Missouri Course Redesign Initiative
Missouri Western State University
Course Title: Introduction to Business
Contact: Cindy Heider
Introduction to Business is a medium-sized, introductory course for students who have fewer than 24 hours of credit including those in progress. The average annual enrollment is approximately 200 with students divided into eight or nine sections of 24 to 26 students each. Six sections are offered every fall; two to three are offered in the spring. The course, taught by both full- and part-time faculty, provides a broad survey of the major areas in business.
The redesign will address three academic issues: 1) One consequence of having a variety of full- and part-time faculty teach the course is considerable course drift. 2) The course has a perplexing rate of grade inconsistency between the fall and spring semesters. 3) Student success rates are not what they should be; both semesters have a significant number of D, W and F (drop, withdraw and fail) grades.
The redesign model chosen is the Replacement Model. Multiple sections of the course will be collapsed into one large section each term, meeting 50 minutes weekly, where learning modules will be presented in traditional lecture format. Modules will be delivered by either faculty with topic expertise or the course coordinator. For the other two, 50-minute meetings, students will be divided into smaller groups of 24–26 each where they will participate in interactive learning activities focused on learning modules and compete in an electronic stock simulation.
The redesign will enhance the quality of the course in multiple ways. First, delivering course content in the larger section format will ensure consistency of material and decreases course drift. Next, engaging students in interactive learning activities, both online and in class, will help students retain knowledge and develop critical thinking skills that support student success. Auto-graded assignments in Connect Business, the course management system, will engage students with course materials. Adjunct instructors will lead content-driven, interactive activities and undergraduate learning assistants (ULAs) will lead four-person student teams in the stock market simulation. Reducing lecture to once weekly and increasing interactive activities should result in students being more engaged and focused on their learning.
To assess the effects of the redesign, the team will pilot one section of the redesigned course in the spring of 2012 with 75-100 students. While redesign faculty will use additional assessment strategies (pre- and post-knowledge surveys), the primary assessment approach to determine redesign impact on student learning will be a common final exam given to students in the traditional sections and those in the redesigned pilot. Common final exam data will also be compared during full implementation of the redesign in fall 2012. The effects of grade inconsistency between semesters will be analyzed when data exists for both fall and spring semesters.
Cost savings will result from using fewer full-time faculty to teach the course. In the traditional mode, typically four faculty members taught the course in the fall and three in the spring. In the redesign, one full-time faculty member will deliver course content once weekly to a large section of students (150-160 in fall and 75-100 in spring.) Adjuncts and ULAs will lead the remaining weekly meetings. The cost-per-student will decline by 60%, from $325 to $130, and the savings will be re-purposed for the Craig School of Business to redesign other business courses.
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