The University of Southern Mississippi
Course Title: General Psychology
Contact: David Echevarria
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) plans to redesign General Psychology, a large-enrollment course that fulfills the decision-making and responsibility component of the university core requirement. General Psychology is a traditional, lecture-based course taught primarily by tenure-track faculty with the assistance of one graduate teaching assistant (GTA) per section. There are no recitation sections. Fall and spring enrollments average 1200 students in six sections, each with ~180 students, plus four honors sections with 30 students per section.
General Psychology faces several academic and resource problems. As currently taught, the course is very labor intensive, requiring eight full-time faculty and a minimum of 400 hours of GTA support. This is a resource drain on the Department of Psychology, which has five graduate programs and an undergraduate curriculum to support. Although instructors use the same text, there is no standardization of content delivery, requirements or support materials across sections. The students have a poor attendance record and do not prepare for class. Many are first-generation college students who struggle with the challenge to absorb and apply information in an anonymous setting without any active learning opportunities. The DFW rate in the large lecture sections is approaching 30%.
USM will redesign General Psychology using the Supplemental Model. Lecture classes will be supplemented with interactive activities via an audience response system. Students will be required to attend a one-hour lab session every two weeks where they will engage in online, lab-based experiential activities and access course supplements. Undergraduate peers and GTAs will staff the sessions, providing guidance and feedback on written assignments prior to students handing them in for grading. Student progress will be monitored; students performing below satisfactory levels will receive remediation assistance from an undergraduate peer or a GTA depending on the severity of the situation.
The redesigned course will enhance the students’ educational experience, changing the course from a passive, lecture-based format to one which actively engages the students through online activities. The Annenberg Foundation’s Discovering Psychology online video instructional series will be incorporated into the course. Weekly quizzes will provide immediate feedback. Monitoring activities have been designed to increase engagement and target students for remedial help. Each section will be delivered in a similar manner to eliminate course drift.
Student learning outcomes will be assessed by comparing student performance in both traditional and redesigned sections. Common content questions embedded in exams will provide benchmarks for comparison. Pre- and post-tests will be administered, and student writing samples will be evaluated using common rubrics. Student samples have been evaluated using these rubrics for the past two years which will provide baseline data.
USM will reduce the cost of instruction by decreasing the number of large fall and spring sections from six sections of 180 students each to four sections of ~300 students each. All fall and spring small sections will be eliminated; summer sections will not change. The annual number of faculty teaching the course will be reduced from 10 to six, thus releasing four full-time faculty to support upper division and graduate level courses. These actions will reduce the cost-per-student from $105 to $56, a 47% savings.
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