (one online, one face-to-face and one hybrid) will be compared with six traditional sections of ~23 students each. Students’ final grades and completion rates will be also compared.
Once the redesign is fully implemented, the cost of instruction will be reduced by decreasing the number of sections from 24 to 12 and increasing section size from ~20 to ~50 students each. At the same time, overall course enrollment will increase to ~600 as the university grows. The number of sections taught by adjuncts annually will be reduced from four to two. These actions will decrease the cost-per-student from $225 to $80, a 64% reduction. The savings will be used by the department to increase course offerings or to develop new programs.
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