University System of Maryland: Maryland Course Redesign Initiative
Salisbury University
Course Titles: Fundamentals of of Biology
Contact: Ronald Gutberlet
Fundamentals of Biology is a course offered in a traditional lecture and laboratory format: three hours of lecture and two hours of lab per week. Annually, approximately 40 laboratory sections of 24 students each enroll in the course. These laboratory sections are grouped into lecture sections of 72–96 students each. Enrollment at the university is expected to increase in the coming years, and it is reasonable to think that there will be pressure to increase the number of available seats in the course. Fundamentals of Biology fulfills a general education requirement and also fulfills a state requirement for life sciences in the elementary education certification program.
Fundamentals of Biology has been targeted for redesign because the course enrolls a large number of students each semester and commands a large amoung of faculty resources. The faculty involved in the course note a general lack of student engagement with the course material as it is currently taught. The department also realizes that the course is ready for a serious update of its curriculum.
Significant changes to the course format and the curriculum characterize the redesign, which will use the Replacement Model. The three hours of traditional lecture will be reduced to 1.5 hours. These classroom hours will be used mainly for active student work (e.g., problem-solving, group discussions) with limited introductory and closing remarks from the instructor to address questions and to help students synthesize information and recognize connections among topics. Online learning modules, delivered through WebCT and created around the Biology for Non-majors ePack from McGraw-Hill, will provide instructions and materials (e.g., video clips, animations, tutorials, quizzes) to support active student learning prior to class meetings. The modules will also include additional activities to be completed after class. The two-hour lab will include time devoted to discussion in addition to lab activity.
Because Salisbury is changing both the format of the course and its content, direct comparisons between the traditional and the redesigned course could be problematic. Thus, assessment of the impact of the redesign will consider multiple sources of data. During the redesign pilot, the team will compare student performance throughout the course with the performance of students in the traditional sections, looking at assessment items dealing with areas of overlap between the two courses. Once the redesign is launched in the entire course, we will compare student performance across semesters. We will also compare student course evaluations before and after the redesign.
The redesign of the course will produce cost savings in several ways. The course is projected to grow from 840 to 960 students annually. The number of sections will decrease from 12 to 10 and the section size will increase from 72 to 96 students. The number of full-time faculty teaching the course will remain the same, and the number of lecturers will decrease from eight to six. Faculty time will also be reduced because classes will only meet for 1.5 hours per week rather than three. The cost-per-student will be reduced from $329 to $192, a 42% decrease.
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