THE REDESIGN ALLIANCE

PRELIMINARY AGENDA
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE
THE ROSEN CENTRE
ORLANDO , FLORIDA
March 16 - 18, 2008

Sunday, March 16
1:00 – 3:00 pm	C2R Round II Briefing Session (by invitation)
	An orientation for those selected to participate in Round II of NCAT's Colleagues Committed to Redesign (C2R) program.
4:00 – 5:00 pm	Orientation (pre-registration required)
	An orientation for conference participants who are new to course redesign. Learn how to make the most of your conference experience.
4:00 – 5:00 pm	C2R Round I Debriefing Session (by invitation)
	A meeting of Round I participants in NCAT’s Colleagues Committed to Redesign (C2R) program.
5:00 – 9:00 pm	Corporate Exhibits
	Learn about products and services provided by the corporate members of the Redesign Alliance.
5:30 – 7:30 pm	Opening Reception
	Join your fellow conference participants for an opening reception in the Corporate Exhibit hall.
Monday, March 17
7:30 – 8:30 am	Continental Breakfast
8:30 – 9:30 am	Opening Keynote: Kati Haycock Director, The Education Trust
9:30 – 10:00 am	Break
10:00 – 11:00 am	Disciplinary Showcase Sessions in Business, Developmental Studies, Humanities, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences
Session Type:	Showcase session - two speakers from different institutions will make separate 20-minute presentations and invite questions from the audience. One speaker will have fully implemented a large-scale course redesign; the other speaker will be in the process of implementing a redesign.
Description:	The purpose of these sessions is to enable participants to learn about one successfully completed course redesign and one that is in progress. Those new to course redesign will be inspired to begin and those experienced in course redesign can learn from their colleagues and contribute to the discussion. The goal is to achieve a 50/50 split between presentation and interaction with the audience.
10:00 – 11:00 am	Showcase Session for Administrators
Description:	Three speakers from different institutions/organizations will make separate 10-minute presentations. The moderator invites questions from the audience. The purpose of this session is to enable campus administrators to learn from other administrators who have successfully completed course redesigns. Those new to course redesign will be inspired to begin and those experienced in course redesign can learn from their colleagues. The goal is to achieve a 50/50 split between presentation and interaction with the audience.
11am – 12:00 pm	Disciplinary Roundtable Discussion Sessions in Business, Developmental Studies, Humanities, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences
Session Type:	Roundtable discussion session - two individuals act as the moderators. They give a brief introduction to the topic and then facilitate a discussion among the audience members.
Description:	The purpose of this session is to allow participants more time for in-depth discussion of the issues and challenges related to course redesign in general and the disciplines in particular. Moderators will be prepared to lead the discussions by focusing on a series of topics that reflect those issues and challenges.
11am – 12:00 pm	Roundtable Discussion Session for Administrators
Description:	The purpose of this session is to allow participants more time for in-depth discussion of the issues and challenges related to course redesign in general and the role of administrators in particular. Moderators will be prepared to lead the discussions by focusing on a series of topics that reflect those issues and challenges.
12:00 – 1:30 pm	Lunch
	A portion of the lunch tables will be set aside to facilitate Birds of a Feather sessions for academic administrators, community college faculty, four-year college faculty, research university faculty, faculty by discipline, IT staff, instructional designers and others.
1:30 – 4:00 pm	What's New in Course Redesign
Session Type:	Showcase session – an NCAT Redesign Scholar introduces three speakers from different institutions/organizations who make separate 15-minute presentations. The moderator invites questions from the audience.
General Description:	Since last year’s conference, more than 50 new large-scale course redesigns have been launched. These sessions will feature 30 of them. The purpose of these sessions is to enable participants to learn about different approaches that concretely address a particular academic and/or resource problem. The goal is to achieve a 50/50 split between presentation and interaction with the audience.

Session Topics

1. Redesigning Developmental Math
2. Redesigning Developmental English
3. Redesigning Math in the Community College
4. Redesigning Math in the University
5. Redesigning the Humanities: English Composition, Public Speaking and Spanish
6. Redesigning the Social Sciences: Psychology and Women’s Studies
7. Redesigning Biology
8. Redesigning Chemistry and Geology
9. Redesigning Business: Computer Literacy, Economics and Organizational Behavior
10. Redesigning Professional Education: Accounting, Engineering and Nursing

Topics and Session Descriptions

1. Feedback Forum I
2. Feedback Forum II

Description: The purpose of the Feedback Fora is to create an opportunity for those who have an idea of what they would like to do in a new course redesign and would like to get feedback on the idea from those who have done it. We anticipate that the Redesign Scholars will moderate the session and, together with the audience, offer feedback. We will require attendees to pre-register for this session in order to organize it appropriately. We anticipate, at a minimum, that the 20 institutional teams selected to participate in Round II of the Colleagues Committed to Redesign (C²R) program will take advantage of this session.

3. So You Want To Do a Course Redesign? How To Get Started

Description: Course redesign sounds like a great idea—improving learning while reducing costs—who wouldn’t want to do that? But how do we get started? What do we do first? Among other things, this session will discuss what it means to be “ready,” initial data collection, generating buy-in, getting the right people on the redesign team and linking the redesign effort to larger institutional initiatives. Learn what to do first and why from those who have been through the experience and get your questions answered.

4. Engaging in New Ways of Learning

Description: Course redesign always succeeds when we engage students in doing the coursework, yet typically 30% or so may fail to participate in scheduled learning activities. Some institutions have been more successful than others in addressing the issue of “non-participating” students. Learn how to ensure that students spend sufficient time on task by using techniques such as scaffolding, mastery quizzing and giving points for participation that lead to greater course completion rates. Learn how techniques such as peer learning teams and small learning communities can lead to greater student success.

5. Working with Commercial Software I
6. Working with Commercial Software II

Description: Incorporating commercial software and other technology-based curricular materials can give faculty a "head start" in the redesign process by enabling them to focus on redesign issues rather than on materials creation. Working with commercial publishers can be rewarding because the amount and quality of instructional software is improving every year. Learn from four of higher education’s major publishers how their products can be used in course redesign and how you can build on the successes that others have achieved.

7. How-To Session: Developing a Valid Assessment Plan

Description: Course redesign requires assessing student learning in both traditional and redesigned formats to “prove” that the new way is superior to the old. As such, assessment is a powerful instrument for change. Disagreements among faculty about the “best” way to teach can often be resolved by collecting data about the “best” way to learn. But that data must be both valid and reliable—i.e., comparing grades is not sufficient. Learn from those who have done it how to create a valid assessment plan and how to avoid potential pitfalls.

8. Avoiding “Either/Or” Choices: Greater Flexibility through Course Redesign

Description: Many students get to the end of a course having mastered a large percentage of the material but not enough to pass the course but then are forced to repeat the entire course. Others are required to take a developmental course because of low placement scores when they only lack a small part of the course content. Students bring different backgrounds, interests and abilities to college courses, yet typically we treat them the same. Course modularization offers institutions a way to accommodate these differences by letting students study only what they don’t know and in ways that fits their individual circumstances. Learn about different ways to modularize your course or to offer students a buffet of learning opportunities and what implementation issues need to be considered in advance.

9. Use and Reuse of Materials

Description: The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University is dedicated to the development of freely available “stand-alone” college-level online courses and web-based learning environments informed by the best current research from the cognitive and learning sciences. Teams of faculty content experts, cognitive scientists, human-computer interaction specialists, formative assessment specialists, and programmers have redesigned courses in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Statistics, Formal Logic and Modern Languages. The redesigned courses include intelligent tutoring systems, virtual laboratories, simulations, and student tracking mechanisms that capture rich information about student performance as feedback for the instructor and for the course designers. Learn how you can adapt and use these sophisticated learning resources in your course redesign plans.

10. Applying the Five Models for Course Redesign in New Ways

Description: Based on eight years of experience in working with a large number of colleges and universities as they seek to improve student learning while reducing instructional costs, NCAT has identified Five Models for Course Redesign. We have learned that certain models seem to be appropriate to certain disciplines. For example, foreign language projects select the Replacement Model; math projects select the Emporium Model. The nature of the discipline informs the choice of model. We are now beginning to see variations on previous redesigns in different disciplines. Learn about the strengths and weaknesses of particular models for particular disciplines as well as how two institutions have created Buffet Models in psychology and chemistry and how another has created a Reading Emporium.